Joerg Reinhardt visited the Pavillon construction site regularly...
Published on 06/04/2022
When Joerg Reinhardt joined Sandoz in Basel in 1982, he had never considered the possibility that some 30 years later he would lead one of the world’s largest healthcare companies as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Having completed his doctorate, he was happy to have found a job in the industry that would allow him to stand on his own two feet and start a family.
Due to the regulations in force at the time, he was unable to move to Switzerland and therefore acquired a house in nearby Freiburg im Breisgau. And even though his wife was not particularly pleased with this decision at first, as she considered the purchase too risky, Reinhardt, who was then barely 26 years old, was not overly concerned. Early on in his life, he had to learn to take responsibility and make his own decisions.
“The courage to try something new is certainly partly due to my character, but also due to the fact that I had to stand on my own two feet at a young age,” Reinhardt explains. “That’s when you develop certain qualities that not only help you keep a cool head in difficult times, but also be courageous and take a step into the unknown with a healthy dose of confidence.”
His professional skills and, above all, his well-structured way of thinking and acting caught the attention of colleagues and superiors early on in his career. It wasn’t long before Marc Moret, the austere Sandoz patron who ran the company almost like a general, invited him to a lunch to find out more about the Saarland native.
An invitation from Moret was not just an informal business meeting. It was an inescapable screening of sorts. Moret must have seen great leadership talent in the young pharmacist right from the start. And his instincts weren’t wrong. Over the years, Reinhardt’s area of responsibility grew continuously until he took over the management of pharmaceutical development at Sandoz at the age of 38.
Two years later, Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy merged, which to Reinhardt, like many associates, came as a big surprise. “Actually, nobody had this on the radar. The merger of two companies, each with around 70000 employees, exceeded the imagination of the time. Nobody thought it was possible, especially in Switzerland.”
It was anything but obvious that the world’s then biggest industrial merger would prove to be another stepping-stone for Reinhardt and allow him to be involved in major medical breakthroughs. After all, the cards had been reshuffled, and Reinhardt needed to assert himself against fierce competition.
Reinhardt was initially responsible for preclinical development before he was put in charge of the whole of pharmaceutical development at Novartis. In retrospect, this was a stroke of luck for the company. In just a few years, the development unit headed by Reinhardt succeeded in launching two important therapies – the heart drug Diovan and cancer therapy Glivec – which helped Novartis make a quantum leap in medical and business terms.
As a team player and scientist with first-hand knowledge of the tenacious drug research and development process, this success did not lead to any sense of hubris. Anyway, soon he was tasked with the challenging job of developing the vaccines business at Novartis. Although his team made every effort to transform this division into a thriving operation, the pace of progress was sluggish, and there was no sign of success in sight.
The fact that in 2013, Reinhardt spun off the Vaccines Division, alongside the Animal Health and Over-the-Counter Business units, is undoubtedly related to this experience. But, much more importantly, the divestments were triggered by the strategic conviction that Novartis had to establish itself as a leader in high-growth markets if the company were to succeed and prosper.
“When Novartis was founded in 1996, conglomerates operating in a variety of industrial sectors were seen as a model for success because they were able to minimize business risks,” Reinhardt explains. “But this model was increasingly called into question, especially as the speed of innovation was accelerating rapidly. In view of technological advances, you can’t afford to be everywhere. You have to focus.”
In addition to centering Novartis on its core business, Joerg Reinhardt also initiated a cultural change at the company with the goal to intensify cooperation and increase the transparency of the company in relation to society.
“When I joined the company over three decades ago, everything was very hierarchical. There was little flexibility, and collaboration between the divisions was marginal. Transparency in relation to society was also rarely discussed. Companies were usually self-enclosed entities that paid little attention to what was happening outside the boundaries they had set themselves.”
New technological advances, combined with ever-increasing social pressure, led to a rethink. “Early on, I was disturbed by the fact that people rarely work together beyond functional and divisional boundaries. In addition, I always thought that dialogue with the outside world could be expanded. Sure, you can’t please everyone. But you have to listen to people’s arguments. This was not done enough in the past.”
With the Pavillon, this cultural shift is now set to accelerate even further. In fact, Novartis not only intends to use the Pavillon to raise awareness and attract visitors keen on learning more about the pharmaceutical industry. Rather, it should also be a place where people can exchange ideas and debate, no matter what these issues are.
“I think the world has changed so much today that we as a company have a sort of obligation to make our position clear,” Reinhardt says. “We can’t assume that people will engage with us on their own. We have to send out clear signals that we want to sincerely engage in dialogue. This is in line with social trends and reflects our vision of an open work culture.”
