Welcome to 2021

Dear Colleagues,

We are starting 2021 on the back of a very challenging 2020. The uncertainties that defined last year are still with us today. The restrictions that controlled the way we live and work still exist. We have every right to despair as the shadows of 2020 still linger in 2021.

Yet, I choose to be optimistic. I choose optimism not because I am naive or removed from the realities of today. I choose it because the story of humanity is one of survival and progress. During our lowest moments, we have always found the strength to sing, “We shall overcome.” We may not have chosen this life, but we can decide what to make of it. But optimism without action is just wishful thinking. Our goal this year must be to bring the optimism for a healthier future to Africa. People must say of mPharma as is said in Isaiah 42, “they renewed my strength, and made me soar on wings like eagles.”

To be the foundation of hope and optimism for a wretched society, each of us needs to be at the highest level of our performance. During the holidays, I read the book “No rules rules” by Reed Hasting, the Founder and CEO of Netflix. The question I sought to answer as I read the book was, “How can we continue to create a culture of high performance at mPharma?” Using a feedback mechanism prescribed by Reed called “Start, Stop and Continue,” I will share some practical steps to answer this question.

START setting the bar high in our approach to hiring. Like an elite university, only a few people who want to work at mPharma will get the chance to do so. I have made my fair share of mistakes in rushing to hire people to fill a role instead of waiting to find the best person. We should hire people with grit who are life-long learners. The number of positions we fill is a lagging and not a leading indicator of success. The best hires I have made were ones that did not start with me trying to fill a role. They happened when I engaged with talented people and had them tell me what role to create for them at mPharma. Even when I had a role in mind before talking to them, I always asked them to tell me what the job description should be. We need to build up our talent density in all departments at mPharma. Talented people set the bar higher than what is asked of them. Their performance is contagious and makes people on their team more effective.

How would we know that someone is a fit for mPharma? In his 1998 shareholder, Jeff Bezos poses three questions people should ask during hiring meetings.

1. Will you admire this person?
2. Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they are entering?
3. Along what dimension might this person be a superstar?

The sad truth is that most organisations lower their standards for hiring as they scale. Hiring becomes the end goal and not the start of a journey to create a team of high performers. Our standards must get higher as we grow. If it requires you to put in long nights to get the job done while you take the time to find the right person to join your team, do it. I promise you the pain will be worth the wait. When someone becomes a low performer, we need to let them go immediately. This leads me to the next point.

STOP treating performance reviews as a checkbox that needs to be ticked each quarter. Our current approach to performance management is not good. I plan to work with human capital to overhaul the process and make it more meaningful. Feedback should be provided consistently at a higher frequency. You should not do performance reviews because mPharma is asking you to. You should do it because you cannot afford to have your high performers leave. Managers need to ensure that they have the best person in every role on their team. Netflix uses a simple question called the “Keeper Test” to achieve this objective. The question is:

Which of my people if they told me they were leaving for a similar job at a peer company would I fight hard to keep at Netflix?

Employees also need to be proactive in getting feedback on their performance from their managers. It should be in your interest to know exactly what your manager thinks of your performance. Do they look forward to working with you every time they come to the office? Do they think of you when new opportunities are discussed? Netflix encourages employees to use the “Keeper Test Prompt” during their performance review discussions. The question you should ask your manager is, “If I were thinking of leaving, how hard would you work to change my mind?” There are employees at mPharma who have asked me this question, and I have worked hard to convince them to stay. You cannot succeed at mPharma by giving anything less than 100%.

We work in cultures were given direct feedback is often frowned upon. However, feedback at mPharma must be specific and actionable. As I wrote in my 2018 Welcome Letter — “You are a custodian of mPharma’s mission and values. We can only get better by keeping each other in check. Learn to take criticisms for what they are — an opportunity for improvement and not an attack on you. Those that offer criticisms should learn to be thoughtful in their delivery.”

I have started a quarterly talent review session to discuss who our top and weak performers are and develop actions to raise the performance bar. I encourage our Managing Directors to do this within their countries as well.

CONTINUE been passionately curious about innovating on behalf of patients. Curiosity is the mother of invention. Albert Einstein once said, “ I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” At mPharma, we have dared to bring many new services to life just by being curious. A recent example of this is our diagnostics business. I had no prior knowledge of molecular diagnostics. When I saw the Covid-19 testing challenges, I got interested in learning more about the field of molecular diagnostics. I made phone calls to laboratories to see how many of them had molecular diagnostics capabilities. When I found out none of them had it, I decided to learn more about the infrastructure needed to develop it. I then went out to build the partnerships to secure that infrastructure. This curiosity led to creating the first private molecular laboratory in Ghana to test for Covid. Today, advancing affordable molecular diagnostics in Africa has become an essential part of our work.

To be passionately curious, you have to be a life-long learner. A colleague once asked me at a town hall meeting, “what will let me ask an employee to leave mPharma?” My answer was simple — “when they stop learning.” It does not matter what level of experience you had before joining mPharma; you always need to have the desire to learn. We need to become an idea meritocracy. I want you to be able to turn your curiosity into experimentation. I encourage experimental failure. What I do not encourage is operational failure due to sloppy work and flawed thinking. What has helped me explore my curiosity is reading widely and writing down my thoughts in memos. In 2021, I encourage you to get into the habit of writing religiously.

Despite the difficulties, 2020 was a great year for mPharma. But personally, it was a challenging year for me. I lived under a constant state of anxiety so severe that I would sometimes go days without sleeping. I only got my anxiety under control by talking more openly and freely about my worries. Speaking and writing became my therapy. I know it may feel that no one else will understand the challenges you face. Most often, that is true. But I encourage you to find a talking buddy who will listen to your worries. 2021 will be tough; I encourage you to talk more openly and remain optimistic that better days lie ahead of us.

As I do every year, you will find below my 2018 Welcome Letter.

Onwards,

Greg!

Welcome to 2018

“Welcome back to the start of a new year. I hope your break was relaxing and entertaining. 2018 is a pivotal year for mPharma because we will transition from start-up mode to scale-up mode. I used my break to think about how we can go through this transition without losing our identity. In pursuit of this knowledge, I read “Principles,” a book by Ray Dalio, the Bridgewater founder. Bridgewater is the world’s largest and most successful hedge fund. The book got me thinking about how we can apply some of the principles that has made Bridgewater so successful to our own business.

As we start 2018, a lot more would be asked of you. We have set aggressive objectives and targets. How do we ensure that we continue to run a well-oiled machine? It always starts with the people. While you don’t need to be best friends with your co-workers, you need to cultivate meaningful work and meaningful relationships. It is much easier to achieve excellent results if you work with people you genuinely care about. Remember that you are part of a team and no matter how hard you work, if you are unable to build meaningful relationships with your colleagues, you will always be unhappy. When in doubt, escalate your concerns and issues to your manager and re-escalate to their managers if they don’t address your concerns. Silence is never a solution.

This brings me to an essential principle that we ought to embrace in 2018. mPharma needs to do better at becoming an idea meritocracy. Decisions should not be made based on who is the loudest or has the most seniority. Decisions should be based on which ideas are the best. I have always believed that while there is a wrong way to do something, there can be multiple right paths to take to achieve the same outcome. We shouldn’t be bogged down by what Ray Dalio calls the “Narcissism of Small Differences.” It occurs when you end up fighting over the small, inconsequential stuff and become enemies in the process when you agree on the big things. Healthy conflicts are needed if an organisation wants to thrive. But being strong-headed and always taking a “my way or the highway” approach to decision-making will be a recipe for disaster.

You are a custodian of mPharma’s mission and values. We can only get better by keeping each other in check. Learn to take criticisms for what they are — an opportunity for improvement and not an attack on you. Those that offer criticisms should learn to be thoughtful in their delivery.

As mPharma grows in size, new employees will look up to you to understand mPharma’s culture. They will embrace what you do and not what you say. Become a life-long learner by embracing curiosity. Listen more and speak less. It is okay to make mistakes but unacceptable to not learn from them.

In Amazon’s 2016 Annual Shareholder letter, Jeff Bezos wrote about the difference between Day 1 and Day 2 in a company’s life. Day 1 companies are always at the beginning of their potential, while Day 2 companies are in a state of irrelevance. We always want to be a Day 1 company. We can achieve this by obsessing over customer satisfaction and excellence in service delivery.

Welcome back. May 2018 be the best of our best years.”

Onwards,

Greg!