(Carmen Segovia) 

A Q&A close-up

RG: Walk us through a typical day.

LI: I start early with 30 minutes exercise and a simple breakfast, then go to the office. The first hour is my quiet time to think through business strategy and operation improvement, the next couple go to management meetings and brainstorming with business and technical leaders. I attend high-level client meetings to get feedback from our customers and to see where we can improve. I attend communication sessions with our employees periodically, such as “lunch with the CEO,” departmental achievement award celebrations, and science seminars and training events. I keep in touch with board members to communicate major business decisions and events, and travel to visit customers.

MAZUMDAR-SHAW: I used to be hands on. Today it’s strategic—making sure I know where the company is heading and looking at new opportunities. I spend 12 to 14 hours a day working, even today. I typically head into meetings right away: joint steering committee meetings with our partners, alliance management meetings, internal programs, and routine meetings to discuss business. My role has become one of envisioning the future and strategic people management. I attend investor conferences, have meetings with senior colleagues, there’s a lot of succession planning. I also contribute to external organizations, like management schools, the innovation council of the prime minister, The Indo-U.S. CEO Forum—a whole bunch of things. I’m also closely involved with a large hospital in Bangalore and once a month I make time for that.

EMRICH: I try to stay at home in the morning, working at the computer, taking phone calls and thinking about strategies and business planning. I try to schedule all my face-to-face meetings for the afternoon. When I say “I try” it is because meetings are often in São Paulo, Rio and the capital, Brasilia. One advantage of living in Belo Horizonte is that it’s just a one-hour flight to these locations. I devote significant time to innovation centers involved in biotech, nanotech and microsystems and to a well recognized management development organization, Dom Cabral Foundation—the sixth best worldwide according to the Financial Times. I am also involved with government institutions and programs at the state and federal levels, being a board member of the National Council for Science and Technology.

RG: What advantages and disadvantages does your country have as a location for biotechnology?

MAZUMDAR-SHAW: There’s a widespread realization that innovation needs to be more affordable and smarter. The new model integrates resources from lower cost regions with talent coming from different parts of the world. Risk sharing and resource-sharing partnerships are the future of innovation and Indian biotech can play an important part in this.

EMRICH: Government awareness of biotechnology is strong in Brazil, both in launching new policies and investment programs. There is a talented, qualified workforce, costs are reasonable and the market is large. As a new place for biotech, it presents opportunities for companies and investors. One problem for the sector in the last few years was the lack of cooperation between biotech and the pharmaceutical industry but that has started to change.

LI: On the positive side, China has a vast talent pool, with hundreds of thousands of fresh graduates each year in chemistry, biology and life science–related fields. The government has favorable policies and is investing heavily in the life science, pharma and biotech sectors. And the Chinese market is huge and growing. One disadvantage is that China’s biotech businesses don’t yet have the comprehensive innovation and skills sets that established U.S. and European companies have, but we are catching up fast.

RG: What keeps you awake at night?

EMRICH: A lot! I’d like things to move faster than they do. Sometimes my partners say, “But look back five or ten years, how were things?” And I say, “Yes, but watches are not going to stop, they continue to tick and sometimes we take longer than we need to.”

LI:  Inefficient systems that waste talent, time and valuable resources bother me. In the early days, people had doubts that a chemistry company operating in China could provide valuable services to U.S. clients. But instead of staying awake and worrying, we worked night and day to prove our quality and earn the trust of customers.

MAZUMDAR-SHAW: Scaling up. We want to grow to a large size, which brings a lot of challenges. It’s not about the bricks and mortar—that’s quite easy—it’s the scaling up of people and management. Do we have the talent pool to keep up with what we’re trying to do?

RG: What advice do you have for budding entrepreneurs?

MAZUMDAR-SHAW: My philosophy has been one of differentiation. Look at what’s there and keep challenging yourself to be different: If everyone is after generic products, how can you get into novel programs? If you can do that, then you stand apart and you can do things more effectively.

EMRICH: Believe that things can be accomplished, and be willing to dedicate most hours of the day, seven day a week to the success of one idea. It’s not easy. You need vision and principles but you also need a lot of commitment, involvement and hard, hard, hard work, plus the ability to work together with other people.

LI:  Human imagination has no limit. Innovative ideas can create value and prudent execution of these is the road to success. You must act on what you truly believe, without swaying. Then your endurance and hard work will bring success.

RG: What will your legacy to biotech in your country be?

EMRICH:  In a country like Brazil, most people think in terms of traditional sectors like mining, steel making and the chemical industry. But it is important that high-tech companies can be successful in Brazil, and in India and China too, and not just in California. My contribution was to prove that it can be done. Now we have comparable people, qualifications, research standards and a source of capital—the same ingredients as California—and we have the critical mass necessary to mount a challenge in the life science sector.

LI:  I am proud that WuXi Pharma-Tech pioneered China’s CRO industry. It became the bridge to introduce China’s drug R&D capabilities and helped attract many multi-national pharmaceutical companies to set up R&D centers in China. I will be even more proud when WuXi’s integrated service platform can assist any company in realizing their goal of bringing new medicines to the market to benefit patients.

MAZUMDAR-SHAW: I realize that I have a role to play for Indian biotechnology and I am aware of the responsibility that goes with that. I am often called the brand ambassador of Indian biotech. The part of this that I really enjoy is the opportunity to meet with companies from different parts of the world. I work closely with governments, too. Biocon’s first offshore manufacturing plant is going to be in Malaysia and I happen to have helped the Malaysian government craft their biotech policy.