To be really great at what you do requires being focused on your purpose at all times, no matter what.
At Novartis we take our purpose very seriously – to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people’s lives and to transform the way patients live with cancer and related diseases. There is an expectation for us to deliver, because we’ve done it before. We are leading the way by tackling certain diseases with breakthrough, paradigm-changing innovations.
We are an organization that is focused, disciplined, motivated, and has clear goals. To achieve our mission, we need first to be clear on what it is and what we aspire to achieve. For this reason, we have established organizational priorities to shape our future and help us continue to create value for our company, our shareholders and society. Unwavering commitment is what allows us to deliver on our five strategic priorities.
The first priority is to unleash the power of our people. I am privileged to lead an incredibly talented team. Harnessing this talent to its full potential is what allows Novartis to be the very best at what we do in Canada and around the world. But what really elevates this team is the guts and heart they put into the work they do each day. They truly believe in what they do. This is a tremendous quality and, I would even say, the underlying reason we are successful as an organization. To maximize the power of this talent requires breaking down barriers and working in a different way to create an organization where people are inspired, curious and unbossed. To help the team thrive, we encourage employees to embrace agility in the workplace. Why? Because an agile team that is in control of its own environment is more productive and patients will benefit from this productivity in the long run.
In our pursuit to reimagine medicine, the team at Novartis is making significant progress on our priority to deliver transformative innovation. We are challenging medical paradigms and exploring possibilities to cure disease, intervene earlier in chronic illnesses, and dramatically improve quality of life. Whether it is in cell and gene therapy, neuroscience, cardiovascular, oncology or immunology, we are committed to finding innovative treatments and bringing them to patients.
Embracing operational excellence is a priority that underpins our decisions about how we work. It drives us to find ways to improve effectiveness and efficiency of our operations to free resources to invest in what matters – innovation.
Going big on data and digital is the priority that will help drive innovation and, above all, improve efficiency. We cannot ignore the surging use of data analytics and digital technology in science and healthcare and are embracing these tools and artificial intelligence across the company. Teams are leveraging the latest of these innovations to improve efficiency and effectiveness in key areas, including the drug discovery and development process, manufacturing and our commercial operations.
Build trust with society is a priority linked to our commitment to patients. It starts with our values and integrity as a company. Every Novartis employee is held to the highest ethical standards through a principles-based approach that ensures employees act in the best interest of patients, healthcare professionals and Novartis. When we bring new innovations to patients, we see the work through to the end. We aim to price our medicines responsibly based on the value they deliver to patients and to be part of the solution on pricing and access with programs designed to help make our treatments available.
Novartis also contributes to Canada beyond our medicines. In 2017, our activities in Canada added $1.69 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP) and supported an estimated 7,500 jobs beyond those of our own employees. This economic contribution is an important piece of the impact we have on society.
We live in an era of amazing medical innovation and it is an incredible time to be at Novartis. We are dedicated and do not stray from what really matters. We know that to truly improve and extend people’s lives we must keep our focus and remain true to our five priorities.