Putting talent centre-stage

Managing change across a Europe-wide procurement operation requires a highly professional approach.  Sammy Rashed describes how he worked with HR to carry through a major review at Novartis.

When the Novartis's sourcing organisation was formed in 2004, more than 100 sourcing associates across 30 sites shared a common function. At Novartis, employees are our greatest asset, but we did discover that their backgrounds and skills varied widely. Some were clear leaders destined to quickly move up the ladder, others had the potential to be standouts but risked getting lost in the mix. Still others were in need of training to bring out their best.

Put simply, we discovered that the organisation lacked a clear method for assessing and leveraging the diverse talents of its people. Action was needed. It was decided that sourcing should partner with human resources to launch a talent management initiative to gain a clearer picture of existing skill sets and to bridge identified gaps.

We also wanted to recommit the Europe region sourcing organisation to a strong talent management culture, where developing people and planning for succession was established as a priority.

So why the focus on talent management? Novartis sourcing was undergoing a dramatic transformation from a tactical purchasing operation into a strategic sourcing group. Business partnership aimed at cost efficiencies within spend categories was replacing the old “order this, order that” mentality.  Consequently, the best of the best were needed to ensure strong leadership and focus in the midst of these fundamental changes.

We needed a team with strong technical purchasing skills in areas such as negotiations and category management. However, just as important were nontraditional skills such as communications, change management and the ability to exude a professional image given the constant exposure that Novartis sourcing professionals have with senior executives, both within and outside the company.

As head of the European sourcing region, I knew the skill sets of our top 30 people relatively well, and had a good idea of their capabilities. However, I had little insight about the rest of the organisation.

In launching the project, the objective was to manage talent in Europe by surveying all sourcing associates and ensuring that local departments were adequately skilled, staffed and structured. We needed to assess the current aptitude of associates and their capacity to grow quickly and take key roles during and after the tactical-to-strategic transformation.

We created a talent management programme using current human resources tools to ensure that sourcing departments had the right people with the right skills working in the right structure. The tools included the use of an organisational talent review process, as well as Novartis’ performance management system.

The program began with a survey of sourcing associates at all levels to identify skills, historical performance and growth potential under the current and future structure. I then conducted an individual review of each profile with the head of purchasing, chief financial officer and HR business partner at each site. The intention was to cover the individuals’ strengths and areas of improvements, complete a “functional calibration” and come up with an action plan for career development.

From the start early in 2005, the design and validation of the talent management project plan was a joint effort between sourcing and human resources. We found that existing talent management tools were not enough for the evolving Novartis sourcing organisation, and also had to secure buy-in for the project from key Novartis leaders. HR support was crucial given the sensitive nature of the initiative.

The next step was to introduce the process at a regional sourcing meeting. We explained the needs and potential benefits of the project to the country heads of purchasing. This was a sensitive stage as we wanted to establish that all our efforts were intended to help local managers – and the organisation as a whole – not second-guess their managerial skills.

With support for the project established at all levels by April, it was time to receive assessments from sourcing managers along with completed organisational charts. This stage of the process asked for current and future- ooking information about individual associates – from position and name to past performance record. With this information, we established who would fill which roles using a new model with standard titles and job descriptions.

Individuals were also given a potential rating using an internal system that reflected each employee’s growth potential within the organisation.

Through July, HR and I reviewed each Novartis site. We conducted a critical appraisal of selfassessments and benchmarked people’s demonstrated skill levels against eight leadership standards and five purchasing functional competencies.

By the end of the summer, the team was conducting a functional calibration, identifying gaps and developing an action plan. The process so far acknowledged top performers and those who were struggling in their position, and helped to pinpoint areas of strength and development for each group.

This calibration was done within sourcing on a regional basis, instead of the traditional local calibration within the finance team, which is where sourcing reports within Novartis.

September saw the design of a training curriculum based on what had been learned to date. The course development was prioritised based on the common areas of development which were the most needed.

The initial set of courses identified were category management, negotiations and legal contract training, as well as an introductory overview of purchasing at Novartis.

Later in the year, key findings from this initiative were presented at our Talking Talent session, which gathers  harma global sourcing leadership together to discuss the careers of our people. Typically, a TTS lasts one full day. During this highly interactive session, sourcing managers presented their associates so that they could compare their assessment of that person’s potential with the views of other sourcing leaders. This helped ensure a globally-aligned assessment based on the Novartis potential ratings.

Today, the roll-out of the talent management action plans continues. On an ongoing basis, determinations are made about upgrading skills and placement.

Associates are generally tagged as: promote, expand scope, maintain, develop, and redeploy. The intention is to ensure each employee is in the right position and is supported to perform at his or her full potential. All of this is revisited and updated as part of Novartis’ regular talent review process with individual employees. The findings are also integrated into the employee’s development plan.

With the new talent management process established, Novartis now expects to extend the benefits of this European project to other countries and regions across the new global sourcing organisation. In addition, a “career blueprint” component is also in the pipeline, which will map out how associates can take steps to reach the top five sourcing positions.

Employees remain our greatest asset, particularly in the pharma global sourcing organisation where the vast majority of people are decentralised and located in countries around the globe. Talent management is therefore a primary focus for the company and the sourcing organisation.

Sammy Rashed is head of sourcing, Europe, Novartis Pharma

NOVARTIS FACTS AND FIGURES

• Novartis is a global leader in pharmaceuticals and consumer health and has a presence in 140 countries. Its worldwide headquarters is in Basel, Switzerland
• It is one of the fastest growing healthcare companies with annual sales of $28.2bn (2004)
• It’s drugs “pipeline” is rated as one of the industry’s strongest by analysts
• Sales of its pharmaceuticals division were $18.5bn in 2004
• The pharmaceuticals sourcing function manages around $5bn worth of annual spend on indirect and direct goods and services
• 250 sourcing professionals across 30 nations operate in a matrix organisation consisting of countries, regions and sites, balancing strategic sourcing and day-to-day procurement
• The function’s aim is to maximise value creation for the organisation and contribute to the company’s overall results through savings, cost-avoidance and process compliance