A Leader Learns from Leaders
Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company and leader in diabetes care. Their more than 90 years of innovation in diabetes care enables them to serve people facing other serious chronic conditions, including rare bleeding disorders, growth hormone-related disorders, and obesity. They market their products in 180 countries. Novo Nordisk is headquartered in Denmark and employs approximately 41,000 people in 75 countries. In 2015, the company generated more than $16 billion in revenue.
During her tenure at Novo Nordisk, Camille Lee rose from a sales representative to overseeing all U.S. marketing in two of the company’s flagship categories – diabetes and obesity. Lee describes the demands of being a senior leader in a complex and competitive field where meaningful guidance and mentorship don’t come from a textbook or a conference. While at Novo Nordisk, Lee reached outside of her company and traditional learning opportunities to gain insight from the GLG Institute, a community of accomplished executives who accelerate their success through individual and group conversations. In this video, Lee discusses the value of hearing from peers facing the same challenges in their professional lives.
Transcript
My name is Camille Lee, and I’ve worked for Novo Nordisk now for over 31 years – my entire career. My first job was right out of college. Being in the field as a sales representative was the greatest learning experience that I had for my success today. I’m the Senior Vice President of marketing for diabetes and obesity.
When I moved into more of a leadership role, my journey in learning had to evolve and I needed to engage with other leaders to gain new insights. With the GLG Institute, it’s unique for me because I’m involved with people that are executives and have had the experience as executives. People are very open, and they’re very honest, and they’re willing to share their mistakes as well as sharing their successes.
And both of those are important for us as leaders to know how to navigate through. The healthcare industry is changing faster than we’ve seen it in several decades. No person is so smart that they have all the answers and people who have lived through a journey are better able to give you insights and learnings that you can capture than the smartest person from a textbook or an academic environment.
That’s a nice connection to have because then you have a partner and a month from now when I have a challenge I’ve been faced with I can make a contact and say, “Hey what’s your thought on that? Can you help me? Can you give me a new perspective?”
It’s a great network. It’s a great learning environment.