If most CEOs have to view their companies from 30,000 feet, Don Morel is probably in the stratosphere somewhere.
Morel, chairman and CEO of West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., has to pull back far enough to see sales operations in 35 countries and somehow process the sum total of the company’s daily operations into a form that can be consumed by employees on the ground, interacting with West’s customers.
“The difficult part is synthesizing that information into a few priorities that you can take an action on,” Morel says. “Once a month, we get together as a senior group and review what is happening in the marketplace, along with our financial results, and we spend a lot of time listening to what the sales reps and business development people are telling us about what is happening in the marketplace.”
In the monthly meetings, Morel brings in representatives from West’s marketing, operations, quality control and regulatory departments. It is a group effort to analyze the data and plot a course for the immediate future.
It’s a daunting task to take a global organization and focus it on a set of universal priorities, which is why Morel needs to build and maintain a communication strategy that emphasizes a straightforward approach, getting employees to understand the big-picture reasons behind the decisions that are made. It’s also why Morel needs to constantly find and develop new leaders who can help promote his messages throughout West’s worldwide footprint.
“The most important thing is that your strategy is universal and applies irrespective of the geographic operating region,” Morel says. “That means you need to find, develop, hire and grow people who have the same set of values that you do, and do it all around the world.”
