Dominique Surinx is a dynamic Supply Chain leader, with 26 years’ professional experience across both corporate and entrepreneurial environments.

What was it like being the head of Supply Chain of a larger manufacturing network in the life sciences industry?

It is really exciting to contribute to a healthier world; it definitely gives a lot of satisfaction. When looking at the current COVID-19 situation, being able to help and contribute to bringing vaccines to the markets gave a very high satisfaction. Of course, it came with a lot of challenges. Most of those problems were really critical for our customers and also patients. If you don’t deliver in time, it can really have a very large impact. Trying to solve these issues and working with customers is really part of the fun. If you can mitigate these challenges, it means you can really contribute and really make the planet a healthier place.

I think the supply chain by itself is an exciting place to work; you have to work with all the different functions to manage the network globally. It’s really all about teamwork and being the glue within that team - we all need to work together to support our customers and the patients at the end. So, it is really a very exciting area to work in.

In any one day, who were the main stakeholders that you were dealing with internally in Supply Chain for non-Supply Chain professionals listening to this?

I think it was practically all functions, to be honest… Sales and Marketing, obviously, Customer Service, Finance, Operations, Manufacturing; you’re interacting with all these functions every day. That’s what really makes it interesting. You must make sure that that it all comes together and all works to deliver to the customer.

After nearly 20 years in the life sciences industry, what would you say is the largest change that you’ve seen?

It’s not so easy to answer, because what I have seen over all this time is that a lot of things remain the same. If I look at what our customers looked for, it’s really security of supply, quality and compliance, and supporting them with special products. These remain the key drivers over all of this time that I’ve been in the life science industry over 20 years. Of course, you do see some trends, like customer efficiency, which become much more important today.  

Overall, the market is moving away from these large blockbuster drugs that we had in the past; it’s focusing much more on specialised, personalised medicine, so that’s definitely a trend that I see. Probably the most unprecedented trend is the unpredictability of the demands at this moment. It’s something that I’ve never seen before in the industry, so this means that you have to become much more flexible, robust and resilient, while maintaining those traditional requirements, like the security of supply and the quality and compliance and the excellent support. So, it’s quite challenging.

I think also that the companies who will be able to cope with this unpredictability and become more flexible will be the winners in the market in the future. That’s a very different situation than you had maybe ten or 20 years ago. What’s very positive is that, in order to achieve this flexibility, we are seeing more collaboration between large companies working with smaller science or technology-based companies. These collaborations result in more complex products hitting the market faster. I think it is very positive, because, at the end, it’s the patient who will ultimately benefit from this. So, I would say the last two years is probably the biggest change that I’ve seen in the industry.

Are the profit margins bigger for personalised medicine or is that not the case?

I would be careful with this statement; I think that the companies focusing on this more personalised medicine are struggling to get the same profit margins. Don’t forget, with these blockbusters, you had an incredible economy of scale. Also, in personalised medicine, there is significant R&D investment, with only a small volume of sales ultimately to offset this. I think that it’s definitely going to be more challenging for the industry to get to the same profit margin and continue to invest in the same way for innovation and R&D.

What is it that you think makes Switzerland quite attractive to life sciences companies?

It is indeed a very interesting trend, although I must admit I’m actually a Belgian national and only recently settling in Switzerland, so I’m definitely not an expert. But what you clearly see is that Switzerland is very interesting in general for industries. There are good universities, the infrastructure is excellent and also you have a very flexible labour market. That’s really in contrast to some of the more traditional western countries, where the labour market is much more inflexible.

You have a very high standard of living here in Switzerland and, of course, it is a beautiful country. For life science, traditionally there’s already a strong presence in Switzerland and a very strong market growth. This encourages top talent to settle here, which provides a very strong case for these companies to further invest in Switzerland.

You actually co-founded an industrial start-up, Borit. Do you have a memorable moment from that time and why does that moment stand out?

There is nothing as intense as being an entrepreneur, to be honest. This first from a customer after starting a new company is so incredibly exciting, it gives so much adrenalin and satisfaction and is a moment that you always remember in your career. When we started, our first customer was located in the United States. It is very interesting, because they are adopting new technologies faster than we are here in Europe. The US is often less risk averse; they are happy to partner up with a small start-up company. I must admit that afterwards we were able to attract a lot of large companies, but it’s a very nice example of how, with specific technology or specific products, you can differentiate yourself and you can actually bring value to larger companies. It’s an incredible feeling and it’s the most memorable moment from my career.

The other moments focus around travelling. I had the opportunity to support the building of new plants in Asia - Thailand and China - which were, at that moment, very high growth countries obviously, but nothing is as intense as being an entrepreneur, that’s definitely the most memorable.

Do you have any advice to other leaders who are considering starting a business?

Probably a whole list of advice after such an experience. I think what’s really important is if you have these ideas and you feel that this entrepreneurship is within you, don’t hold back. Really go for it! Before this, though, evaluate the risk well, because there’s definitely some risk associated with it. Just evaluate it well before you make that jump, so you can reduce your risk in the early phases. I think also don’t do it by yourself, find some partners, including the right investment partners; cash is key and every company has its negative moments.

Even the biggest success stories all went through a rolling cluster of success and down periods, so you need to have good, robust partners.

For people who are less experienced considering a career in Supply Chain, what is the biggest myth that you want to debunk?

For everybody who is considering this, I can only recommend it. It’s so interesting, because you get in contact with all the different functions, all the different departments and you make sure they’re all working together to achieve a certain goal. Often, you hear that Supply Chain is complex and for specialists who have been there for many years, I think it’s quite the opposite actually. If you’ve got a broad experience in many different functions, Supply Chain is actually a very well suited area for you.

It’s all about common business sense, but good teamwork, bringing and delivering value to your customers. For me, every good Supply Chain solution is a simple one; if it looks complex, if it feels complex, then you can be sure it will not work. It needs to be simple. Supply Chain for me needs to be simple.

Generally, aside from Supply Chain, what is your favourite business motto and why?

I had to think a little bit about that question, to be honest, but I have found a good one and most in line with my career. Nike’s Just do it. Maybe some explanation here: life is too short to hold back and not do the things that you want to achieve during your time here on Earth. I think, in general, people are very much driven by social expectations and norms and the way they grew up, the way society expects you to evolve. If you travel lots globally and internationally, you work with many different cultures. You really start to understand that those values are still very relative and can be very different from where you are in the world. You start to understand there is just not one truth like you would do if you lived in your own small society or country. So, I think it’s important to break free from that and break free from the social expectations, do the things you want to do, and do especially things that make you and your family happy, so Just do it from Nike I think a fantastic business motto.

Tell me about a hidden talent of yours.

Sport has been very important in my life and even in my career. When I was younger, I practised karate. I did that for 25 years - of course was a black belt - and it helped me lots in my professional life and in my professional career. Of course, it taught me discipline and hard work; I learned not to give up and to respect others, but it also definitely helps to stay calm in very stressful circumstances, so there’s a lot you can get out of such a sport.

A bit later, when I became too old to do that very intensively, I did switch and I joined my older daughter in her passion, which is horseback riding. She is incredibly good at it and I must admit that it was quite an experience. You’re this manager, you think you are fully in control of your life and your team, but then all of a sudden you have to ride an incredibly strong animal, which you have to direct and influence. You have to let go of the illusion of control, because you are not in control and you can only hope that you can influence the animal in a very good way.

The more responsibility you get in your career, the more this is relevant. You are not in control; you can influence, but you’re still very dependent on others. A horse, despite its strength, is an incredibly sensitive animal, and it really reflects your emotional status and brings it back like a mirror. If you’re tense, the horse will be tense. If you’re nervous, the horse will be nervous. I think if you’re leading a team, its very much the same; you have to be very confident and strong, but also listen and be there for the team. That’s the same with the horse, so it’s an experience I can only recommend to every manager.

Thank you to Dominique for speaking to our Supply Chain and Operations 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.