My Take: The Oktoberfest, my Lederhosen, this CEO and the access question

Before I joined Sandoz on May 15th, 2018, I was living in Berlin, Germany and had to move to the Munich area where the company´s global headquarters is located.

Fast-forward to September 15th, 2018: There I was, sitting in my living room in Munich, trying to figure out how to approach my second appointment with the company´s CEO.

That saturday morning, while the whole city was agog with the opening ceremony of the Oktoberfest, I had a huge week in front of me. I was not only going to attend my first Oktoberfest in Munich but had just been presented with a "rare" opportunity to chat over coffee with the CEO of a company with more than 12.000 associates worldwide, working to provide access to high-quality medicine - a subject that was of particular relevance to me, my family and community.

Okay, wait a minute, if you are not from Germany or never heard of the Oktoberfest, then the word “Oktoberfest” as well as "Lederhosen" might seem strange to you. You can get some background information: See Oktoberfest and Lederhosen

Photo Credit: Nicollete Kabfell

Now, Germany is renowned for quality in many fields, and many people in the country are very particular about this subject. Likewise, for the Oktoberfest in Munich, the quality of the beer and “lederhosen” is a reference point. For my appointment with Richard Francis, the CEO of Sandoz - A Novartis Division, we both had agreed to dress in the traditional Oktoberfest outfit. And when the day came, I settled for a fake lederhosen. For me, this was quite symbolic. He was the CEO of an organisation helping people around the world access high-quality medicine, while I was from Nigeria, a country challenged with lack of access to affordable healthcare, medicines, and still battling with the prevalence of fake pharmaceutical products. For this occasion, I felt my fake lederhosen was more than justified.

I first met Richard Francis on my first day at Sandoz while we were on a walking tour of the Sandoz campus with Fiona Cook, who manages all Sandoz global corporate responsibility programs. He was walking down the stairs and came towards us, as we stood in front of the coffee shop at the main reception area.

Here was the head of Sandoz, an organisation with a portfolio of approximately 1,000 molecules, covering all major therapeutic areas, and accounted for sales of USD 10.1 billion in 2017. For someone in his position, he had an unassuming personality. Fiona introduced Divya Roche and me as the new graduate trainees in the global communications team. The man shook our hands and congratulated us. After I joined the company, I approached him directly for his support on a project, and he obliged me. Subsequently, every time I met him, he was always warm and receptive. 

For someone who oversees such a serious business, I soon found out that he could make good jokes out of anything and every situation. In my opinion, he came across as authentic and open. I still ponder, "How many company leaders in his capacity would respond positively to the requests of someone in my position within their organisation?” Twice I had approached him with a request, and twice he did oblige me. He doesn’t present himself as "the boss", but tries to make you feel like a colleague and a partner.

"Hi Kingsley, Happy to connect for lunch or a coffee! Sarah (Richard’s executive assistant, I’ve changed her name for this story) will try and sort something out.” Within minutes, all was set.

For this meeting, I had set out with one goal - to make the best out of it! However, how I was going to achieve this was still not clear to me. From our previous encounters, we had struck an easy connection via our mutual interest in football (soccer). Was I going to keep the conversation rolling around football? One of my mentors said to me, "It is good to have a conversation around football, but do you really want to spend such an opportunity talking only about football?” I immediately saw his point and agreed with him. No, I was not going to allow this be only about football! Do not get me wrong, I really do love football and play the game every week. But football was never part of the factors I considered before joining Sandoz. There and then, I started thinking about this opportunity from a more selfish standpoint.

As usual with my interview style, I outlined five questions. Each question addressed a topic personal to me: Career, family and the subject of access to healthcare and medicine in developing countries. His responses? Okay, here is my final take: After our chat over coffee, I did not go home directly but went straight to the Oktoberfest in my fake "lederhosen" with much more than knowledge and insights about building my career, family and a better understanding of the healthcare access question globally and in Africa. I also got a good reason to buy my first authentic Lederhosen.

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