Paul Hemp

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Reprint: R0407D 

Fast growth is a nice problem to have&#8212;but a hard one to manage well. In this interview, Kevin Sharer, the CEO of biotech giant Amgen, talks about the special challenges leaders face when their companies are on a roll. Sharer, who was also head of marketing at pre-WorldCom MCI and a division head and a staff assistant to Jack Welch at GE, offers insights drawn from his own experience&#8212;and from his own self-proclaimed blunders:
&#8220;I learned the hard way that you need to become credible and enlist support inside the company before you start trying to be a change agent. If you think you&#8217;re going to make change happen simply by force of personality or position or intellect, you&#8217;d better think again.&#8221;
And change there was: Under Sharer&#8217;s leadership, Amgen overhauled its management team, altered its culture, and launched a couple of blockbuster products. How do chief executives survive in that kind of dizzying environment?
&#8220;A CEO must always be switching between different altitudes&#8212;tasks of different levels of abstraction and specificity,&#8221; Sharer says. &#8220;You might need to spend time working on a redesign of your organizational structure and then quickly switch to drafting a memo to all employees aimed at reinforcing one of the company&#8217;s values.&#8221;
Having a supportive and capable top team is also key: &#8220;A top management team is the most revealing window into a CEO&#8217;s style, values, and aspirations.&#8230;If you don&#8217;t have the right top team, you won&#8217;t have the right tiers below them. [The] A players won&#8217;t work for B players. Maybe with a company like GE, the reputation of the company is so strong that it can attract top people to work for weaker managers. In a new company like Amgen, that won&#8217;t happen.&#8221;

A Time for Growth: An Interview with Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer

Reimpressão: R0407D Crescimento rápido é um bom problema, mas difícil de gerenciar bem. Nesta entrevista, Kevin Sharer, CEO da gigante de biotecnologia Amgen, fala sobre os desafios especiais que os líderes enfrentam quando suas empresas estão em alta. Sharer, que também foi chefe de marketing na Pre-WorldCom MCI e chefe de divisão e assistente de equipe de Jack Welch na GE, oferece ideias extraídas de sua própria experiência e de seus próprios erros autoproclamados: “Aprendi da maneira mais difícil que você precisa se tornar confiável e obter apoio dentro da empresa antes de começar a tentar ser um agente de mudança. Se você acha que vai fazer a mudança acontecer simplesmente pela força da personalidade, posição ou intelecto, é melhor pensar novamente.” E houve uma mudança: sob a liderança de Sharer, a Amgen reformulou sua equipe de gestão, alterou sua cultura e lançou alguns produtos de grande sucesso. Como os executivos-chefes sobrevivem nesse tipo de ambiente estonteante? “Um CEO deve estar sempre alternando entre diferentes altitudes — tarefas de diferentes níveis de abstração e especificidade”, diz Sharer. “Talvez você precise passar algum tempo trabalhando em um redesenho de sua estrutura organizacional e, em seguida, passar rapidamente a redigir um memorando para todos os funcionários com o objetivo de reforçar um dos valores da empresa.” Ter uma equipe superior solidária e capacitada também é fundamental: “Uma equipe de alta gerência é a janela mais reveladora para o estilo, os valores e as aspirações de um CEO. (...) Se você não tiver a melhor equipe certa, não terá os níveis certos abaixo deles. [Os] jogadores A não trabalharão para jogadores B. Talvez em uma empresa como a GE, a reputação da empresa seja tão forte que possa atrair pessoas importantes para trabalhar para gerentes mais fracos. Em uma nova empresa como a Amgen, isso não acontecerá.”

&Eacute; hora de crescer: uma entrevista com Kevin Sharer, CEO da Amgen

Reprint: R0407D Fast growth is a nice problem to have—but a hard one to manage well. In this interview, Kevin Sharer, the CEO of biotech giant Amgen, talks about the special challenges leaders face when their companies are on a roll. Sharer, who was also head of marketing at pre-WorldCom MCI and a division head and a staff assistant to Jack Welch at GE, offers insights drawn from his own experience—and from his own self-proclaimed blunders: “I learned the hard way that you need to become credible and enlist support inside the company before you start trying to be a change agent. If you think you’re going to make change happen simply by force of personality or position or intellect, you’d better think again.” And change there was: Under Sharer’s leadership, Amgen overhauled its management team, altered its culture, and launched a couple of blockbuster products. How do chief executives survive in that kind of dizzying environment? “A CEO must always be switching between different altitudes—tasks of different levels of abstraction and specificity,” Sharer says. “You might need to spend time working on a redesign of your organizational structure and then quickly switch to drafting a memo to all employees aimed at reinforcing one of the company’s values.” Having a supportive and capable top team is also key: “A top management team is the most revealing window into a CEO’s style, values, and aspirations.…If you don’t have the right top team, you won’t have the right tiers below them. [The] A players won’t work for B players. Maybe with a company like GE, the reputation of the company is so strong that it can attract top people to work for weaker managers. In a new company like Amgen, that won’t happen.”

É hora de crescer: uma entrevista com Kevin Sharer, CEO da Amgen

Resumo.

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