Tag: Diagnostics

  • Where Science Meets Access: How Daniela Rodriguez Helps Mammotome Provide Life-Saving Technology

    Where Science Meets Access: How Daniela Rodriguez Helps Mammotome Provide Life-Saving Technology

    After childhood dreams of being a doctor, Supplier Management Engineer Daniela Rodriguez found a career path that blends her skills in math and her passion for problem-solving by helping others through medical technology. Daniela explains her journey to mechanical engineering and Mammotome, her involvement in Danaher’s LatinX + Friends Associate Resource Group, and why considering gender and race is crucial to providing quality medical care.

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    Tell me a bit about Mammotome and your role there.

    Mammotome is a global leader in breast cancer diagnostics and surgical solutions. We pioneered vacuum-assisted breast biopsy, which improved breast cancer diagnostics, as well as the overall patient experience because the procedure is minimally invasive. It was a real game-changer in the industry.

    I’m a supplier management engineer, which means I’m the bridge between our contract manufacturing suppliers and us. Day-to-day, I facilitate conversations with our contract manufacturers, everything from helping out with quality changes to delivery issues. In our group, we like to call ourselves firefighters, because when issues arise, we’re the first to know. We put out the fires by finding solutions, both in the moment and for the long term.

    I also created and now oversee our obsolescence program, which addresses parts of our equipment from suppliers that are getting older and maybe going out of production, not recommended for new design, or parts that are hard to procure. We try to forecast the demand and find alternates if possible. It’s a cross-functional effort within our company—everybody’s involved. 

    My work is very dynamic. Every day is different, which is why I enjoy my job. It keeps my blood pumping!

    What sparked your interest in engineering? And what brought you to Mammotome? 

    Part of it is that engineering runs in my family: My father was a mechanical engineer. He’d studied and worked in the U.S. but later moved back to Colombia, married my mom and had me. When I was a teenager, we immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia in pursuit of a better life. Math and science were always my strongest subjects—I think partly because they’re universal. It didn’t matter that I was learning them in my second language. I’d always wanted to be a doctor because identifying and solving problems fascinated me, and problem-solving is also what drove me to love engineering. Engineering allowed me to combine my passion for medical work with my skills in math. So I became the first female engineer in my family. 

    After getting my degree in mechanical engineering, I got a job at a contact lens manufacturer. That was in Atlanta, where I went to school. Eventually, I made my way to Ohio. I have family near Cincinnati, which is a major biomedical hub, with companies like Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Ethicon, and, of course, Mammotome. I knew about Mammotome’s top-of-the-line products, but what really attracted me was the cause and how the company puts patients first.

    Being a woman, the issue of breast cancer hits close to home. On one hand, it doesn’t matter what your social, racial, or political background is. Cancer is something that is a risk to all of us. On the other hand, Hispanic women are one of the least likely groups to seek out preventative measures for breast cancer. There are lots of reasons—finances, language barriers, lack of health insurance—but, as a Hispanic woman, this issue really speaks to me.

    Knowing that we are impacting women’s lives motivates me to get up each morning and do the best I can.

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    How have you learned and grown at Mammotome?

    When I first started here, Danaher Business System (DBS) tools quickly oriented me with the basics, so I could hit the ground running. From there, I was blessed with a great team and manager who helped me. I learn by asking questions. I’m definitely not a shy person when it comes to not knowing things, and the culture at Mammotome welcomes people who want to learn, to know more, and to continuously improve. Furthermore, my boss trusts me to take on new tasks, while still providing guidance if I need it. Their management style really works well for me, and we get along great.

    The obsolescence program is a great example of a task he gave me to really take on and make my own. Before I started, people would talk through a list of components every week, but we’ve improved the process by adding timelines, clarifying end goals, and allocating resources. Now, the obsolescence program has become one of our biggest cross-department meetings and has helped prevent serious supply chain obstacles. Sourcing components remains an ongoing challenge, not only because of the pandemic but also due to other global crises like a water shortage in Taiwan, where half of the world’s semiconductors are made, for example. But the program has done a lot, and it’s something that I’m very proud of owning and working on.

    Finally, I’ve also grown in terms of advocacy. I’m heavily involved within the company with Danaher’s LatinX + Friends Associate Resource Group (ARG), Mammotome Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, the Society of Women Engineers, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. My focus is to advocate and get more Hispanic women into roles like mine. Mammotome has an initiative to diversify personnel, and I want to contribute to that change.

    Tell us more about your advocacy work and participation with the LatinX + Friends ARG.

    Women, especially women of color, are underrepresented in STEM. That data speaks for itself, but I also learned about the additional challenges we face from an early age, when my father explained, “You have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good.” I think times are changing, and I want to see and be a part of that change. That’s why it’s important for me to be part of the LatinX group. No one else in my direct department is in that ARG, so I like to keep people informed about what we do. 

    I think people forget how diverse Hispanic identities are, especially in Latin America. Sometimes people can’t find my home country, Colombia, on a map, or they misspell it with a “u.” If you put a Colombian, an Argentinian, and a Mexican person in a room, we’re all going to speak differently and have different customs. So with the LatinX + Friends ARG, I get to learn more about other cultures while also teaching fellow associates about my own. We’re proud of our Hispanic heritage 365 days a year, not just in October. It can be hard to have conversations about race, especially for me, as someone who is non-confrontational. I’m trying to learn—by taking courses and just through better understanding—how to handle a room and get my point across without it being too personal or too emotional.

    As a Colombian, I want to create a positive memory for people. And as a woman, too. There weren’t a lot of female engineers as role models for me growing up, but those few that were there, like my professors in college, really inspired me. I’d like to be an inspiration for future generations. 

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    What’s next in your career? What are you excited about?

    I’m excited to connect more in person. I started just a few months before the pandemic hit, so most of my work has been online. That meant I was able to work from Colombia for several months and spend a lot of time with my family, which was wonderful. But I’m definitely a people person, and, once it’s safe, I would love to get more involved with Mammotome’s volunteer events in the community, maybe even create new volunteer opportunities. Data shows that Hispanic women respond more to community-based programs that promote proper breast care and early breast cancer detection, so this work is vital and important for my own advocacy goals. 

    Right now, I’m focused on doing my best work and learning from my peers. I would like to continue down my path at Danaher, which may lead to becoming a subject matter expert or, eventually, a people leader. I like to think I’m someone people can trust and communicate with. Being that type of leader inspires me, and I think with proper training I could be very successful in that role. Thanks to Danaher’s tools, I’ve been able to take some courses, and I know there is a guided path forward for career growth. 

    Interested in joining Daniela and the rest of the Danaher team? Check out open roles or join our talent community today. 

  • Cepheid Regulatory Affairs Specialist Anisha Panth on Constant Growth—and Paying it Forward

    Cepheid Regulatory Affairs Specialist Anisha Panth on Constant Growth—and Paying it Forward

    After joining Cepheid as the International Regulatory Affairs team’s first intern, Anisha Panth quickly found herself in a full-time role—and she hasn’t stopped learning since. Below, she shares the challenges and opportunities that come with working in a fast-moving field within a fast-growing company and explains how she’s helping to pave the way for those who come after her, within Cepheid and beyond.

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    What do you do at Cepheid?

    I cover Southeast Asia, Japan, and Australia for our International Regulatory Affairs team—we work with the authorities in each country to make sure they have the information they need to approve Cepheid products. Essentially, it’s our job to show that our test kits are safe and effective. That usually starts with compiling a submission dossier that has our package inserts along with detailed analytical and clinical reports, along with country-specific requirements. Then regulatory authorities will come back to us with any questions they have. Often, we need to reach out to other teams here at Cepheid for the answers, so we do a lot of cross-functional work, especially with R&D, Quality, and Product Transfer. We also collaborate closely with our Regulatory Affairs teammates in the U.S., who have a lot of detailed insight because they’ve already launched the product there.

    The way we work differs from country to country. Sometimes we don’t have a local office, but we do have a distributor who acts as an intermediary. In other places, like Australia, we work directly with the regulatory authority. The pace of our work also varies depending on the location. From some places, like South Korea, we’re getting new questions every day. Others might reach out just a couple of times per month.

    Tell us about your background and your path to this role.

    I was initially introduced to regulatory affairs when I was in New Zealand, studying for my master’s in pharmaceutical sciences; it was part of our core curriculum. At the time, I wanted to work in the lab. But I have a wrist injury that eventually made that too difficult, and I liked the idea of getting closer to patients—even the best product isn’t much good to people if it’s sitting on the shelf. One of my main research topics, for example, was pain management after knee replacement, and our idea was to inject microparticles that would allow patients to start physical therapy more quickly. At first, I assumed we could be helping patients within two or three years. But I realized there’s so much more involved in bringing a product to market, including regulatory work, which I find so interesting. Every country is different, and things are constantly changing. You really have to be on your toes.

    After I finished my degree, I moved to the U.S. and did a second master’s in medical product development management with a focus on regulatory affairs. One of my professors, Sowmya Arunkumar, is also the Senior Director of International Regulatory Affairs here at Cepheid. I first joined as an intern on her team. My mentor, Sruti Krishna, handled Southeast Asia at the time, and I took on some of her responsibilities. She’d trained me well and had been good about documentation, plus the team was very supportive. It went well, and when my internship was over, I was offered a full-time position. That was almost four years ago, and I’ve since been able to move into more senior positions twice, still as a regulatory affairs specialist. And I’m working with Sruti again—she’s currently on the U.S. regulatory affairs team, and I shadow her on one of her core teams working on regulatory affairs for a new product launch.

    What kinds of challenges do you face?

    Sometimes the questions we get from regulators are vague or difficult to understand, and the guidance they offer can be ambiguous. So, there’s some trial and error. But there are also a lot of resources, whether it’s training or guidance online, or just asking your manager for help. And once you finally figure something out, it’s so satisfying!

    There’s also a lot to keep up with in regulatory affairs, which I think is especially hard when you’re new to the field. Regulations are constantly changing, but you do get used to that. Management also provides a lot of tools to help. We have access to a global database called Tarius, and our partners from other teams will come in to educate us and give us a more in-depth understanding of their work.

    For me personally, time management has been a challenge. On top of my usual responsibilities, I might be covering for an open role or someone who’s on leave, and I always want to balance the day-to-day with learning new things. But I’m in a mentorship program that’s given me some tools for prioritizing and even delegating, and my manager really helps, too. I have had times when I felt like I was working at every opportunity, but that was because I wanted to—our team is actually very flexible.

    While something like COVID-19 obviously requires adaptation, our managers are very understanding of our boundaries. For example, I just got a puppy, so I’ve blocked time on my calendar for training him. Cepheid has grown a lot since I joined four years ago, but I still feel like management is understanding of our needs.

    And even though I’ve earned my certification, continuing education is still critical in our field. Whenever I see something new, I like to dig into it. Our team has “no-meeting Fridays” every week, so we can focus on building regulatory intelligence. Management definitely understands that there’s new guidance out every day, and it’s important that we keep up to date. 

    What have you learned since joining Cepheid—and how does the company support that?

    My first couple of years here, I was working toward my global certification from the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS). Preparing for the exam takes a lot of time; thankfully, my manager Ting Chen and my entire team were very supportive. And I do think getting certified has made me better at my job; when you understand the background and history behind a regulation, it’s much easier to interpret the current guidance. A lot of the regulations in Southeast Asia, for example, are based on the ones in the U.S. and EU. The more educated you are, the easier it is to quickly find the answer when a teammate comes to you with a question.

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    Tell us what it’s been like to contribute to the COVID-19 fight.

    Very fast-paced, especially at the beginning. Obviously, this was an unprecedented situation, so the regulatory authorities were adapting in real-time, coming up with new requirements—and we had to adapt along with them. We were constantly on watch to see what guidance they were releasing, and that was exhausting at times. But it was a great learning experience. Of course, each country wanted to move as quickly as possible, and they worked closely with us to expedite approvals. In a place like Singapore, for example, where it would normally take about a year to approve a test kit, we were able to do it within a week or two.

    For me, the big takeaway was that we should be working toward more harmonization between countries. We’re often providing very similar documentation to each and standardizing that could make a big difference in an urgent situation like COVID-19. There have been some efforts toward that in the industry over the years, and I’m looking at how our team might be able to get involved. 

    You’re also a teacher and mentor, both within Cepheid and beyond. Tell us about that work.

    The teaching was at San Jose State University, where I studied with Sowmya. She asked me last year if I’d be interested in helping her update her curriculum to align with recent regulations. That was another great learning experience because I was reading so much, from so many different countries. I also got to add some things that I thought would help the students. And I learned a lot from their questions, too! Sometimes it’s really tough to find the answer, and you have to do a deep dive. 

    The mentoring is here at Cepheid, working with people in our internship program. Because I was an intern myself, I wanted to give back once I had a few years experience and felt like I was ready. It’s also been an opportunity to see what some aspects of people management look like, in case I want to explore that at some point.

    Because of the pandemic, the entire internship program was remote, and I couldn’t just stop by my mentee’s desk. But we adapted pretty quickly. We met every morning to talk about what she was working on—and even a bit of our lives outside work. She had a great attitude, and I really enjoyed it.

    What are your plans for the future?

    In the short term, I just started working with Australia a couple of months ago, so I’m excited to learn more about their regulations. Our team also supports our Regulatory Affairs colleagues across other regions as new regulations take effect, and I’m looking forward to helping out with that, too. Down the road, I do think people management is something I’d like to explore, and there’s certainly lots of opportunity at Cepheid; we’re growing so quickly. But I have some things to learn before I get to that point. Right now, I want to focus on just being as good at regulatory affairs as I can. 

    Ultimately, my goal is to be an expert—a one-stop shop when someone has regulatory questions. And when they’re facing a challenge, I want to be someone who can help come up with a solution. In a lot of companies, regulations are sometimes seen as a hurdle because there are a lot of requirements to meet. But I think we can have much more value as partners, working with our colleagues to get products to patients as quickly as possible.

    Interested in joining Anisha and the rest of the Cepheid team? Check out open roles or join our talent community today. 

  • Impact and Belonging: How Ankita Rege Found Work She Loves in a Culture of Safety

    Impact and Belonging: How Ankita Rege Found Work She Loves in a Culture of Safety

    From studying engineering to running regional marketing for HemoCue India, Ankita Rege has found her passion in work that serves her community in point-of-care blood diagnostics. Below, she discusses the immense potential of helping users both directly and indirectly and how a heavy workload feels manageable in a trusting and supportive workplace where she has the psychological safety to say “no.”

    Tell us about your role. What do you work on day to day?

    I work as Marketing Manager for HemoCue India. It is quite a comprehensive role as there are multiple facets to it and it’s not limited to the strategic marketing plans, which form the core of the role. It also expands to handling communications, annual plans layout, fulfilling tender requirements, customer support, updating literature and so on, at a regional level. Connecting internally with the sales team and externally with the customers frequently helps me get the real-time market pulse. The sales team is the center of HemoCue, and they help with real-time and new information updates, which in turn helps us stay ahead of the curve.

    Our systems appear very simple, but we have a complex customer segment. We have a hematology portfolio and a diabetic portfolio. It’s very broad and one must reinvent new opportunities every time. It’s not always a duplication. The anemia and diabetes markets are huge, and awareness is still at its nascent stage with a lot to be done across the world. Working with government bodies, understanding the common vision, and presenting HemoCue’s solutions have now become routine.

    So, it’s interesting. It’s sometimes tough; it’s a big task, but I thoroughly enjoy it as I get to learn a lot each day.

    What brought you to HemoCue?

    Having completed my basic education in engineering, I joined the Medical Devices industry, firstly in servicing and then gradually moved into sales. As a freshly graduated engineer, I had ambitions to be part of inventing, modifying and redesigning instruments, machines, etc. as well as be a part of the change process. Although India is now developing into a reasonable R&D hub, back then the industry was mostly into promotion and maintenance. 

    I got opportunities to work with Fortune 500 companies, which helped me build my basic understanding of the market. I enjoyed those roles where I had the opportunity to travel to new places – meeting new and diverse personalities, providing them with solutions and helping them achieve excellence in their endeavors. However, I was mostly executing the strategies and providing real-time solutions.

    I enrolled myself in an international MBA course in Boston, Massachusetts and when I came back home, I started working in the marketing domain.

    When I started working in healthcare, I realized there’s immense potential to touch people’s lives directly and indirectly. I, as an individual, feel so much for other human beings irrespective of their status. With HemoCue, I thought I was actually making a difference in the lives of people and society at large. Compared to my past marketing stint with aesthetic healthcare, I feel that my current role adds direct value and more people benefit. Here I am at HemoCue, working for a real need in healthcare, solving someone’s problem. That really makes me feel proud to be associated with HemoCue.

    In addition to helping people, what else keeps you at HemoCue?

    What matters a lot is the culture, the people. HemoCue has an amazing culture, and the best part is you can be yourself. To work is one thing, right? You can get overwhelmed with work, which is perfectly fine. You’ll still learn to manage with the experience you gain. At HemoCue, we have a great set of teams driven by trust and respect toward each other, so that’s what keeps me here. I enjoy it and there’s absolute openness and freedom to be yourself here. I can vouch for this and with amazing leaders it makes it worth it.

    There are a lot of people who have been here for a long time, so there is a good bond and trust among people, which is essential. Trust is the core that cannot be compromised. Respect for each other, for who you are, irrespective of the cadre or role is crucial. There are times when you agree and disagree on something, which is fine as long as you can justify why. There have been situations when an activity or an engagement has been proposed and I felt comfortable and candid enough to say, “I don’t see how this is going to help.”

    My manager gives me the psychological safety to say “no,” which is very critical. If I’m just being pressured to execute, and I can’t do my work wholeheartedly, it is no fun whatsoever. Here, I have the freedom to speak my mind. If it’s rational and justifiable, it will be considered. There have been times when I was convinced my “no” should be reconsidered, and this was only possible through respectable constructive dialogues. And I would like to praise my manager, he’s extremely humble, reachable and has almost zero ego. There is no apprehension, there’s no fear. You feel very liberated. Being heard is important.

    Here at HemoCue India, we are, to a great extent, contributing to the government’s vision of eradicating anemia. We’re touching lives by testing and addressing this area, which plays a big part. I feel good about what HemoCue is, directly and indirectly, able to add to people’s lives, and that makes me feel satisfied with being an HemoCue associate.

    Does this tie into how you’re able to be comfortable as a woman on a leadership team that’s particularly male-dominant?

    Definitely. I’ve never gotten those indications, or been made to feel I’m the only woman, or I’m the minority. I’ve never had that kind of incident. Since my background is in engineering, I’ve always been in the ratio of something like 60 boys and 4 girls in a classroom, so that’s been a standard for me. However, irrespective of gender, I think one has to see through the lens of capability rather than anything else.

    There are still organizations that are very autocratic. HemoCue is certainly not. But we’re in an era when the days of total control are gone. Even parenting has changed. We’re not in an era when somebody else would decide things for us. There’s no hierarchical binding here at HemoCue. There are so many organizations out there that follow hierarchy and follow egos. But here it isn’t so. And it means there’s no micromanagement.

    What excites you about the future?

    The future looks bright and promising, there is lots to do and new opportunities to explore. There is a subtle responsibility for people who work in healthcare. If we can give them the right tools and support, they can change the direction of the industry, and the next generations of mankind will benefit.

    At a personal level, I believe I can stand out as a leader globally as well. I look forward to higher responsibilities within or outside the region and, most importantly, I believe HemoCue-Danaher has the right approach and opportunities for their employees.

  • Empowered to Lead: Sara Karlsson is Driving Continuous Improvement and Growing as a Leader

    Empowered to Lead: Sara Karlsson is Driving Continuous Improvement and Growing as a Leader

    Sara Karlsson is a Project Manager in Value Analysis and Value Engineering, building a continuous improvement program from the ground up, helping HemoCue become more aligned and efficient in reaching its goals. Here, she discusses the importance of interdepartmental collaboration and how HemoCue is supporting her as a female leader in a traditionally male-dominated field.

    What brought you to HemoCue?

    In my last company, I had a role as a project manager within a group of people working with continuous improvement. HemoCue wanted those same discussions about continuous improvement and gave me the opportunity to create my own process in the organization. I liked the challenge of building something from the ground up.

    Also, since I have small kids, HemoCue’s passion for employees’ families and private time appealed to me. I can work from home if I want to. I rarely do, because I like to be in the office, but if the kids get sick, then I can work from home and it’s not an issue. They respect your private life. I think that’s a winning concept.

    Tell us about your role at HemoCue.

    I’ve worked in my position for 2 years now, but it’s changed a lot since I started. I was hired as a continuous improvement engineer and project manager. As time went by, we realized maybe we need more: a focused organization to work with continuous improvement. It’s not a one-person job. Today, I have a core team of seven people who put around 50% of their time into this area.

    We take on continuous improvement projects, such as improving the overall equipment efficiency in manufacturing. We calculate different parameters like the amount of stop time and waste to get a score that tells us how efficient our processes are. We also look at where we have excessively high costs and try to reduce the fees, replace what we think is too expensive or improve something where we scrap a lot.

    When I started, the different departments were isolated, not communicating enough with each other. One of the reasons for creating my role was that the leadership team wanted more cross-functional work. We’ve needed to create structures and regulatory meetings. So, my biggest impact has been saying, “We need alignment.”

    Describe some challenges you face in your role.

    Since my team consists of people who only work for me some of the time, it demands a lot of relationship-building, follow-ups, and time management. We have to create a balance between their work within and outside continuous improvement. That’s been the toughest challenge, to not put one role above the other or take away from their work in either role, but I think we’re starting to get there.

    For the people who were already involved in continuous improvement last autumn, I don’t have to explain the value of what we’re doing. They buy it. But if I put together a new project team, we’ll need to take it from the beginning. I think it’s a mindset. In my department, it’s crucial that we are aligned with other functions because otherwise we’d have a lot of problems.

    As an improvement leader, the downside is that I see all the issues. Even though I like a lot of our processes, I still see where we can do better. To someone else, it may seem as if I’m complaining, but that’s not my purpose. It’s just that I see room for improvement and it’s my job to say something.

    Of course, there will always be people who think I’m a young woman coming in only to point out problems in processes that have worked for years. And to an extent that’s true. There were really good processes within R&D, and really good processes within Operations, but they weren’t talking to each other. Now that we’ve completed some projects, the majority of people in the company have seen the results. The reaction has been much more positive now than before. I think we’re earning trust in the process.

    How have you been supported in facing those challenges?

    I knew it was going to be tough coming into a company to make changes and improvements, so I told HemoCue I needed to be supported.

    The company set up coaching sessions for me with the Human Resources Senior Director, who is a woman. Every month, we talk about the challenges of being a woman and a leader. I think women worry, “When are they going to discover I’m not this good?” A man would never think like that. He would just be like, “I’m this good.” If I think, “OK, I don’t know how to tackle this conflict,” or if something makes me feel uncomfortable, I can talk to my coach. She doesn’t tell me what to do; she makes me think in other ways.

    HemoCue also sent me to leadership development training last spring—we spent three days out in the woods. They want to help develop more women leaders. My coach has been very excited about it, and we’ve talked a lot about how I can use the different tools I learned. Not only how I can use the tools today, but how I can improve upon them.

    What do you see for your future?

    First, I really want to develop within leadership and work with people. Of course, because I’m an engineer, I like the numbers, but I like to work with people.

    Also, I have a vision that we develop continuous improvement, and that we have more than dotted lines. We’ll have a department working with it, maybe three or four product leads belonging to the group. We need to build an organization of more people actually doing improvements.

    Ready to take the next step towards growing your career? Explore our open jobs or join our talent community to get started!

  • Get to Know: Henri Sund, Senior Manager, Assay Development

    Get to Know: Henri Sund, Senior Manager, Assay Development

    For organic chemist Henri Sund, coaching an amateur football team helped him discover a passion for leadership. Through mentorship and the Danaher Business System (DBS), Henri nurtured his talent, and now leads his own team of scientists as a senior manager in assay development. Below, Henri discusses his journey from research assistant to team leader, how DBS empowered him to take on a mentorship role and how he’s guiding his team through the transition to a hybrid work model post COVID-19.

    What do you do at Radiometer?

    My two main responsibilities are to lead my team and to secure continuous development of tools and workflows for the R&D department here at our site in Turku, Finland. I manage a great team of nine chemists and scientists who develop dry chemistry-based test kits for our immunoassay product line. More specifically, it’s the test cartridges that hospitals and other health care providers use in a Radiometer immunoassay device—similar to a coffee pod or an ink cartridge for your printer. My team members work on new product development so they really make a difference in providing caregivers with point-of-care (POC) solutions to make fast and accurate diagnoses.

    We have project managers who are responsible for the progress of each project; my job is more focused on the team itself. I make sure they have the tools and support they need to do their jobs effectively; I keep an eye on their workloads and I mentor them on how to build and grow their careers further.

    Our big focus right now is automation and digitization. We’re looking for opportunities to streamline processes and eliminate “muda”—a Japanese term meaning “wasteful” that we often use within DBS. We want to remove unnecessary manual steps to make better use of people’s time. We’re also upgrading equipment to make it compatible with the current systems for analyzing and utilizing data. We already gather tons of information, but we’re still laying the groundwork to make that more organized and easier to use.

    What led you to this role?

    I basically started my professional career here at Radiometer. I studied organic chemistry at the University of Turku, and while working as a temporary research assistant for the Department of Biotechnology we were collaborating with Radiometer on some projects. It was motivating for me as a young chemist⁠ to get to contribute to something new and to have support and mentoring from the team. They invited me to do my thesis work here, and after I finished that I officially joined the team in 2010.

    Early on, my goals were very research-oriented, in part because I admired my mentors so much. I was working with these widely known experts in the field, and I wanted to be just like them! But over the years, I started getting more interested in management. At one point, I started coaching amateur football as a hobby, which taught me a lot about what to do and what not to do, working with people from different backgrounds and keeping them motivated. Then in 2017, I became laboratory supervisor for our organic chemistry lab, which is a cross-functional group⁠ that includes both Operations and R&D.

    During those earlier years, I got to better understand the DBS tools, like Problem-Solving Process and Situational Leadership, and that led me to a sort of an “aha!” moment. I realized there were a lot of shared values with what I’d learned as a coach. So I started to think the manager path might be a good fit. My own managers suggested different trainings to help me prepare for a leadership role and see how I would like it, and then last year this opportunity came up.

    Even though I’d been preparing, I was hesitant at first. I’ve worked in assay development my whole career, but as an organic chemist in a research team. This role also meant managing people in biochemistry, biotechnical engineering and other fields—which aren’t my areas of expertise. I wondered, “Can I really pull that off?” I wanted to make sure I could create the trust I needed to fully support people. I decided to go for it, and I’m very glad I did.

    Tell us more about that. What’s the transition been like?

    It’s been a lot of me learning—about my team members, the details of their work, and the kinds of challenges they face. We did a lot of one-on-ones, especially in the first year, to help us get to know each other. Of course, every relationship is different. There are some associates I’ve worked with for years—so we had to figure out the dynamics with me leading the team—while others I was meeting for the first time.

    Because I was focused specifically on organic chemistry until last year, I’m not always the person to give my associates the answers or tell them what to do. I ask a lot of questions; it’s more about thinking through together how they might solve a problem. We’ll find someone in their area they could talk to, or I’ll give them insights from my experience that might apply. Whenever I can help by sharing something I learned in a similar situation, not just specific tasks, but navigating challenges and ups and downs, those are the most rewarding moments for me.

    How have you and your team navigated the challenge of remote work since the emergence of COVID-19?

    Like most companies, we’ve been through a lot of change in the past couple of years because of the COVID-19 pandemic—but of course, that doesn’t affect everyone the same way. If you’re doing research in a lab or working on our Production team, you probably don’t have the option to work from home often. With this new role, I’ve been able to work remotely, although I’ve always been mostly on-site.

    The last year was a bit hectic just because I was learning so much that was new, but I do have the freedom to decide where and when I do a lot of my work. I still regularly work on-site to make sure I’m on top of what’s going on in our facilities and to help me stay connected with my team.

    We’ve now officially moved to a hybrid model, meaning everyone is on-site at least two days per week. We’ve had workshops about different models for the future of work, and it’s been really interesting to hear how associates feel about their workdays and what the downsides and upsides are of working in person versus at home.

    We’re thinking a lot about how we can make each arrangement work—scheduling meetings differently, for example, or aligning the days certain groups are at the office so they can collaborate more easily. It’s a very personal thing—how you respond to different situations, what you need to be productive. But at least for me and my reports, we’ve found a lot of value in flexibility, being able to fit work and family into the day. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what kind of possibilities these new models will bring.

    As a manager, how do you help your team members grow their careers?

    I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have great managers and other mentors who got to know me quite well, and when they sensed I needed support or was ready for a new challenge, made suggestions. I’m so grateful for that, and I try to do the same for my team⁠, in part by just sharing my own story and learnings. If someone is wondering about career progression, it’s quite natural for me to talk about how I started and that there was a long period of time where I thought I’d stay in the lab, or was stuck there, but then a different path opened and I started work systematically to achieve it. It raises a question for them, “Okay, what could my version of that story look like?”

    One thing I avoid is telling them directly what I think they should do, because it’s easy to influence someone​​ and I know firsthand how important it is for people to feel free to change their mind.

    I know my team members might find it frustrating at times that I don’t just tell them what they should do. But it’s important to really listen—to pick up on clues: what kind of work do people do, what motivates them, what makes them feel alive. Then I suggest DBS tools or other areas of potential interest, but what’s exciting is letting it all play out.

    You don’t have to know from the start where you want to go. Everything someone experiences and learns will play a role in helping them find their path, and it’s my job to support them on that journey.

    Interested in joining the Radiometer team? Check out open roles and join our talent community!

  • Maria Fagerberg on Building a Career and Growing a Team at HemoCue

    Maria Fagerberg on Building a Career and Growing a Team at HemoCue

    It was geography that first put point-of-care testing provider HemoCue on Maria Fagerberg’s radar, but it’s serving her fellow associates—and customers—that’s kept her there for 18 years and counting. Below, Maria describes what it’s been like to build her career as the company has grown, explains how she encourages members of her Regulatory Affairs (RA) and Quality Assurance (QA) team to say “no” when they need to and shares what she’s excited to see as her work and HemoCue continue to evolve.

    What do you do at HemoCue?

    I head up our Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance department, which is a team of 25 great people. On the regulatory side, we keep up to date on licensing and regulations in the countries where HemoCue devices are used, and on the quality side, we support product development all the way from design through to production, launch and customer feedback. I have four direct reports, each of whom manages their own team within RA and QA, and my main task is to make sure they have what they need. I want people to be able to approach their work in their own way—they can decide how they do what they do—but we meet one-on-one every week so I can support them if needed.

    When I moved into this role that I have today a few years ago, I also joined HemoCue’s leadership team, and I’ve really enjoyed that collaboration. I get to interact with stakeholders all across the company, so we can make decisions together and keep our resources and energy moving in the same direction.

    Tell us about your path to HemoCue—and your path since you joined.

    I’m a chemical engineer by training, but I always wanted to work in quality management—even during my time at university, that’s what interested me most. I joined HemoCue in 2004, and it was actually the location that got my attention at first; I grew up here in Ängelholm, and when the company I was working for in Copenhagen decided to move, I thought it was a good time to see what my options might be back home. I also knew people who worked at HemoCue, and they had nothing but positive things to say. So I picked up the phone and called, and they invited me to come interview.

    I started in what was then a very small Quality department, and did try out almost every position there—I worked with corrective and preventive actions, complaints, Operations, R&D. After a few years, they asked if I would be interested in building a new regulatory function to run licensing globally. I didn’t have a lot of regulatory experience, but I said yes and grew that team to what we now have in place. I really enjoyed being part of its evolution—there was lots of learning by doing, which I like! I was in that role for 12 years, until I got this position.

    What have you learned from the different leaders you’ve worked with—and how has that shaped your leadership style?

    They’ve all been experts at different areas within quality and regulatory. Some helped me think more about the big picture and take a high-level view. Others were experts in the requirements and helped me learn all the details. But beyond that, they’ve all had an impact on me as a people manager. When I was new to HemoCue, for example, I had one leader who really helped me believe in myself. She pushed me to look at what I could actually do, instead of focusing on what I didn’t know how to do yet. I started to think, “Well, why not?”

    I had another leader who was really focused on talent management; she’d only been with the company a few weeks when she sat me down and asked when I wanted a role like hers. I did want it, but I didn’t think I could say that! She encouraged me to go for it, and she helped me get prepared for when that opportunity came. That’s something I try to do for my associates now—encourage them to articulate where they see themselves, now and in the future, and then coach them toward that and work together on a plan to make it happen. I see the leaders I manage working towards the same thing for their teams.

    What’s the culture like at HemoCue—and on your team specifically?

    I think one of the advantages of being a smaller company is that we’re very collaborative. No matter what role you’re in, you’re close to everything. You have a sense of what’s going on and who’s working on what, and you know everyone, more or less. That makes it very easy to reach out.

    We also try to get to know each other as people, not just colleagues—that’s especially important now that we’re hybrid, with some people working remotely. We have to dare to talk about the soft things, because we’re all humans and we all have feelings. Sharing them makes for better discussions and helps us learn. In one of our teams, for example, we do “temperature checks” twice a week where we check in on workload, support needed, and we send out regular surveys where people can share how they’re feeling. Then we discuss the results of those surveys as a team, and if we see a negative trend, we talk about how to solve it. BUT also, focus on what is working really well so that we ensure to sustain that.

    This is something we’re working on as a leadership team, as well—we want to be very clear about what our overall priorities are, so we quickly can align and redirect if we need to set a lower-priority project aside and focus our attention elsewhere. Then we take that mindset back to our teams, so they can feel comfortable, too. Saying no is difficult for all of us; we think, “I can do a little more. I can manage.” You have to practice—and know each other well—before you can start to say, “I need help,” or “Actually, I don’t have the bandwidth for that right now.”

    Tell us about some of the challenges you and your team have worked on.

    The difficult stuff is what’s really fun! One ongoing challenge is keeping up with regulations in 130 countries with a regulatory team of around 10 people and even though it is an extremely big and challenging task, the cooperation we have and the learnings we do are extremely motivating. Priorities are key—we have to know where the biggest and most important changes are happening. Building our network has also been helpful; colleagues in other Danaher operating companies can help us stay on top of what’s going on.

    Another challenge that comes to mind is adapting to the EU’s new IVDR, or In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation. It’s a much more stringent requirements vs before, and has been a make-or-break factor for companies in our space. On the Regulatory team, we started preparing in 2015—getting involved in the industry groups that helped develop IVDR, and discussing it thoroughly with our colleagues inside HemoCue, so that everyone understood what it would mean for the company and how we together could succeed. From there, we worked to balance what was really needed with what was nice to have, and I think we’ve seen that strategy pay off; while some companies that didn’t manage the transition well needs to drop off, we’re still going strong.

    What are you looking forward to?

    The IVDR project is a good example of how RA and QA can play a key role in the business, and continuing that journey is what’s most interesting to me. I think there’s so much more to explore in terms of the ways we can add value—for HemoCue as a company, and ultimately for our customers. It’s one thing to be compliant, but how do we take that to the next level and for example build a truly world-class management system supporting all employees at HemoCue and our customers in the very best possible way?

    We’ve already seen the benefit of having cross-functional collaboration start earlier in the development process; you never know when insight from RA will be critical. Now, the next step is what we’re thinking of as “quality made easy.” We do not want to add complexity, we want to talk with the rest of the company about how to make it seamless for them to ensure compliance. We’re working with them to understand what they do and how, and then asking, “How does that work for you? Would this change help?” The tools and processes of the Danaher Business System are really useful for those conversations, because it’s a shared language we can use to investigate why we do things the way we do, and see if there are opportunities to improve.

    It’s a step-by-step process, and we know that our team can’t create quality on our own. It’s something we’ll do together, as a company. But we are seeing the connection now between doing RA and QA well and helping the business grow, and that’s exciting.

  • Believing in the Power of Teamwork: How Monika Gram Ritter is Taking on HemoCue’s Global Marketing Opportunities

    Believing in the Power of Teamwork: How Monika Gram Ritter is Taking on HemoCue’s Global Marketing Opportunities

    Despite two advanced degrees in business management, Monika Gram Ritter didn’t initially see herself going into leadership. A decade and a half later, she is at the helm of HemoCue’s global marketing efforts and reinvigorating the scope of her team’s impact. Her secret? Combining a strong focus on teamwork and development while setting clear goals.

    Tell us about your role. What does your day-to-day look like?

    I’m the Senior Director of Global Marketing for HemoCue, a Danaher operating company (OpCo) within the diagnostics platform. We focus on serving caregivers in decentralized healthcare settings with point-of-care tests, which enable healthcare providers to make treatment decisions during patient visits. I manage the global marketing team and the three teams within it: Digital and Market Communications, Up – and downstream Product marketing as well as marketing intelligence and strategic innovation. I really enjoy the challenge of an executive leadership (L1) role and the authority that comes with it.

    Monika Gram Ritter

    My everyday work is extensive, but I am mindful of work-life balance and not the least, signal to my team that their well-being is important to me. My duties vary broadly from developing the long-term strategy for HemoCue and helping to drive key commercial and strategic initiatives, to working on how we improve standard work for delivering on marketing deliverables. Today, for example, I had four one-on-one meetings with team members to review the status of different marketing programs and initiatives while also preparing work for our upcoming company strategy process. Since we are one of the smaller Operating Companies, I also do a lot of hands-on tasks—but I am not afraid of taking on the details with my team.

    In my early days as a marketer, I did an enormous amount of traveling and the many voice of customer visits in different countries related to various projects became a great learning, not just for the projects but for me as a marketeer. Listening to customers is very much in the Danaher DNA. Now that I’m in a leadership role, I’m still focused on learning. What have we learned since last year? What’s changing with competition? What’s changing in the market? We work with several data sources, and we’re still out there talking to customers and other players in our industry. I want us to drive strategy based on real information. It’s especially meaningful to do this work in the MedTech field because we know we’re making a difference in people’s lives.

    You were at Radiometer for 15 years before you came to lead Marketing at HemoCue. Why did you make the move?

    Constant learning has always been a driving factor for me. Of course, I want to succeed in my current role, but I like the journey and expanding my capabilities just as much. And I felt that this role would be a great new learning experience. At Radiometer I worked closely with members of the executive leadership (L1) team for several years, which inspired and prepared me to become an L1 member myself. Although I am a great believer in teamwork and leveraging the skills of my full team, in the end, I’m the one that has to make and own the final decisions for the marketing function. Knowing that, at the end of the day, all of this is my responsibility, has been a great challenge—and one I really enjoy.

    Even though I have years of relevant experience, I haven’t always seen myself as a leader. I grew up doing team sports and took the role as captain several times, but it wasn’t until I was getting my executive MBA that I realized that leadership might be the right path for me. Feedback from my peers highlighted that leadership seemed like a natural strength for me. I realized I didn’t have to be the stereotype in my head of what a leader had to be. I really care about developing people, and positive feedback from my teams has just inspired me to continue the leadership journey even more.

    How would you describe your leadership philosophy?

    I believe in working as a team to achieve goals, and I also believe in personal responsibility. I always want to be able to fully trust my team members. That doesn’t mean I won’t follow up and make sure things are getting done, but people thrive so much more when they are trusted. No one likes being micromanaged. Often, if I find myself having to be too supervisory, it’s a sign that the person is struggling for another reason. It’s up to me to find the underlying cause and help fix it.

    There’s no template or model for being the best leader because we’re all different. Of course, there are some principles to follow, but those need to be integrated with a leader’s personality. The most important thing, I would say, is understanding that leadership is about developing people and involving the team, not about getting more stripes on your uniform. I’ve seen wonderful colleagues struggle with leadership because they couldn’t let go of the notion that it was about their own career.

    I believe in working as a team to achieve goals, and I also believe in personal responsibility.

    Monika Gram Ritter

    Leadership, like life, is about getting your priorities straight. An employee once said to me that it’s obvious that I’m ambitious and want us to deliver well, but that the team knows I also care about their well-being and our collective success. Actually, my daughter recently said something similar, too. “You always have a lot to do,” she said, “but it’s crystal clear that we are your main priority even when you work hard.” I’m very proud of that.

    What are some of the key challenges you’re taking on right now?

    When you’re on the L1 team, you have to find the right balance of representing and standing behind your own functional area and staying dedicated to solving cross-functional challenges for the company.

    In general, taking a next step up in leadership requires taking up your space, and having the courage to challenge others. I’ve had to find ways to stand up for me and for my team—maybe in a more direct way that’s less natural to me, but without compromising who I am.

    The HemoCue Marketing team has been through quite a lot of changes, but we’ve got a great team with people who have been here long and new colleagues that make a great addition to the team, and I believe we’re on the right track. As a leader, I’m working with my direct reports to take the marketing team to the next level and in a different direction. One major challenge has been pacing ourselves. We get requests coming from other departments, of course, and we need to remember that we can’t succeed if we’re trying to fulfill everyone’s wishes. I’m not afraid of making tough decisions when they need to be made, such as prioritizing or saying no if it means we are then delivering on the key priorities we committed to.

    Overall, my key challenge is reinvigorating the team while simultaneously ensuring people feel involved and are part of the journey. We’ve been finding a balance, taking our work to a new level while not rocking the boat too much. I’m proud of how far we’ve come.

    Ready to take the next step towards growing your career? Explore our open jobs or join our talent community to get started!

  • Get to Know: Tea Holck, Production Planner

    Get to Know: Tea Holck, Production Planner

    What do you do at Radiometer?

    I’m part of the Radiometer team in Turku, Finland. At our site in Finland, we make reagents for our immunoassay tests—which hospitals, medical centers and labs around the world use to diagnose their patients. I work as a production planner, which means I take information from our Global Supply Chain team on what customers need, and turn that into a plan for the manufacturing of our reagents analytes, which are formed with test-specific components, chemical substances or mixtures added to cause reactions. We have nine different analytes, and on average we start a new analyte batch each day of the week. For our Troponin test, for example, which helps triage patients with chest pain, we might do two large batches per week, while a test like βhCG, used for early detection of pregnancy, might run once per month. It’s my job to fit all those production runs together, communicate that plan to the manufacturing teams and other stakeholders and then oversee the process and address any issues if they come up.

    We use Daily Management, one of the Danaher Business System tools, to track the progress of each batch. At our daily management meetings we always start out focusing on on-site safety, because that’s very important to us, and then we look at quality and testing, manufacturing processes, inventory, maintenance and anything else we need to address to ensure proper testing and packing. I follow each process from beginning to delivery and help make sure everything goes smoothly.

    Tell us about your background, before you joined Radiometer and since.

    I used to work in the furniture industry as an upholsterer, but after I started having problems with my elbow, I went back to school to be a laboratory technologist. I didn’t really know much about scientific work at first—I’d just seen all the equipment and white coats on TV and thought it looked cool! But I was interested in chemistry and biology; it drew me in. After I finished my studies, I got my first diagnostics job as a production worker in batch packing with a company called Innotrac Diagnostics, a company that Radiometer acquired a few years later. That was 16 years ago, and I’ve since worked on nearly every process we have here at the site in Turku—SA  and analyte coating for substance testing, lab maintenance, solution manufacturing, tracer dispensing and quality control testing. I’m very interested in learning new things, and I’ve gradually gotten involved in more and more. I’ve also started training new employees; I like helping people and I know the processes, so it just comes naturally.

    My journey to becoming a leader started when I became an assistant supervisor, first in packing and then in liquid quality control (LQC) manufacturing. I guess I did well because, after a couple of years, my manager asked if I was interested in being a supervisor. At first, I wasn’t sure. But then I thought, “Why not take the chance and challenge myself?” So I said yes, and started out with a small team, supervising a few processes as a team leader. Then, in 2018, I was named stream leader, which meant I was responsible for laboratory maintenance, solution manufacturing, coating, tracer dispensing and LQC manufacturing. And then last year, after about eight years as a supervisor, I moved into this role. Most of what I’m planning, I’ve worked on myself, so I understand it well, and I was excited to try something new. I’m still learning a lot, but I enjoy it.

    What’s the company culture like?

    It’s a very helpful, supportive culture. No one’s on their own. If you have a problem or question, you can ask someone for help and solve it together. And it’s flexible, as well, in terms of both when and where you work. I spend part of my week on-site at the manufacturing plant and then work from home two days per week.

    We’re also very open-minded, both to different cultures—we have associates from lots of different backgrounds here—and to new ideas. It’s a two-way conversation; workers are listened to and we hold a lot of “kaizens”, which are like weeklong process improvement workshops that anyone can join. We recently did one around batch approval process, for example, to make our release process more efficient and reduce batches lead time. Whether you’re a leader or a quality specialist or a production worker, everyone has input.

    How do you collaborate with your teammates?

    Beyond our daily management meetings, I meet with the Global Supply Chain team a couple of times per week to make sure I’m up to date as customers’ timing and needs change—sometimes they need a product sooner or other priorities shift. I work closely with production managers and our technical service manager, as well as the senior operators from every process, all of whom help manage the information flow to the rest of the team. Some of those conversations are proactive and some are more reactive. If a supplier can’t deliver materials on time, for example, an operator might come to me to figure out what we should prioritize instead. Or we might have an equipment issue, or sometimes it’s staffing, as so many companies have faced during COVID-19. 

    I’ll go to Global Supply Chain if I need to talk through some options or get more information, and then I’ll adjust the plan so production can keep going. Because these are products being used for critical care, we want to make sure our customers always have what they need to help their patients. Whatever happens, we make sure we have strong quality but also try to solve things as quickly as possible.

    What are you excited about right now?

    We’re growing quickly—Radiometer in general, and our location in particular. We just bought the building we previously only used part of, so we are expanding our operations to a much larger scale. That means new lines, new equipment, new staff and all of the training and testing that entails. We actually just had a workshop for the new floor plan.

    Continuing to keep up production while we’re building so much that’s new is challenging, but it’s worth it to see all our plans come true. It creates new opportunities for our associates to succeed; I love it when I see my former team members grow to new roles and be promoted, for example. And to know that it all helps our hospitals and medical centers and the people they serve—that’s wonderful. It’s inspiring.

    Interested in joining Tea and the rest of the Radiometer team? Check out open roles across Danaher or join our talent community today.

  • Jennifer Teodorsson on Leadership Priorities, Role Models, and Helping Her Team Grow

    Jennifer Teodorsson on Leadership Priorities, Role Models, and Helping Her Team Grow

    When Jennifer Teodorsson joined Cepheid in 2017, she was a program manager on a team of four, with each person handling one or two products at a time. Less than three years later, the team and assay portfolio had both more than tripled in size, and Jennifer took over as director of the team—just as COVID-19 hit and demand for the company’s tests exploded. Below, Jennifer reflects on leadership lessons she’s learned, explains how she decides where to focus in the face of rapid growth, and shares why she’s so excited about her team members’ futures—even if it means she has to find a new job.

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    First, what do you do at Cepheid?

    I’m the director of program management for assay development, which means I lead program managers (PMs) who coordinate the launch of new tests. At Cepheid, a PM is sort of like a startup founder. From the moment the company decides to develop a product until the moment it’s released, PMs are working with a cross-functional team to understand what the market needs and what we can do technically, then navigating all the trade-offs along the way. You have to be well-rounded in a lot of different areas in order to manage that push-pull and keep things running smoothly.

    At a lot of companies, a PM might just be handed a product that they run through the usual processes and systems, but here, there’s a lot more empowerment. It’s, “Here’s your team. Here are the needs and the information. Now make it your own.” That can be intimidating at first, because you’re making decisions that at your previous job, your manager probably made for you. But this is unlike any place I’ve been in terms of creating a safe environment to share your ideas. Our leaders aren’t micromanaging from the top down; they’re asking what we need and how they can help. That makes it so much easier for all of us to contribute to the overall strategy and vision. 

    What are your priorities as a leader?

    I lead 12 program managers, each running one or two product development teams, so there’s no way I can dive deep into their day-to-day. I have some processes in place to check on hot topics and know who needs help when, but I focus much more on them as people—their mental health and their development goals. That means being open and transparent, and building our relationships to the point where we have the psychological safety to trust one another. We need straight talk, whether it’s me giving them feedback or them reaching out when they need support. I always tell people in one-on-ones that it’s okay to struggle. In fact, I expect it. Struggling combined with reflection is how we grow.

    Another priority for me is that our program managers lean on each other and build a team environment. In a lot of organizations, PMs get siloed within the projects we lead. But we have so much to teach each other. One reason I strive for diversity within my team is that, for example, someone extroverted and results-driven can learn a lot from someone more introverted and inquisitive—and vice versa. Often, I’ll put two people with very different strengths on a project together. At first they might think it’s terrible, but by the end they’ll end up being great friends.

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    Tell us more about working with your team members on their development goals. How do you think about growing their careers?

    It’s always a conversation. I think it’s so important to talk with someone and understand what their interests really are, because that’s different for everyone. You might want a people-management path, and there are multiple roles within that. Or you might want to go a specialist route and be a principal PM but not have direct reports. Regardless of the goal, it’s imperative that we come up with an action plan to get people the training and experience they need. 

    Career development is a big part of the Danaher culture, and that’s key—the company walks the walk of encouraging people to move within, or even between, operating companies. If I have a great associate on my team, I might wish they could stay forever. But if they’re interested in exploring another area, I’m still going to reach out to that manager to see if we can set up a rotation or otherwise help the employee pursue their goals. Having a succession plan in place is a good thing; we want one for every role at Danaher. That includes mine—if one of my team members wants this job, that’s great! I’ve had lots of development opportunities of my own over the years, and I don’t need to sit here forever. I want to help that person take over as soon as possible, and I’ll find something else to do.

    What are some things you’ve learned at Cepheid?

    One thing I’ve learned is how to be my authentic self. I’ve worked in pharma and med tech for most of my career. Coming from that space and being a woman in leadership—especially in a global environment—I had developed a certain approach. But it wasn’t really me, and I wasn’t happy. This is one of the reasons I feel so lucky to have Shibu Gangadharan, our VP of Strategic Development and Program Management, as a manager. I first got to know him during my interview process, and we realized we could really learn from each other. He’s driven and ambitious, but he’s also the most compassionate human being ever. He has such a big heart. Whether it’s engaging with Black Lives Matter or helping people get development opportunities or just making sure we’re all safe during COVID-19, he is so invested in his people. He was also humble enough to recognize that mentorship from other female leaders could help me in ways he couldn’t, so he connected me with Elsa Burgess, our Senior VP of Engineering; Rika Dutau, our VP and GM of Commercial Operations in EMEA; and my own direct manager Wendy Wong, VP of PMO. Having them as role models has really been transformative.

    Another source of learning for me has been the Danaher Business System (DBS), which is like a shared culture across Cepheid and other Danaher operating companies—a set of tools and processes we all use to do our work. Now that I know DBS, I wonder how other companies live without it. It makes everything easier and more effective. I even use some of the frameworks, like Problem-Solving Process and Crucial Conversations, in my personal life! I am totally hooked.

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    Tell us about some of the challenges your team has faced recently.

    Like any team—especially in the diagnostic space—a lot of our recent challenges have been related to the pandemic. There’s little capacity for clinical studies beyond COVID-19, which delays our other projects. And of course, there are all the challenges of life outside of work during this time; people’s kids are home from school, there are deaths in the family, people get sick. Other medical treatments have to wait because hospitals are full. Meanwhile, Cepheid is growing quickly—that’s been true for years now—and keeping up with onboarding new people and projects takes its toll. 

    Regardless of the challenge, though, I think what’s helped most is maintaining our culture. Someone who just came on board can’t know how to do everything from the get-go. But you can create an environment where that person feels comfortable reaching out to a colleague who is already very good at whatever it is they need to learn. We’re all in this together, and I have never been in a situation where I didn’t get the support I needed here. When everyone is open and humble enough to admit what we don’t know, it’s so much easier. I think that’s how we’ve been able to accomplish so much and keep things moving forward every week.

    What’s next? Tell us what you’re thinking about right now.

    I have a lot of ideas about how to move forward with everything we’ve learned from this time. How do you create a team environment when we’re not only global but increasingly remote and hybrid? I think we have a lot of new tools that can help us do our work better and more quickly. If we used avatars and VR, for example, how might that change the solutions we develop for patients? There are so many opportunities. And while time zone differences are tough, I love that I can talk with someone in South Africa about what’s happening there, or someone in the UK about a new NHS initiative.

    Of course, it’s not just about technology. It’s the people behind the computers. When you move from a physical to a virtual environment, things like burnout can be more of an issue. So I’m thinking a lot about how to help my team build not just emotional intelligence, but emotional agility. Building soft skills is really the most interesting challenge. We do want our associates to be performers. But more than that, we want them to be good citizens of the company, and the world.

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    Interested in joining Jennifer and the rest of the Cepheid team? Check out open roles or join Danaher’s talent community today.