[00:00:01] Welcome to Supply Chain Now en Español presented by Vector Global Logistics and Supply Chain Now. This is the program that gives a voice to Spanish-speaking people in the ever-changing logistics industry. Join us as we discover the inspiring stories of our guests and learn from their collective experience. Our goal is not only to entertain you, but to foster your passion for this exciting industry and support your professional development along the way. And now here is today’s episode of Supply Chain Now in Spanish.
[00:00:35] Good morning and welcome back to another episode of Supply Chain Now. My name is Enrique Alvarez and today I have the pleasure of interviewing someone I stopped talking to 20 years ago, maybe 25 years ago. And well, we recently met again with Monique Brown, Country President and general manager of Novartis, Poland. Monique. How are you doing? Pleased to meet you.
[00:00:58] Enrique. A pleasure to be here today, with you and all the people who follow you. And well, also super, super delighted with our reunion.
[00:01:06] I know, it is very, very interesting and well, for the people who are listening to us, we can tell you that we were in the same school from kindergarten to high school and we had a good friendship. Then obviously your career and my career took us apart and we went our separate ways, and well, that’s what we want to talk to you about today, so without further ado, tell us a little bit about yourself, about your life. Who it is.
[00:01:32] Monique? Well, Monique. Well, first Monique is Mexican, which I believe she is. It is a source of pride for all of us. Huh? I was born and raised in Mexico City, but with foreign parents, huh? I have a degree in communication. Huh? I always thought I was going to work in advertising, which is what I studied for, but then, as fate would have it, I ended up in this fascinating industry that is the pharmaceutical industry, which I hope I can share a little more about today. And because I am so passionate about it. And Monique too. She’s obviously a friend, she’s a daughter, she’s a mom of three uh, two teenagers uh, and an 11 year old little girl and she’s a wife and probably what Monique is most passionate about and what nurtures her the most is how to try to fulfill all those roles and and and continue to blaze a trail for women.
[00:02:20] Well, you are definitely an example for all women and I am sure you will have good advice for people and especially for young women who are starting their professional careers. And well, how to balance all these kinds of things that women in particular have to balance in order to be successful as moms, professionals, entrepreneurs, etcetera. But well, going back again, tell us a little bit more about how it started. Did you want to do some marketing? Did you want to do something else totally different from what you are, what you did now? Tell us a little more about how that happened.
[00:02:53] Look, actually it was like. As a coincidence, and I would say very fortunate, because I. I studied a degree in Communication, I majored in advertising, uh, quite a few years ago. I obviously did my social service in advertising, eh? The truth is, uh, very exciting. I was in an agency for a while, huh? And I would tell you that there were my first, like glimpses of knowing that I had to be on the client’s side and I liked it a little bit more. Then it happened that when I started looking for my first formal job because my mother is from Switzerland and we had studied at the Swiss school, eh? My family told me well, you should look for a European company. And at that time I had a relative who had known about Sandoz Laboratories, didn’t I? What are they, uh, part of the people who formed the laboratory that we know as Novartis, huh? I handed in my résumé there and at that time they had a development program, not to get you started in the industry. I started there and well, unbelievable but true eh? Twenty-something years later, I’m still there, aren’t I?
[00:04:01] An excellent, an excellent career and well, I really don’t know if it was luck or what, but you found what you were passionate about and you developed it very well. An anecdote that you remember, maybe from your childhood, or something that you remember that maybe your parents or a mentor or someone told you or told you that it helped you to be successful.
[00:04:23] Yes, I think so. Look, when I was a child, my mother thought I had to do classical ballet, didn’t she? And mainly because my mom liked the. I mean, discipline, obviously, eh? And he liked ballet and I remember how good, eh? Those who know me will know that my body was not like for a classical dancer and besides I have always liked to dance, but with more rhythm than with ballet, eh? And this caused me a lot of frustration. Enrique Eh, I kind of saw that I was struggling and but I was always like very disciplined and I kept going to the classes and doing the exercises. And I remember one time when my frustration got to like such a level that obviously, I sat down and cried because I couldn’t be a step so easily. And I remember at that moment my teacher Eva, who I really think was one of the first strong examples I had of eh, of life and leadership, where Monique told me that nobody is going to appreciate that you break your back for something, you have to relax and also allow yourself to fail from time to time. And these are words that marked me a lot because I think I have always been a very tenacious and result-oriented woman, but sometimes failure and allowing yourself any mistake or seeing that something is not within your abilities, is something that you have to learn in early stages, because the truth is life, you live lighter that way, right?
[00:05:48] All right and well and good. And are we always going to make so many mistakes in life and it is important and I feel that even the generations now are a little bit more afraid of making mistakes and that takes away our creativity, it takes away this different ways of solving problems, etcetera, right? In other words, it is important, as your teacher says and as you learned, to make mistakes.
[00:06:09] And I think it’s not just the errors. And speaking of the new generations, I think that effort pays off, don’t you? Ehh few things are immediate ehh but well ehh. You also have to learn and enjoy the way I think it is. It is like the most important teaching. And no, not only to see the end, but as on the way, to enjoy and take the learnings and sometimes, why not, also change the destiny.
[00:06:33] Totally agree. And well, hey, your mom was a ballet dancer. All this or not? Not as a girl.
[00:06:38] He liked and disliked it. You didn’t think I was going to get like a lot of posture, did you? And I think so. The truth is that I think ballet is a great discipline. Sure, but it’s true that well, at that time I saw it as something aspirational and thinking about being a ballerina because otherwise why else would I be taking ballet. And well, it was like a great apprenticeship. Actually, many, many years of my life I did ballet and I think it was also a discipline that formed me in many things.
[00:07:06] Are there any other mentors maybe a little further along in your life?
[00:07:11] Yes, well, well, I’ve had many, many mentors. I would tell you that there is another moment in my life that marked me a lot and I think that just as I just commented, when it is important not to allow yourself to fail or change course. I also remember that when I started in these youth programs, I was asked what I wanted to be and obviously, since I came from a communications background and had a degree in marketing, I said I wanted to be a brand manager. Pharmaceutical companies also have brand managers. Of course, as our products are medicines. Is it true that at one time brand managers were all doctors and I remember very much the first time I was told I could never be a brand manager because I didn’t have a medical background and that thank God it did frustrate me at the time, but I never took it too seriously because not only was I a brand manager, but I was managing marketing teams locally, then regionally, eh? And I think it’s also like a life apprenticeship.
[00:08:11] The issue that no one knows or can tell you what you are capable of doing or not is. It is like each one of us that we have to decide our path and well, also face the challenges that come our way and then along the way. The truth is that I have had several mentors eh, coincidentally almost all men. Enrique Eh, I only had one female mentor eh? And I would tell you a long time, huh? I was also trying to look to these mentors as an example of life. Professionally I always knew more or less the path I wanted to follow and obviously I thank all the mentors eh? For all the advice they gave me, but I wanted to have models of a woman working in this industry, of course, and that took me a little more work to find, especially thinking about the time when I started to grow up, which was a few years ago, when the role of women was very different from what it is today.
[00:09:06] Yes, definitely. And well, more so in countries like ours, Mexico, Latin America and some others. In fact, up to now there is still a long way to go to achieve this equality, not in terms of roles, positions, salaries, etc., but something extremely important and good, something that perhaps you have managed to change a little during your career, right? You are the example. I imagine of some women entering Novartis as well.
[00:09:32] Well, that, that, that’s what they tell me and I have there, uh, like a lot of people that well, fortunately I’ve been able to like work with them and also like, like inspire them to pursue their ideals, uh? As I was saying before, well, I feel very proud of having a life that for me is very complete, right? According to the model I had and pursued, I understand that everyone can have it differently, eh? But what I try to help them and. Both women and men should be as faithful to their beliefs, to their instincts and manage their careers based on that. It seems to me that when you work in the corporate world, as has been my career, it is very easy to get carried away by what the corporate world says. What would be the step that you would have to take, at what time And if you don’t do it, no, eh? And what I would tell you is to dare to decide, to decide consciously of what one leaves, eh? As we were taught at some point in our philosophy classes. No, each option eh implies a waiver and that is the way it is. But there are also things that we can momentarily give up and then take.
[00:10:43] And that has been a bit of an apprenticeship for me. I can tell you that at some point in my career I began to grow, to have roles outside of Mexico, in the region, which was when I got married and when the time came for me to look for a family, I realized that I could not continue with that type of work that I had, which at the career level was again like accepting what we call “what we call”. Is there a demotion that I’m not even sure it was from Motion, it was because of the impact of the post, eh? But well, I thought it was the right thing to do and And I was basically five years, uh, kind of doing very similar roles. Would you say that professionally it was not the moment of greatest leap, eh? Organizational, eh? But very proud to have done it, because that’s what allowed me to have my family and then there’s always time to grow again, eh? And in the end I think the big learning is that well, we compete against ourselves, there are people who do it faster, there are people who do it slower, but if that’s what you want to do, time is relative, right?
[00:11:46] Totally agree. And well, as you say, at the end of the day, the most important thing is that you make the decision, that you don’t just let yourself be carried away by what someone else says, by what they are pressuring you, etc. That you are calm with the decision you make and continue to grow at your own pace. And well, let’s talk a lot more about your professional career. Is this very good track record obviously with Novartis and before we jump in if you want nothing else for the people listening to us, what is Novartis? Because it also has a very interesting history in the time that you have been in that company, eh? Weren’t you saying a little about your first job? How do you go from there to Novartis? How, how is the company generated or created and tell us a little about your first steps with Novartis?
[00:12:30] Yes, look. Well, Novartis is like. As I told you, a pharmaceutical company, uh, it’s among the five largest in the world. Eh, its origin is Swiss, eh? It is headquartered in Basel. And it really is. It is a laboratory that emerged from the merger of two Swiss laboratories that was, uh, Sandoz and Ciba-geigy. Hey, both labs with, well, with a lot of experience in the market. And at that time it was more of a market like what we call primary care. So, always prescription products, eh? But, well, it was a corporation that had many well-known companies throughout its history. Gerber belonged to the Halcón Corporate Group, it belonged to the corporate group, eh? And it is a company that I would say that what I have been passionate about is beyond culture, no? So it has a culture that is very focused on people, on innovation, eh? Is it a company where I have always found, uh, like the right bosses and opportunities to grow, because being a laboratory that has a presence in more than 70 countries, there are many options there, eh? As I said at the beginning, I started with a development program and I started at the base, which is the most important thing for pharmaceutical companies, which are the sales teams, which I think is good for any kind of company. Sales are what drives any company.
[00:13:52] However, eh? The industry, beyond being a highly regulated industry, is an industry that involves a lot of customers other than the final consumer. Think that in countries like Mexico and. And even though the industry has evolved worldwide, it is still more or less true that the patient is the final consumer, but the drug he or she will receive will probably be chosen by the doctor. But if it’s something prescription, you still have to go through the pharmacy, which sometimes pharmacies also have some opinion on what you should take and what product to take. If it is a higher specialty product, it will depend on whether or not it is included in the basic chart, whether or not the hospital will pay for it, eh? I mean, there are many, many elements and I think that’s what makes it kind of very fascinating, huh? The industry, eh? As I was saying, I started in sales, eh? Then I did a lot of marketing roles, uh, between drugs as established, a couple of launches and then I started to leave Mexico to take on responsibilities for Latin America, which was at the time I was telling you about before, when I started to work in Latin America. I decided to have a family, huh? And there I returned to Mexico. But at that point I started working more with, uh, products for the government.
[00:15:06] Where did you go first this time, that is, what were some of your first trips? Because Mexico, you have been very proud to be nominated, I mean, it’s always, it’s always exciting to leave your country, isn’t it? And it’s always exciting to travel and get paid by the company. Then tell him. In other words, that first experience went very well to the point that you were offered something somewhere else. So what? What was that other side and what did you rather learn about yourself on that other side?
[00:15:32] First I was working for the office that was the regional office that I was in. I had the. The city of.
[00:15:38] Miami. Ah, in Miami?
[00:15:40] No, in Miami. In Miami. But I was still living in Mexico. Okay. Eh. The truth is that, uh, traveling from one country to another was very simple, you didn’t need many requirements and the truth is that in Mexico Miami was very easy for me, eh? And I think the most fascinating thing that I learned there, uh, when you go from a local operation to a regional operation is that you start to see a lot of realities, right? That was where, well, I started to take responsibility for the planning of a drug launch for Brazil, Colombia, not Venezuela, in other words, all of Latin America. And the truth is that it is true that this part has its glamour, isn’t it? Going to work in another country for three days? Get to know other cultures, understand how other systems work. It is also true that after a few years, eh can also be quite exhausting and one wants again like maybe to go back to more local operations. But I loved the experience so much that when I later returned to Mexico and went back to operate in Mexico for five years, I did not. That was when I had my children, I was offered again a role for Latin America and there was already, uh, Canada included.
[00:16:53] Ah, how nice!
[00:16:54] I really loved it because there, well, it was a totally different level position. Did it have to do with integrating a portfolio with Novartis and carrying out this integration for all the countries, that is, designing the structures, the strategies and the whole business model, which was extremely fascinating, eh? And well, the Canadian market is also very different from the Latin American market in many areas, eh? So it was a great apprenticeship eh? Beyond the commercial responsibility, there is obviously a lot of interaction with the global teams, so you start to have a vision, I would say much more holistic than the one that the role only gives you because of the people you interact with, because of the information you have, because you are much more focused on the future than on the present, eh? So it was fascinating.
[00:17:46] And that from Mexico City as well.
[00:17:48] Or so I did from Mexico City.
[00:17:51] Didn’t you have to move for that position?
[00:17:53] No? Well, because you were actually traveling, of course, traveling no matter where, where you are based. And the truth is that I traveled a lot. Al of weeks and luckily Mexico is about halfway through. Then it was easy for me to go to Canada.
[00:18:07] I mean, Canada and Latin America are as you say, very different. Do not be too.
[00:18:11] Different, very, very different. The truth is that Canada has many eh, peculiarities, but of course, being on the same continent, well, many organizations have it with Latin America and Canada and after a couple of years I was offered a role that was like my first and already General Management for a country in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then we went to live in Argentina, and I would tell you that that first experience of changing countries is extremely exhausting. The first few months are complicated, well.
[00:18:47] And it’s for the whole family, right? I mean, because it’s you and it must be exhausting for you, but when you add four people, three more people, four more people, it’s already an adventure, an adventure.
[00:18:58] Beginning, a beginning. Without my story, not since what’s going to be your school, where are you going to live? Where are you going to open the bank account beyond the whole issue, like, how to work. But I would tell you what an experience that is. I would recommend it to everyone because I think that first of all it opens your head a lot because of preconceptions, that maybe we have or ways of seeing realities, and secondly it has the collateral and ideal effect, which is that as a family it unites you, it unites you a lot, because when you get there, everyone is against the world, eh? In general, the family has a very nice dynamic and the truth is that as time goes by, one adapts and makes new relationships and adapts to the country. It was a very nice experience, huh? Despite the fact that we had the COVID years, I would say that we were also in the health sector, I would say that you. As dimensions eh very different eh? than those he had for other companies. But well, I think it was, uh, for the healthcare industry, uh, forget about the pharmaceutical industry, but for healthcare it was like a clear wake-up call that the healthcare systems we have in the world, uh, have to evolve in many, many ways. Uh, I’m not here to talk so much about health, but really the part of prevention and the use of digital tools eh are mandatory worldwide. Why? Because it is not eh sustainable what we have in any country in the world, eh? And look at that eh, well, I know all the Latin American ones, I know Canada eh, now I am here in Europe and really the opportunities with their tonalities are very very similar.
[00:20:47] And that seen from your point of view, not from one working in one of the best, if not the best company in the industry. So I imagine that the pandemic came to make evident many deficiencies that we have, and not only in this industry, but in several, even talking about the best companies in the world.
[00:21:08] Yes, yes. And of the opportunities, no, because as I was saying, uh, I try to be rather positive and say well, and here and there is a great need for collaboration among all the actors involved, not, uh, governments, hospitals, doctors, patients, uh, the pharma itself, uh, we have to start changing the model because such a model is not, it is not sustainable. And well, also understanding that the world is changing and we all know it, populations are getting older every day, we do not live more years eh? But the system is not designed to care for older people for more years nor to pay for more years, eh, Doctors There are less and less of them in the world. No, it’s not the profession it was a few years ago, eh? No talk of nursing, eh? Well, during COVID we also saw that in all countries the system is very centralized and if you are not, uh, close to one of these main hospitals, your health will probably deteriorate. Endless challenges.
[00:22:10] Also as of.
[00:22:11] Opportunities, opportunities, eh? And a wake-up call that well, hopefully we all kind of learned from COVID what we had to learn.
[00:22:20] When you arrived in Argentina, Buenos Aires that was just before the pandemic.
[00:22:25] It was, it was almost a year before the pandemic. I arrived in March 19. I still remember that December when we went to Mexico, not for vacation we came back, we came back because remember that in the Southern Cone the seasons are reversed, so January and February. The truth is that people are on vacation, it is the middle of summer and I remember a lot and I think this will always stay with me as a story to remember that when we always had these meetings at the beginning of the year, more or less in March, because since January and February is summer, people generally take vacations, eh? And when we had that meeting scheduled, it was just when we started to hear that there was something that had appeared and that in Europe and. And I remember we had with the team like this issue of saying hey, but we have people coming from those countries, can we get together with them? And there was everything at that time, it was not like the first news that nobody knew exactly what was going on and some people said, but we cannot discriminate between them. Others who said well, imagine if, if they bring something and the whole company falls ill because of this, eh? And we had a very interesting debate, we had that meeting where the whole team went at the beginning of the year, because well, in Latin America nothing was heard yet, and basically we came back and a week later, when everything was closed, and look, in Argentina everything was closed, including the airport for a year, that is to say, in Argentina. Really, the closing was very, very drastic, eh? In every sense eh? It was the first time that I would tell you. I used to say that I felt like I was in the Big Brother house, no eh, 24 hours a day with my children, with my husband, they were trying to go to school, I was trying to work, eh, we were trying to eat, but it was good as we all lived it, quite chaotic, I imagine.
[00:24:24] And well, to have been an additional challenge to the one you already had of moving to a new country, a new culture, a new home, I mean several opportunities, several challenges obviously at that time. But when you were in Argentina, any particular challenge that you can share with us, either from the industry or from you in particular? So, what did you learn from that?
[00:24:47] Look, I think that, well, Argentina is full of challenges, isn’t it? If I say opportunities, you say if you learn in Argentina, you learn. Probably what I like the most. It was necessary to learn. Not everything is planned. You wake up every day in Argentina with something new, be it economic, political, social and, to tell the truth, situations that I had never faced before, eh? Just how to deal with the price of medicines, not with inflation like you have in Argentina and a devaluation that you also have when you are, uh, an importing company.
[00:25:24] How, how it is done. I figure it’s obviously a topic that could be a single podcast talking about it, but.
[00:25:30] We could have a professorship. I would tell you that you are starting to A I one thing I have to recognize about Argentines is that they are extremely creative and innovative. And I would tell you that’s basically why, because the country puts so many challenges that don’t ask me how, there’s always a solution, eh? It would have taken me a long time to find it on my own, as it would have taken me a long time to find it. But well, there are many mechanisms, aren’t there? Where you can also adjust, where you start to put special support programs, where you start to find other types of offers, where you can start to make alliances with other actors. That’s just to name one. But good, eh? I would tell you that being responsible for a company in times of pandemic was like another huge challenge huh? Think that half of our structures are more or less, uh, people who work in, uh, visiting doctors and the industry model is still very traditional. You all know we have health visitors, probably the only industry that’s still going to make this face-to-face contact, huh? At what point did we take it out? At what point would we return them? How did we compensate in a country with such inflation, right? And how did we compensate them? What were you doing with incentives and millions of discussions? Well, no one knew, no one was prepared and there was no how.
[00:26:54] As there is no manual.
[00:26:56] Good or bad, eh? But collective strength always helps. Do not talk to colleagues and see what they are doing and where it is worth to have 111 similar approach and where better Each one decides from depends on the country. It was a huge learning experience. I would say that what I am most grateful to Argentina for, besides the fact that I found people, very capable, very professional, very innovative and very innovative people. And the truth is, I also made some great friends. It’s like all the flexibility to be there.
[00:27:26] Half good, right? I mean, definitely a country with many, many, many, many uh, opportunities, but still many, many, many, many, uh, extremely good things. This creative and important for the whole of Latin America, good leaders have not always come out of Argentina and the region as a whole. Tell us a little bit now and then what happened? How did you end up where you are now, which is nowhere near Buenos Aires, but what happened, how is your professional career going? And well, obviously if, if you also want any suggestion, this or idea or recommendation for the people who listen to us, then go ahead. See, in.
[00:28:05] Actually, I think that what has kept me in the company for so long is that I like challenges and I also like challenges, eh. Once I feel that things are already understood and very learned and become a bit routine, eh? That’s probably where I opt for another option, huh? No, I mean Argentina I think you never get bored, do you? There’s always, there’s always like a lot to learn, huh? But it coincided that the company was making a big move, that is, last year it was integrating, uh, the two divisions it had, the innovative medicines division and the oncology division into a single division, which was nothing new because that is how all pharmaceutical companies operate. But well, in the case of Novartis we still had two parallel structures and it was decided to combine them and there I was thinking about what I wanted to do as a next step and with what I shared with you, it will be clear to you that Latin America had already done that for many, many years and I thought I wanted to explore something totally different, eh? A lot of people asked me if I wouldn’t consider Asia, huh? And probably Asia for me was still like another step, huh? In many ways. But I did decide that I wanted to enter Europe in a different market. When I was offered Poland, eh? Obviously I had never imagined that I could live in Warsaw, eh? I had never even.
[00:29:31] Went to Poland before. Or if I.
[00:29:32] I had never been to Poland before, I didn’t even have it on my bucket list of places to visit on vacation. But when I was told about the challenge I said Well, why not? And well, we set out, eh? Last year, uh, we came from Buenos Aires.
[00:29:47] Aires a Polonia, de.
[00:29:48] Buenos Aires.
[00:29:49] To Warsaw.
[00:29:50] Although I no longer went through Mexico, uh Buenos Aires, Warsaw in what has been the truth, uh, another one.
[00:29:57] You are now leading. The entire country. Also that I was told that one of the things that you really get. You were attracted to an important challenge as a woman, as a professional after so many years at Novartis.
[00:30:08] No, no, no, no, I loved it because, well, I am like the representative of the group, they don’t call it Country President here, and I manage the whole division of innovative medicines, which is the result of these, uh, two units, eh? So it has been a discovery to face a culture very different from ours, eh? We are not going to talk much about Poles here, but I can say that Poland, eh. For those who don’t, they don’t know. It has a history, a very complicated country history and it is also reflected in the people, but it is a country that post eh? Your union to the European Union, uh, is modernizing and more or less that’s what we also want to do in the company, huh? So it’s been like we’re on a path, because I’m just going into my first year first, well, it was like establishing the team, right? That he’s working with me, huh? Basically pure Polish. It is also a country that is, like, trying to innovate. Eh, Poland is becoming the Center for Central Europe for many companies and many service hubs are establishing here in Warsaw, eh? This also gives us the ability to innovate. And I would say that on a personal level, uh, well, we are also learning to see, uh, things in a different color, right? Hey, first for the weather, right? The winter months were quite a challenge for us with so many gray days, eh? But I also have to say that spring, eh, it’s spectacular, isn’t it? Being in a country where the season is really so marked, eh? As always. Once you understand the culture and get closer to the people, you start to see also, not as its goodness, eh? The sincerity you Poles have, eh? And I would say that as a company, well, we are, like, very committed to making a change in the Polish healthcare system, uh I have already had the opportunity to sign some agreements with the government to do some programs together and hopefully, well, it will also be a very successful few years. For me to leave a legacy.
[00:32:15] I am not 100% sure that this will be the case, because of what I know of you and what you have done and your track record, I am sure it will be the case. And well, as you say, Poland is a very interesting country, isn’t it? Currently I see it from a logistics point of view, from other industries such as automotive, aerospace, technology. In other words, it is one of the fastest growing and most influential countries in Europe. It’s not a going to be interesting to see what happens and. And well, companies like Novartis and many others that are at the forefront of their industries. I think it’s going to be very interesting because they’re all tackling Poland, right?
[00:32:53] The truth is that I am impressed by the number of companies here. I well, the countries of Europe I knew and. Well, you who have been here, we have to say that Warsaw is an ultra-modern city, eh? Because of technology and I am sure that this country will be talked about a lot in the coming years, I have no doubt.
[00:33:13] Well, I totally agree with you and well, it is a source of pride that you are there as a Mexican, it is a source of pride that you are there as a woman leading a country, so obviously we wish you the best, the best of success. And changing the subject a little bit to close our interview and I’m going to change the question a little bit. If, if you could go back in time and not give advice to your younger self, but if you, 18-year-old Monique could give advice to you now, what would it be? So, what would you, Monique, tell yourself, 18-year-old Monique, that you could do differently today? I believe that.
[00:33:56] That Monique would tell me everything I learned as through all these years. And I would sum it up in three things one always follow your instincts and I know it’s easy to say, but hey, when I get complicated with some decision or other, I always say the stomach always knows or the heart has to do that first. Dos Never be afraid, eh? Never be afraid, because the truth is that life goes by fast and most decisions, as I said, while I understand that they have a resignation, you always have a way to recover. So fear cannot, cannot stop you. And I would also say to myself and, and I say this to women today, is don’t expect to always be included. Feel included, no matter where you are. And that’s for talking, eh? To go to a meeting eh? Like today when women have to work a lot, eh? Well, maybe the education we had at some point, the stereotypes with which we were marked. I always tell a story. Enrique. If me. If you tell me if you let me. Of course, of course. From one of the courses I took, they told me well, they told all of us women. It was not a leadership course and said we should be more like men.
[00:35:11] And I imagine and well, having studied in the same school, I remember the kids, a kid comes to the field, they are all playing soccer, basically he is taking off his shirt and says where do I join and gets on the field. But women, if there are two girls playing dolls, always come and say can I play? And if the girls say no, the girl leaves, right? So this concept of feel included, don’t ask permission and go. I think it is important because this behavior that I am describing of girls often happens in organizations, in companies, doesn’t it? Well there is a meeting but I was not invited, there is a town Hall and I am curious, but how am I going to ask him? I think it’s something that needs to be worked out and I probably wouldn’t just say it to Monique from age like very young. I say this today to all women and that we also support each other more, right? And that’s kind of my mission. If there is any woman or man that I can support with what I have learned and with what I have been capturing, then to share it and help others.
[00:36:15] Well Monique, thank you very much, it has been a pleasure to talk to you, it has been a pleasure to reconnect. Obviously you have my full support and that of my company and I am sure that the people listening to us today will be trying to connect with you. How can they? How can you contact Monique? How can they learn a little more about Novartis and the amazing culture the company has where they can get you?
[00:36:38] The easiest is on my LinkedIn profile. Hey, Monique Clua You’ll find me there. Can you send me a direct note telling me that you listened to the program? And I will channel them myself if they want, how to be contacted to the company’s pages. We have, uh, a global Novartis dot com page, huh? But if you want, as something specific to a particular country, I will gladly channel you.
[00:37:02] Monique, again thank you very much to everyone who listens to us. If you are interested in listening to talks like the one I had today with Monique, be sure to subscribe and again have a nice day and see you next time.
