In management and organizational transformation, there are two words I continue to value deeply:
Respect and Hope.
During my time in Barcelona, I was given the responsibility of transforming a recently acquired pharmaceutical API manufacturing site from an internal production facility for its former parent company into a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO).
The new owner was a Japanese company with a very different culture and business background. For the employees, both the company and its new Japanese president were unfamiliar. What would happen to their jobs? What would the future of the company look like? Their concerns were entirely understandable.
The site had operated for many years as an API manufacturing facility for a leading pharmaceutical company. It had high standards in quality assurance and environmental management. More importantly, the people who worked there had deep experience and genuine pride in what they did. Some families had worked at the site for three generations.
What we were facing was not simply a change of ownership. We were transforming a manufacturing site into a service business—one that would have to be chosen by customers. It was, in every sense, an organizational transformation.
On the first day after the acquisition, we brought all employees together for a Day One event. I shared a clear vision:
To be the first choice CDMO in Europe.
I also set out our mission:
To improve people’s life by providing the best quality products and services.
I believed that profit should not be the objective in itself. If we fulfilled our responsibilities well, profit would follow as a result. Making that order of priorities clear was one of the first things I wanted everyone to understand.
After that, together with the local management team, we developed a five-year mid-term plan. I explained it directly to every employee, including those working on rotating shifts. We held the same town hall nine times. On one occasion, I spoke to the night shift at 11 p.m.
A management message does not reach people simply because it has been delivered once. I believe it only becomes the beginning of a real dialogue when it is repeated in ways and at times that fit the people receiving it.
And words alone do not move people. We also continued to invest in facilities and development capabilities. We needed to demonstrate through our actions that management was genuinely committed to the future of the business.
Several years after the acquisition, as the business was beginning to gain momentum, the CEO of our parent company visited the site and asked one of the local executives:
“This site seems to have achieved an unusually successful integration. Why do you think that is?”
I still remember the plant manager’s answer very clearly.
“Because you gave us Respect and Hope.”
Respect alone can sometimes mean preserving the past.
Hope alone can sometimes mean leaving the people on the ground behind.
What matters is to respect the history that people have built, while creating hope for what lies ahead—together with them.
Many years have passed since I heard those words, but Respect and Hope remain two of the ideas I return to whenever I think about leadership and management.