Paying price for success in commerce

Pharmaceutical company boss says he puts work before everythingBy LIU JIEliujie@chinadaily.迷你倉com.cnLars Rebien Sorensen says life is not perfect, although he has been global chief executive officer of a multinational pharmaceutical giant for 13 years and has a harmonious family with a delightful wife and three grown-up sons."I don't regret anything," said the CEO and president of Novo Nordisk AS, the world's top insulin producer by sales. Sorensen was referring to failures he has undergone and the lack of balance between his work and outside life."I think only through failure can we develop and progress," said the 60-year-old, who has been working for the Demark-based multinational company for 32 years. Sorensen has witnessed and experienced business ups and downs in the company and the industry.His devotion to work has helped the company achieve stable growth, even amid the financial crisis that hit in 2008, over the last decade. "I did it with my eyes open. I have had a successful career. It was not without rewards. But I have paid a price of perhaps a less deep relationship with my children and having a small social network," he said.Novo Nordisk was founded by Nobel Prize winner August Krogh and his wife Marie Krogh 91 years ago and is now a Copenhagen- and New York-listed company with more than 37,200 employees in 76 nations and regions. It focuses on diabetes care. Its sales exceeded 20.51 billion Danish kroners ($3.76 billion) in the third quarter of last year.Huge marketAccording to the International Diabetes Federation, there were 382 million people suffering from diabetes in 2013, causing 5.1 million deaths and at least $548 billion in healthcare expenditure. It estimates the number of patients will reach 592 million by 2035.International market research firm IMS Health's statistics show global use of insulin doubled during the last 10 years to reach a cost of $15.4 billion in 2012. Novo Nordisk's market share has remained more than half of that over the last decade, which has supported its stable annual sales growth.However, the company is facing more and more serious competition from companies such as Eli & Lilly Co and Sanofi SA. The former is competitive in the insulin sector, while the latter is developing fast in the insulin pen and device segment, which has been dominated by Novo Nordisk for years."Eyeing the huge potential of the diabetes market, drugmakers, especially some comprehensive medical companies, are making great efforts to explore the promising market," said Maziar Mike Doustdar, senior vice-president of international operations at Novo Nordisk. He added that Novo Nordisk's focused strategy has a unique advantage, while competitors may need comprehensive research and development resources to make breakthroughs in this field.Sorensen fully understands the market situation. Novo Nordisk is pooling huge funds to develop oral insulin, which is regarded as a future milestone in human diabetes therapy.In the pharmaceutical industry, failures are unavoidable in research and development. Sorensen admitted he had experienced such failures, but said they made the company stronger. He was appointed as the president of Novo Nordisk's US affiliate about 20 years ago. The company then had a research center in California trying to develop a new kind of insulin. "I was very busy promoting the concept of that type of insulin because our competitor was developing a similar project. But then there were some problems and we decided to abandon the project."Sorensen went to California to lay off 300 people. "It was very difficult because it was my fault. But then you had to teach yourself that it's OK in a way," he said. "If we don't try new things, we can't create great new jobs, right?"He recalled that the lay-offs tortured him because there was much sympathy for him as he dismissed the workers and he was very uncomfortable with this. "They felt great sympathy for me. It was kind of an opposite situation," Sorensen said.Now the current oral insulin development is going smoothly, the CEO and president said he believes Novo Nordisk's technology edge will help it maintain a leading position in the world. Emerging markets, including China, are self storageriorities.Novo Nordisk China has been maintaining double-digit growth for the last 10 years, according to Sorensen. So far, around 15 percent of the company's sales are from China. Novo Nordisk now has around 60 percent of China's insulin market.Because of fierce competition, the company's market share is unlikely to surge dramatically in China. On the other hand, because of the noticeable increase in diabetes treatment expenditure, sales increases are expected to continue.China's diabetes prevalence has increased from 1 percent per capita in 1980 to 12 percent in 2012, which is even higher than the United States at 11.3 percent. China now has 148 million people with pre-diabetes — one in six adults — on top of an existing 98.4 million diabetes patients.Considering each year, 6 to 7 percent of those with pre-diabetes will be added to the diabetes population, the number of patients is forecast to reach 130 million by 2030, according to the International Diabetes Federation.Novo Nordisk invested $100 million to establish a new R&D center in November 2011 in Beijing, which is the company's biggest outside Denmark. It set up an R&D Center in Beijing in 2002, which was the first multinational pharmaceutical company established R&D Center in China. The new center is using the skills and knowledge of Chinese scientists, academies, universities and other resources and directly reports to its Copenhagen R&D headquarters. The collaboration achievements coming out of China's R&D center are used globally, while the center gives Novo Nordisk a lot of know-how in transferring to the Chinese market.Company's iconSorensen is regarded as an icon of the Denmark-based multinational company. He is tall, energetic, extrovert, open-minded and friendly.He always tries to be curious about learning new things, of understanding complex problems, of understanding different cultures — the prerequisites of being open and accessible.Joining Novo Nordisk after graduating from university, he has always been very competitive and ambitious, always wanting to be the best at everything. "But I have to admit, with age and becoming slightly more mature, I allow myself not to win all the time and to realize that there are people doing things better than me. That is called collaboration."That's also a way to lead a big multinational company. Being in a company for about 30 years, Sorensen said he has become a role model. "It's in a way like the relationship between a parent and children although not necessarily in exactly the same way. Children will do what you do but not what you say. I found out very quickly that if I did something people will pay attention to it."Sorensen is respected by employees and colleagues. However, he said: "I have to admit that I'm perhaps not as extrovert a person as I may seem. I have to work at my job. Sometimes I get too tired to be extrovert or sociable. But it usually only happens when I get home."Career success is accompanied by a high sense of responsibility and diligent work, for which Sorensen thanks his wife's support. Because of that he was able to dedicate himself to his career."I was working too much and I was not attending my children's school graduations and things you have to do to be a part of a family," he said. "Life is not perfect. You have to choose."This aspect of his life has become better as Sorensen has become older. "I've become better going home in the evening and not sitting at work too late," he said.When some young employees ask him how to become the CEO of Novo Nordisk one day. Sorensen said: "First of all, I have to retire. And you have to think about it carefully. Because arriving at the level I have requires an extraordinary amount of work and lots of traveling and being away from the family."You need to make up your mind whether this is really what you want. If you believe this, then you go for it and try to work hard. But you'll be paid very well," he said.I did it with my eyes open. I have had a successful career. It was not without rewards. But I have paid a price of perhaps a less deep relationship with my children and having a small social network."LARS REBIEN SORENSENCHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND PRESIDENT, NOVO NORDISK AS迷利倉