Chris Wallace is a senior Supply Chain leader within biopharma. His expertise is focused on building high performing teams and leading supply chains for groundbreaking areas, such as cell and gene therapy.

What have you learnt as a leader over the past 12 months?

The key thing for everyone, let alone a leader, is that you never stop learning. I think what the pandemic did was bring home the need for any leader to be very adaptable to the environment. And that environment was something that was not in our normal span of control; it was something that, despite the best efforts with our politicians, could be either worse or better through reasons that were way beyond our control.

I think one of the key things around that adaptability, as a leader, was making sure that you could obviously do the best you can, but - because the environment was so different - understanding that often it was the case of doing the best you can out of a series of suboptimal choices. You had to make the best of a bad job, try and make the alternative that you had work as best you can, knowing full well that when (if you can call it that) normality returns, that you are going to have to revisit it, revamp it, and so on.

It was the immediacy of having to do something and also keep the understanding of where you wanted to continue to go. You could not lose that vision and insight needed to adapt that solution further.

You saw that, in the initial days of the pandemic, with things like freight capacity. I can remember one incident where I was being asked to do things in a particular market and there just weren’t any drivers - there were none available, and it didn’t matter who you asked as a supplier, you couldn’t get any. So, we came up with a different methodology and different way of doing it. We had to really think differently and be incredibly adaptive to the situation. Acceptance was not an option, otherwise we would let our patients down, some who were seriously ill.

Towards the end of the pandemic period, we saw the shutdowns in China, which again impacted supply chains hugely and, again, leaders had to adapt to that situation. It was not something where they could pick up the phone, for example, lambast the supplier and get something organised as an alternative. It was a necessity to do what you could within the space and the environment that you had.

In terms of mentoring more junior people in their early careers, how could they have learnt to be adaptable through COVID?

I think it’s more of the same, albeit, obviously, it can be at a different level, but always be thinking and trying to adapt for that situation. One of the key things that I saw, certainly in my team, was the impact of being expected to do A and B and they couldn’t, for whatever reason. They either had to stop, rethink, reassess, reset and, again, most people rose to the challenge magnificently.

I’ve never seen Supply Chain have such a high profile. Part of that was obviously the media frenzy that went with the pandemic, but I think also more junior members of staff did the same adaptation; they started to look at alternative ways of doing things, challenged some of the status quo, which of course was no longer relevant in terms of that particular supply, because of some of the things that did happen with COVID.

What would you say were the bigger challenges for leaders overseeing remote teams?

I’ve run international teams for some time - the basics don’t go away. Yes, we’ve got the technology of Teams, Zoom, etc. - at least when they work, they’ve made things easier - and clearly you can connect with remote teams much more easily.

However, you need to retain that critical personal touch and that can take many forms. As a leader, you need to make yourself available, you need to have your team understanding what is essential, i.e., you don’t want phone calls as a norm at three in the morning, wherever you are. But, in an international organisation across multiple timezones, you need to be incredibly flexible with your availability. Being based in Europe, that means sometimes you have to have early starts if you’re dealing with Asia, late finishes if you’re dealing with the Americas, but you need to be flexible and available to do that mentoring and coaching to develop your team.

I would also add, inevitably, cultural factors come into play. As you know, certain geographies tend to start early, finish early, or work late or whatever it might be, and you, as the leader, need to be aware of that and adapt to it accordingly. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all – that will never work. Instead, you have to get under the skin of your team members and understand what drives them, what motivates them and, bluntly, also what turns them off.

You don’t want your best performers to become demotivated. Your job, as a leader, is to keep that motivation high and also maintain that excellence that you want from your team members.

If you look through your career, the vast majority of it has been within the life sciences sector, more specifically, pharmaceuticals. What would you say to candidates who are considering a move into this sector for the first time?

Like a lot of people – dare I say of my vintage - I fell into Supply Chain by accident. It wasn’t something I’d particularly planned as a career move. I don’t regret it, as I love it; it has that incredible variety! No day, sometimes no hour, or even half-hour, is the same.

You also have so many touchpoints across the business, that you’re really integrated into all of those workings. And I suppose, lastly, you also see the fruit of your labours with the actual delivery of a drug to a patient for their successful treatment and hopefully cure.

I think one of the things I would say is that medicine is changing quite dramatically. As we know, there are major advances in life science and healthcare. We’re seeing the rise of personalised medicines that will continue. Supply chains are having to be developed to support all of that, which is quite exciting. There will be tremendous opportunities in the future and my comment to anybody coming into the industry is to go for it, because it’s a very exciting time.

Other industries have traditionally led the way in Supply Chain development. If we look back 25/30 years ago, automotive led the way with just-in-time and sequencing and things like that. Life sciences tended to be very conservative and has been slower to develop its life science processes in the same way that other industries have, but I think it’s getting there.

I think, also, a lot of the new generation of software is acting as a great enabler to that. Obviously, we haven’t touched on things like artificial intelligence, but it’s clearly on its way, and I see things like that having a huge impact in the whole of the life sciences sector.

What is it like having worked in cell and gene therapy?

Developments in personalised medicine are obviously exciting and those trends - without question, as we just touched on - are accelerating. Around 2019, there was a review of approvals at the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] and nearly half were in the personalised medicine space, which shows the growth.

When I first moved into the sector, there were lots of pharmaceutical companies that remained focused on low value OTC [over-the-counter] medicines and generics where bulk was king. This high volume lent itself to a lot of automation in things like warehousing and so on, which clearly are inappropriate for the personalised medicine space.

I can foresee certainly a lot more developments in that. But are we, as an industry, geared up to do that now? I don’t think we are. The different players in the industry, such as logistic service providers, are going to have a huge role to play in that. I see those supply chains that may be under the same umbrella of management, but being managed separately.

You already see the dichotomy in some of the bigger players, who will maintain their traditional warehouse network with bulk movements of goods and then local distribution to support that, versus this kind of highly specialist sub-sector. I think that sub-sector will of course become more mainstream as the industry ramps up to that and people get more used to it.

We are already seeing a real drive to treat the patient at home, which reduces the cost of those treatments, but what it can mean is extra demands upon the supply chain. If, for example, the patient is being treated in the afternoon, the product therefore can only arrive in that narrow window just beforehand. Evidence suggests, sadly, with the best will in the world, that patients are not particularly good at looking after their medicines when they arrive at home - they don’t follow the instructions - so we have to be very careful around that. However, do I see a greater number of treatments taking place in the home? Yes, I do. That clearly is going to require a very different delivery model for companies and the logistic service providers to support that.

There are also other side factors, and this is where there is a debate in the supply chain of our industry. Some say hospitals will become accident and emergency centres and really not much more than that for mainstream treatments. They will become specialist centres and many patients will be treated at home. However, some evidence suggests that, particularly rare disease patients who are often feeling very isolated by the very nature of their disease and treatment if they’re not common, actually like the interaction with their medical professionals, other disease sufferers, and support groups, and they actually want that personal interaction, which they can only achieve by being in a medical centre. It is going to be a series of interesting developments there. You’ve got a whole maelstrom of things that could or could not happen - it’s an exciting time.

In terms of the start-up environment, what do you think is the most important personality attribute for that environment?

I think it’s linked to one of your earlier questions - it’s that adaptability. In start-up environments, you have to get stuck in and you have to get your hands dirty. It is, however, a question of balance; you have to perhaps do things that can be occasionally considered menial, but it’s essential they get done and, in a start-up environment, there are often no alternative resources to do that.

I think there is that element of uncertainty in terms of what’s going to happen and what you need to do compared with the order of things in a more mature environment. However, you have to retain that focus and strategic perspective, no matter what you’re doing, so there’s that balance between the immediacy and also retaining that direction and focus, in terms of where you need to go as an overall business. It’s a very challenging, but very rewarding, environment.

Why is Switzerland ideal for start-up companies in pharma?

I think there’s almost been a tradition in the last few years that most pharma biotech start-ups have been by a couple of people in a garage somewhere in the US! Jokes apart, I think that is changing, because there is a lot more professionalism around the world that is being applied to these things, specifically for Switzerland. There are obviously some advantages around low tax and access to the major markets to the EU and its central geographic position.

But, in my experience, where Switzerland scores really well is via the workforce. It’s very internationally-focused - there are obviously advantages with the language skills. For example, I have regularly had members of my team who have spoken not just two or three languages, but five or six. If you are a developing business and you’ve suddenly got somebody who can speak the particular language of a target market, that opens up a whole world of possibilities.

Culturally, the Swiss also have a high standard of work and commitment. This, combined with the strong pharmaceutical industry, means Switzerland is very well-positioned to support that start-up environment.

Are there any risks that you have taken throughout your career and how did they help to get you to the level that you are at now?

I have probably lost count of the number of risks I’ve taken in my career. I suppose you need to put that into perspective in that it is a measured risk; it’s not sort of gambling all your life savings on a horse race kind of risk. You need to have that measured risk and you need to have an understanding of the potential downside, as well as the upside.

Putting that into context, I suppose the biggest risk initially I took in my career was going for my first international appointment, which meant upping stakes, moving to a new country, having that completely new environment around me of no familiar infrastructure in the same way. I’m originally from the UK, which meant suddenly you didn’t have your favourite TV programmes, for example, to come home and watch and things like that.

You need to be adaptable. But, the second time you make an international move, you know what’s coming and you know what you need to do to make that change and make it a success. It isn’t just about the work environment, it’s about the complete cultural environment and making sure that you, as a person, gain the most benefit from it. If you have the opportunity, go for it!

Is there any memorable moment from your career and why?

There have been many memorable moments. I’ve obviously met and done a lot of different things, been to some fantastic places, met some incredibly talented and interesting people along the way.

Again, if I had to pick a specific one, it would be the first time I worked internationally. I was moving country, I didn’t speak the language, I had very little in the way of support mechanisms to do that, that kind of came later, because the business I was working in was expanding rapidly at the time and I was still relatively junior.

It took me out of my comfort zone completely and I think it developed me in multiple ways that I could never have foreseen. I think there is this kind of image of an expat lifestyle - somebody sort of sitting in the sunshine somewhere sipping coffee and not actually doing a lot. The reality is incredibly different.

There is almost an onus on you to do more than you would expect, but the benefit is obviously being part of a different culture, being part of a different set-up, and also, as part of that, I do believe it develops you. It certainly developed me as a person, not only in my career, but also in my outlook and personal life.

Thank you to Chris for speaking to our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment team in Switzerland, led by Neil Cope.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.