‘We believe in creating value for patients’

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Through this series, DNA Money and CEB are attempting to delve into the minds of top executives from India’s top companies to try and understand what makes them and their companies tick.

This time, DNA met up with Naveen A Rao, managing director, MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd (an affiliate of Merck & Co, USA). Prior to this, Rao had held several positions of increasing responsibility at the global headquarters and was the executive medical director, Merck & Co, Inc before moving to India.

What sets you apart from other top managers in pharma companies?
What sets me apart from other senior managers in pharmaceutical companies is that I am a trained medical professional, with an MD from the University State of New York. I practiced internal medicine in New York for 10 years before joining Merck & Co Inc. I believe my formal medical training and experience in direct patient care has given me a unique insight into patient’s requirements, which helps put the patient’s perspective in the centre of all we do as a company. I was after all a customer once!!

How did this transition from a medical practitioner to managing director of MSD take place?
In 2005, I came to India as the medical director and in 2007 I was promoted to the position of managing director of MSD. It was a natural transition as I had returned to India with the spirit of wanting to ‘give back’ to society. I consider my mission to establish MSD India as a market leader, an employer of choice and a partner of choice by launching innovative products that are relevant to India. I also believe it is my destiny to bring the best of Merck to India and the best of India to Merck.

What is your vision for the company?
My vision is to ‘put the patient first in everything we do’. Our decision making is governed by the simple precept of ‘what is right for the patient is the right thing to do’. I envision a triangle the three sides of which are: market leadership; employer of choice; partner of choice. The patient is at the centre of the triangle and plays a key part in all aspects of my vision of what I want the company to stand for.

How would you describe your leadership style?
I believe in communicating a clear vision and goal to my team and then ‘moving out of the way’. I look for ways to say “well done” and support my team to the fullest.

What is your approach to managing people within your company?
I am a strong believer in the fact that the leader has to set the tone for the culture within the organisation. The following factors are key components of our organisational culture:
Insisting on a strong culture of ethics and values
Putting the interest of the patient foremost
Establishing an environment where it is ‘safe to speak up’
Instituting transparent and fair people management processes

How do you retain key talent?
We foster an environment of trust and belief within the organisation. We focus a lot on talent management and on creating a value based organisation. Our employees believe that they are helping create a better world and that their actions make a true difference. We are committed to helping build employees' careers. We keenly follow industry trends in terms of compensation and benefits to benchmark against peer companies.

What have been your biggest achievements and what are the priorities for the future?
We successfully launched JANUVIA, our anti-diabetes product, and reduced prices  because it was ‘the right thing to do. We also adopted an integrated disease management strategy to address issues that were hampering patient control and compliance.

We believe in creating value for patients. We want to be a top 5 pharma company by 2015 and to bring our best products to India at 'India responsible prices'. Along with being viewed as a responsible market leader, we want to be known as an employer and partner of choice for our employees and all external stakeholders, respectively.