What gets you out of bed and into the office in the morning? For Louise Houson, managing director at global biopharmaceutical company MSD, in the UK and Ireland, it’s the chance to play a part in making a real difference. “Researching, discovering, innovating and finding great medicines that help to improve people’s health and save lives is something that motivates a lot of us to come to work every day,” she says. “We’re very heavily focused on research and innovation, especially in areas of high unmet medical need.”
Houson started her career at MSD 21 years ago and worked her way up. Over the course of her time at the company, she’s moved through 14 different roles in departments including sales, supply chain, pricing, marketing and commercial operations.
“The breadth of our business and the company’s ethos of supporting employees in their career ambitions means I’ve been been afforded lots of different opportunities to broaden my exposure to the business and get plenty of experiences,” she says. “And the way has not only been up, but often sideways, too, so that I could get that broader experience. The pharmaceutical sector is diverse, and the fact that you can stay in one company and do a variety of very different roles speaks to its depth and interest.”
MSD is primarily a research-led organisation, focused on discovering and developing medicines that help improve patients’ lives. To that end, Houson’s role is to create the right environment to achieve this – which includes recruiting the right talent. In addition, she has responsibility for everything from sales and marketing to governance (pharma is a highly regulated sector), ensuring the company acts with ethics and integrity at all times.
“We work with so many different partners – the NHS, government, business and industry, healthcare professionals and opinion leaders, which is vital as we cannot do it alone, so I spend a lot of time thinking about how best to engage with our broad range of stakeholders,” she says.
“I also sit on the board of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, working with other stakeholders on areas critical to our industry such as research and development in the UK and access of our innovations to patients and populations. Plus, I lead and motivate the teams internally, and make sure we do our business in the right manner. It’s a huge privilege to be in this role.”
Every day is different, she says, but she always tries to start the same way: breakfast with her three children before she goes to work. “I have been extremely lucky to work for a company that is fully supportive of work-life balance, taking a year’s break for each child when I took maternity leave, so the company has supported me very effectively as a working parent. I’ve done a variety of different flexible working patterns depending on where my children have been in their life cycle. That’s enabled me to get a really great balance between work and family life, which is very important for me.”
Houson divides her time between MSD’s offices in London and Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, and, as MSD is a global company, she spends up to eight weeks of every year travelling.
An average day in the office can go from coaching employees in the morning to meeting with the health minister in the afternoon. Whatever else there is, there is always variety. “I might be reviewing strategies and plans, meeting with my direct reports, making sure that we are performing effectively, reviewing that performance and making appropriate changes. And then there are phone calls with headquarters in the US, feeding into the global strategy and also making sure that the needs of the UK market are well understood and well heard. Or we might, as a company, be responding to something that has happened externally – a new piece of health policy, for example.”
Joanna Muller is in a very similar position to where Houson was 21 years ago. She’s currently on a year-long sandwich placement with MSD, which makes up the third year of her four-year biology BSc at the University of Bath. “I’ve always loved the life sciences, and I’m interested in healthcare in particular,” she says. “I wanted to work somewhere where I could make a difference and where the company was striving to do things that can be life-changing.”
She’s currently working in external affairs, on the first of three four-month rotations, which will include placements in strategic communications, policy and government affairs and franchise communications. “At the moment, I’m watching what everyone does so I can take in as much as I can and see how the company works,” she says. “I started off by arranging one-to-one meetings with everyone in external affairs. Everyone was willing to give up their time and help, and they want to help me learn as much as I can.”
Like Houson, no two days are the same for Muller. At the moment, she’s working on MSD’s weekly newsletter, and on communications around Live It, the company’s internal health and wellbeing campaign. She’s also assisting in the organisation of Inventing for Life week, celebrating MSD’s commitment to putting invention at the heart of everything they do, and has an extensive programme of training, talks and meetings. She says: “The best thing about being here is that you are genuinely encouraged to get stuck in – everyone is incredibly supportive in making sure I get the most out of my placement.”
Hearing MSD’s global CEO, Ken Frazier, speak at a town hall meeting was a particular highlight. “That was a really insightful experience to hear him tell us about what’s happening worldwide, and what his role is. We also had a day and a half where all the different department leaders came and spoke to us, so we could get a greater feel of MSD as a whole.”
Right now, Muller says, making the most of her placement and getting the best degree she can are at the top of her agenda, but she’s inspired by Houson’s career path. “During the department overview, a lot of staff said they started off as sales reps and then moved to marketing and a breadth of roles across the company. In the year coming up, I would love to see as much of the company as I can to get a better understanding of how it works and the industry it operates in.”
And the two also share the same motivation: to work for a company that makes a difference. “What really drew me to MSD in the beginning was the fact that they do good by making medications and have a real commitment to making a difference both locally and globally,” says Muller. “It’s a wonderful place to be.”
CORP-1268265-0003; Date of preparation: September 2018
