Novartis OTC: Sustaining a High-Performance Turnaround
Brian McNamara, OTC Division head of Novartis kicked off ASD 2015. The audience was able to learn how McNamara, in partnership with Howard M. Guttman, principal of Guttman Development Strategies, helped turn the Novartis OTC division into a high-performance, horizontal competitive force, an industry standout, and one of the fastest growing top ten OTC companies in the world.
Despite the advances in the science of management over many years, upwards of 60 percent of all change initiatives fail to meet their objectives. “Stickiness” is a big challenge: How do you convert the initial sunburst of enthusiasm for a change effort into “the way business is done around here?”
McNamara and Guttman presented to the audience how three years ago Novartis Consumer Over-the-Counter multi-billion-dollar business unit faced high leadership turnover and major quality issues, leading to declining revenues, eroding profit margins and sagging morale. When Brian McNamara was appointed division head of Novartis Consumer Over-the-Counter, he knew that nothing less than decisive, bold change was needed. Financial and morale issues aside, there was a lack of clear strategic direction, a leadership team at half strength and widespread organizational misalignment.
Novartis Consumer OTC is a case study of a transformation not only made, but sustained as Brian McNamara and Howard Guttman shared the unvarnished story, challenges and all.
Questions addressed by the audience included:
• What are the preconditions for a successful, sustained transformation?
• What is a high-performance leader, and how does he or she go about the task of creating an alternative, horizontal universe for the leadership team and organization?
• How do you avoid transformation fatigue to ensure that the change continues to drive performance?
• Looking back, what are the OD lessons learned-and, looking ahead, how do you move to implement a “transformation beyond the transformation?”
Brian McNamara
Brian McNamara
Brian McNamara is Division Head, Novartis OTC, a role he assumed in February 2012, and is a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis. Prior to this role, Brian served as President, Americas Region, for Novartis OTC. Since joining Novartis OTC in 2004 as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Novartis OTC North America, Brian worked on a number of strategic initiatives. He also served as President of Novartis OTC Europe from 2007 until 2010.
Howard Guttman
Howard M. Guttman is principal of Guttman Development Strategies, Inc.(GDS), a Mount Arlington, New Jersey-based management consulting firm founded in 1989 and specializing inbuilding horizontal, high-performance teams; leadership-team alignment; leadership coaching; and leadership development. GDS has been ranked as a top Leadership Development consulting firm byLeadership Excellence magazine, which also named Mr. Guttman to its list of “Excellence 100 Top Thought Leaders.”
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NJOD 20 Reunion
