Theramex Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer, Camilla Harder Hartvig is interviewed by the NEXT Talks series.
Camilla has spent 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry and says: "It's about the focus on the people, not the performance. And it's the focus on the purpose and actually, not the product. And I think, through all of this, we all elevate our game to be phenomenal performers that again and again deliver over expectation, and I think this is what represents me best as a modern pharma leader."
Innovation thrives when people can say what they think
When asked how she trains and maintains her innovative mindset, Camilla shares: "I think I do that by listening to everyone around me, by always installing the cult of 'speak up.' And personally, I call that fish on the dish, which means saying what you think...So when people know that it's appreciated to talk about the difficult stuff, then they also feel liberated to share the easy fun stuff. And for me, in between those two polarities, I find that innovation thrives."
"And I believe in accountability for your ideas and the freedom to try them and I believe in sharing worst practices where true learning lie. Not just best practice, that sometimes at least in my view in part could be luck and therefore sometimes dressed up as planned success in hindsight."
Everyone should feel they belong
Looking at the importance of diversity and inclusion, Camilla says: "You want everyone, regardless of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc. to feel that they belong. And the cultures are different, but I don't think decent human behavior is that different. That's why I always do my best to be an upstander, not a bystander, to show what in the moment is right or wrong. I don't always get it right myself, and sometimes I'm reflecting on this, and honestly, the ones I'm not always fair towards are people from my own Nordic culture, which I find is actually pretty interesting. But it's something I'm working on, and I think something that we all have to be aware of, as leaders, where does our bias lie, where don't they lie, and how do we continue to evolve."
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