full4d12fcbf92f2d

october 2008 I Droplet 3

Droplet

employee magazine# 4 2008

‘‘

‘‘

The foundation

for our future is in place,

the strategy is ready

and now we are

moving forward.

Sofi e Kjærsgaard Hansensofi [email protected]

Maia Fredtoft Sø[email protected]

Lillian Lykke [email protected]

Editorial team

contents

Dako Denmark A/S Produktionsvej 42, DK-2600 Glostrup, +45 4485 9500

Reporter: Morten Andersen and Jack Jackson Graphic design & Production: Quote Grafi k Translation &

proofreading: Lingtech A/S Printer: Litotryk København Photo: Ulrik Jantzen and Morten Jerichau

Illustration: Nygårds Maria Front page: Ulrik Jantzen

The deadline for contributions to the next issue of Droplet is December 15th 2008.

Climbing Alpe d’Huez 3Rolf Ehrnström, CVP of R&D, on pharma partnerships and the acquisition of InstrumeC.

Some drugs need a buddy 4Learn more about companion diagnostics.

Dako Strategy: Leading the Way into the workfl ow era 6Corporate Management on the enhancement of the Dako strategy.

Dako Academy demos and trainings 8Do you know what Dako Academy offers? If not, you can learn much more here. Change of pace in Sales 10Dako’s sales managers are on Iceland to learn more about dreams, role models, positive attitude, morals, building relations, leadership and…

An American in Glostrup 14Is he American or Danish? It seems that he is unsure himself. Meet Benel Tønners Alexandre, an American or Danish researcher at R&D, Glostrup.

What makes you tick! 16Droplet has asked expert John Storm Pedersen to spill on value-based Manage-ment and explain what’s in it for us at Dako.

In brief 18Dako’s new CVP of RA/QA & HSE, Acquisition of InstrumeC, PharmDx™ Collabo-ration, Operations Strategy Workshop, Dako DuoCISH™ praised and Web Traffi c.

Do we care? 20 Three employees on the Dako value We care.

Portrait of Jørgen Andersen, Dako’s new HR chief 22 “There is nothing special about me,” claims Jørgen Andersen, Dako’s new CVP of HR. You decide, if he is right.


Climbing Alpe

We are writing about pharma partnerships in this edition of Droplet. Why are they of interest to Dako?“The pharma world is currently experiencing a very interesting development, where one sees advantages in coupling an assay with a specifi c type of medicine. All medicines do not act effectively on all patients, and, consequently, coupling with an assay is important. Talk about personalized medicine started in the 90’s, but it is fi rst now that we are starting to witness a slightly greater momentum. For several years, Dako has been a leader in the development of assays within this fi eld, where HercepTest™ is the most successful example. This is one explanation of why the medical industry is interested in partnering with us. Previously, many medical companies had a limited knowledge of diagnostics, but this has changed. Work is currently done in the early phases within many pharma companies, however, they acknowledge that they don’t have all knowledge and resources necessary to develop and commercialize an assay or a system. Therefore, the time is ripe for partnerships.”

How are things in R&D?”Our workfl ow strategy has meant that we’ve had a lot to do in R&D. We’re creating new infrastructure with new laboratories, buying new equipment, and introdu-cing a series of new processes to handle system development activities. Simultaneously, we also have to deliver new products – this has been a challenge, and we’ve been busy!”

“We’ve used a lot of effort establishing system develop-ment capabilities in Glostrup with many new people – we have a whole new Instrument Development Depart- ment and a new Software Development Department. These departments work in close collaboration with the System Integrations departments within R&D, but also in an intense way with all the other functions within Dako. The size and the complexity of some projects are larger than we previously were used to. Also the teamwork with Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain

and other functions has in particular grown much stronger. We now work more as a team throughout the entire company. It’s very positive.”

What are you facing right now?”We’re in the process of developing Next Gen, and, in addition, we’ve just bought InstrumeC in Norway. This means that we will take delivery of new instruments for H&E staining and cover slipping, but also that we will be integrating a new company into Dako. This is a very exciting task for us.”

What can the H&E stainer contribute to?”For a pathology laboratory to be successful, it needs to do things in a more effective manner, with high quality and at a favorable price. Dako offers IHC, ISH, special stains and image analysis, which all are part of a pathology lab’s workfl ow process. However, H&E staining is one of the more important parts of the total workfl ow, and at present Dako doesn’t offer such a solution. It’s a technique that the pathologist uses every day in order to provide a diagnosis. In 80% of cases, the pathologist doesn’t need anything other than the H&E staining to provide the diagnosis. With the acquisi-tion of InstrumeC, Dako now has the possibility of also providing this product. Our market analysis suggests that InstrumeC’s solution will be a highly competitive product, and, at the same time, it complements our workfl ow solutions offer in a good way. In conjunction with our price-per-slide model, this constitutes a new valuable business possibility for Dako.”

What other advantages are there in connection with the acquisition of InstrumeC?”We didn’t intend to develop an H&E instrument from scratch in the near future, so when the right opportunity turned up, we struck. With InstrumeC, not only have we acquired H&E staining and cover slipping, but also a new platform, which we can utilize in the development of our Next Gen. Now we have a framework to work from, which minimizes our risk.”

“It’s going to be a tough ride, but we will get to the top!”

d’Huez

4 Droplet I october 2008

Some drugs needa buddyCompanion diagnostics: As the volume of genetic information increases, ever more often will it be desirable to link a given drug to a diagnostic test, which reveals whether or not the patient is likely to benefi t from treatment.

BY MORTEN ANDERSEN, JOURNALIST

“So far we have managed never to fail.” On behalf of Dako, Sibylle Lenz, Director for Business Development, displays absolute confi dence when it comes to developing diagnostic kits for specifi c genes and proteins. Given this ability, it is an obvious path to develop-ing kits in the growing number of cases where the effi cacy of a drug is linked to a specifi c genetic profi le. This is done in partnership with pharmaceutical companies.

Take for example breast cancer. While viewed by laymen as one disease, health care professionals know that women with different genetic profi les will suffer from different types of breast cancer. A drug potent in treating one kind of breast cancer may prove ineffective against another type.

Triple win situationLinking a drug with a diagnostic test is generally known as companion diagnostics or pharmDx™. One could call it a triple win situation.

Most importantly, the patient should win. Instead of trial-and-error medi-cation, wasting valuable months, and imposing severe strain on the body while adding to medical costs, the patient can receive relevant therapy from the start.

The second winner is the drug manu- facturer. If a pharmaceutical company is developing a potent drug that is only effi cacious within a specifi c sub-group of patients, it is important only to investigate the drug within this subgroup. Otherwise, the result of the clinical trial and subsequent inter- pretation of the drugs usability will be inaccurate and potentially bring to a halt the development of the drug.

Thirdly, Dako itself will continue to expand the business areas for the company’s cancer diagnostic tests.

In principle, Dako might target any given gene or protein known to be linked to a specifi c cancer indication.

However, that’s not the way it works explains Sibylle Lenz, “The idea is to form partnerships with pharmaceutical companies while their drugs are still in clinical development. Under regulatory approval, the drug and diagnostic test should be marketed jointly to ensure correct and appropriate use.”

New partnership formedA new partnership has recently been formed between Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Dako. The purpose of this cooperation is to develop companion diagnostics for BMS’ oncology drugs, which currently are being developed for cancer indications with an unmet medical need.

It is important for Dako, in these kinds of partnerships, to have Dako’s re- search and development (R&D) experts on board from an early stage.

“It is diffi cult to give a standard development time for a new diagnostic test. The amount of time needed will


depend a lot on what is known already in the biology and the relation of the biomarker to the drug target,” explains Vice President of R&D at Dako North America, Rosanne Welcher.

“The selection of the best biomarker to predict patient response is usually determined in pre-clinical or early clinical trials by the pharmaceutical company. Dako has the challenge of fi nding or developing the most sen- sitive and specifi c biomarker to meet this need. This is the core of what Dako does best and why we are the partner of choice to pharma,” says Rosanne Welcher.

“Through our pharma partner we are able to have our biomarker validated in clinical trials”, she continues, while elaborating on the practical benefi ts from the partnership.

Understanding the biologyDako’s director of business develop-ment is confi dent that several agree-ments similar to the BMS partnership will be signed in the coming years:

“Keep in mind that Dako pioneered the fi eld of companion diagnostics over 10 years ago by being the fi rst company ever to develop and market a cancer companion diagnostic, HercepTest™.

Ever since, we have built on this ex- pertise and today we are one of the leading companies in the fi eld. As the number of drug candidates aimed for treatment of specifi c subgroups of cancer patients increases, our skills and technology platform will become ever more attractive to the pharmaceu-tical companies,” says Sibylle Lenz.

Many believe that the sky is the limit to personalized medicine, but Sibylle Lenz likes to keep her feet on the ground.

“If you look at traditional cancer therapy, companion diagnostics will never be relevant. In these therapies you aim at killing cancer cells – and typically kill a large number of non-cancer cells as well – but you do not have a specifi c genetic or protein target within the cell. Companion diagnostics are only relevant in the event that we under-stand the biology behind the disease,” she explains.

Needs a successful drugWhile a period of 2-4 years is realistic for developing a companion diagnos-tic test, Sibylle Lenz will not give an estimate as to when Dako’s next pharmDx™ test, resulting from a pharma partnership, will be available:

“As much as I would like to, I just can’t answer. We do know that we have a 100% rate of success when it comes to developing antibodies for specifi c genes and taking them into a reliable diagnostic test. However, we are depending on the fate of the drug candidate which our product is to companion. We generally enter the collaborations with the pharmaceutical partners in phase II of the clinical trials. In this phase, the drug candidate has a fair chance of becoming a drug, but still it may well fail due to reasons nobody could foresee. In that case, our product is out of business too.”

“Companion diagnostics offer great benefi ts to cancer patients and open up a whole range of new business opportunities to Dako. I am confi dent that we will succeed, but we have to accept that the time frame is less predictable compared to other projects,” sums up the director of busi-ness development.

NWftapp

Companion diagnostics

Patients seemingly suffering from the same disease may in fact need different treatment depending on their genetic profi le. Such individual treatment is generally known as personalized medicine. In order to practise personalized medicine, you need to be able to establish whether the patient has the genetic profi le relevant to the specifi c drug. This is known as companion diagno-stics. An example is Dako’s product HercepTest™. A positive test result will recommend for a breast cancer patient to be treated with Herceptin.


Dako Strategy: Leading the Way

workfl ow erainto the

With the addition of Annika Berg, CVP of RQ/QA & HSE, and Jørgen Andersen, CVP of HR, Dako’s management team is now in place. Read more about how Cor-porate Management is going to bring the new strategy to life and what their main priorities are. BY SOFIE KJÆRSGAARD HANSEN

We maintain the workfl ow focus in our strategy for 2008-2011. The strategy in short:

Turn-around time• Initiate correct therapy sooner

Quality improvements• Safety (correct patient identifi cation throughout the process)• Consistent, reliable results• Reduced inter-observer variation

Cost and productivity• Reduced turn-around time• Less total cost per test• Increased automation, reducing burden on the laboratory

Patrik: “The foundation for our future is in place and that makes it possible for us to move forward in a new pace. Our full focus is now on workfl ow and this together with the launch of signifi cant new products, regaining customer confi dence and taking back leadership will enable us to become the no. 1 expert in pathology workfl ow and the best and most competitive developer and supplier of solutions for cancer diagnostics. Our main priority for the coming years is to implement and execute on this new strategy.”

Jorge: ”Having the company strategy as a solid foundation, Operations has developed a full program for the planning period focusing on four strategic imperatives:

• Establish a cost-effective supply chain• Drive effi cient and reliable production• Promote organizational development• Develop supporting infrastructure and processes

The plan covers all aspects in which Operations needs to excel to enable the company’s success in delivering the strategy.”


Jørgen: “Our People & Organization strategy is fully aligned with the workfl ow strategy and is in general intends to ensure to ensure we have the right people with the right skills at the right time. In the nearest future we will fi nalize Dako’s transition into the new performance management system, create a more motivating incentives system (starting with Sales globally), develop Dako’s succession planning and talent management program and, fi nally, improve HR data fl ow and quality.”

Per T.: ”To make our strategy work its best and manage our business the best possible way, we need the proper internal systems and procedures to ensure transparency throughout the business. Transparency in our sales and customer follow up, transparency in our cost base and transparency in our cash fl ow management. Business intelligence tools and proactive con- trolling will be instrumental initiatives for improving transparency. We can contribute to the value creation in Dako by measuring and challenging the anchoring and execution of the strategy. We will take active part in establishing a clear link between the strategy and our day to day manage-ment. By being business integrated and by providing the right tools, our functions support the company by sketching a clear picture of where we are and how fast we are moving, and thereby, we can measure how well our strategy is working.”

Annika: ”Quality is all about meeting customer expectations. Compliance is crucial to the company in order to sustain the proven high quality in all of Dako’s products and services. Our goal is to make sure that we meet the requirements of the diagnostic market and fulfi ll Dako’s own high standards for managing quality. In the nearest future, we in RA/QA will focus on how we can drive product quality and how to implement a proactive and effective way of meeting the rapidly changing external regulatory environment.”

Per S.: ”Every day our sales team meet with our customers face to face showing them the benefi ts and competitiveness of Dako’s products and introducing the new line of workfl ow tools. Our goal is to convert even more customers to our workfl ow solutions. Dako’s new strategy involves a change of mind set both by our customers and by ourselves internally in Dako.”

Rolf: ”R&D’s most important task is to bring this strategy to life by develop-ing new cutting-edge products. This requires a full understanding of the challenges our customer’s face, full focus on what we do best at Dako and close relationships with partners that have complementing skills. The strategy also requires an expansion and refi nement of system develop-ment competencies and creating an infrastructure and improving processes that support our workfl ow strategy. We are also in the middle of developing our new instrument platform; Next Gen. That’s our main focus in R&D.”

Mats: “With continued launches of signifi cant new products, we are on the way to becoming the fi rst choice in the pathology labs world wide. The focus in Marketing is to drive a fl ow of constantly improving solutions for IHC, special stains, True Positive ID, pharmDx™ etc through life cycle management but also to generate professional material, sales support tools and other marketing efforts highlighting the advantages of Dako’s workfl ow offering. The Dako solutions will help pathology customers to radically improve their quality, turn-around time and productivity through Dako partnership and solution deployment. In the upcoming years, we should add professional services to complete our workfl ow offering that combine our excellent customer and technical support, instru-ment service and training possibilities with additional areas of services needed to connect fully with the customers as a true partner in pathology.”


Dako

demos and trainingsAcademy

Dako Academy in Glostrup, Denmark, is one of two training centers within Dako. The lab is fully equipped and designed to offer demos and trainings for European and APEx customers within workfl ow solutions, True Positive ID, AutostainerLink, ACIS III, Artisan, molecular pathology, PharmDx™ and manual IHC.

BY SOFIE KJÆRSGAARD HANSEN

In conjunction with sales of Dako systems, Dako Academy offer customer application trainings. The goal is to ensure that our customers acquire the knowledge they need, and feel confi dent in using Dako products once they return to their confi dent.

Dako Academy also perform customer demos and VIP visits on request. Hence, Dako Academy has hosted a demo for approx. 70 guests within the past year.

Training of Dako staffAs new products are being launched, Dako Academy offers application trainings for European Application Specialists so the countries are able to support their customers once the products have been launched.

Dako Academy also offers recurrent trainings for Application Specialists, both for newly hired and experienced staff. In this way, new personnel will apidly obtain a certain familiarity with our most important products, and the experienced employees will be up-to-date with new features.

Training for new sales people is also one of the recurrent events. This three-day will involves an run-through of the most important products.

All trainings vary between presentations, demos, hands-on sessions and practice reviews, all focusing on the pathology work-fl ow.

From September 2007 to September 2008 about 380 guests visited the lab in the Dako Academy.



Change of pace

in Sales It’s like being at a sports ground,

where the training aimed at achieving qualifi cation for the upcoming world championship has only just started. The players are ready. The atmosphere is optimistic. The coaches are in position. The team’s external coach is on the ball. New match and attack strategies must be learned. Among other things, it’s all about sweeping the opposition off the playing fi eld.

But fi rst and foremost, the players have to deliver exceptionally good results, which live up to the “spectators’” (read: customers’) expectations and satisfy their needs for goal-oriented investments, for saving time, money and creating value in the pathology laboratories – all this with the express purpose of delivering rapid, precise and correct cancer diagnoses.

The room reverberates with words such as: ”Number one, change of pace, winning teams, role models, leadership etc.”

On Iceland, it bubbles and steamsWell now, we’re not at an exotic trainingcamp with the soccer team’s potential medal boys, rather we’re located some few miles outside Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavik. The sky is covered by heavy, grey clouds and it’s windy, yes, almost stormy. The temperature is around 46 degrees Fahrenheit outside, although we’re still in August. The program is comprehensive, and the hotel’s conference room fi lled with sales and country managers. On account of Dako’s Sales Manager Meeting, the room has been transfor-med into a strategy and training room. Only a single evening excursion to the hot spring resort, The Blue Lagoon, reminds us that we’re located on a bubbling, steaming and active volcanic island.

Per Sjöberg, CVP of Sales, bids welcome to the working session in Reykjavik, and states that he has ascertained that Dako’s new strategy works, and that feedback from the


Dako’s sales managers are on Iceland. Beneath them, the volcanic island’s interior is sizzling, bubbling and steaming. The geysers spout a gush of hot water and steam. The sales work at Dako is rapidly moving into a whole new era.

BY LILLIAN LYKKE ANDERSEN

market is positive. The challenges in the immediate future will involve building up a professional sales force comprising winning teams, which are capable of identifying customers’ unfulfi lled needs and addressing relevant solutions.

”In Sales we want people who love asking questions. And we want managers capable of exercising leader-ship, which ensures that the sales people change their behavior. And then we want to reward outstanding performance,” says Per Sjöberg.

Leadership in sport and in DakoSven Jensen, from Sweden, a profes-sional coach for 35 years, is invited to draw on his experiences as a sports coach in both Sweden and the US. He is to present several new words such as dreams, role models, positive attitude, morals, building relations/teams and leadership. He has been asked to pass on some of his coaching tools from the world of sports to Dako’s sales

managers and inspire them in their day-to-day leadership of both them-selves and their employees.

And why so? Well, because good leadership is about getting people to grow with the challenges.

”Don’t see people as who they are,but as what they can become.” SvenJensen starts off by saying that, ”coaching is about getting people to reach further than they thought they could,” and continues, “You cannot win all the fi ghts, but you can move forward if you can imagine what you want.”

He calls examples to attention that indicate that it often improves the results list on turning negative thoughts into positive energies, which is a good starting point for the next success. Sven Jensen urges the participants to get rid of possible inner critical voices, like, for example ”You just cannot do it!” or ”Who do you think you are?”, and recommends managers to focus on

possibilities instead of limitations. As a coaching manager, one can inspire employees to move beyond their comfort zones and risk their own skin a little more.

“Good leaders are responsible for creating teams. Among other things, it’s about building relations, creating a secure environment, allowing people to take new chances and risks. The fundamental values in processes such as these are trust, respect, responsibi-lity, and acceptance of one another. You cannot skip any of them,” Sven Jensen underlines.

Sven Jensen concludes his generous initiative with a good piece of advice to sales managers. He states that good leaders make sure that their employees are on the team. The employees should ”do something”, not ”have something to do.” “As coach, you cannot motivate, but you can inspire.”

›


Number one Patrik Dahlén, CEO at Dako, has also made the trip to Iceland. He starts his welcome speech by taking stock of the fi rst half of 2008, and saying that he is pleased with Sales’s performance in the fi rst half, and adds that “we are moving in the right direction, however we need to change pace and increase our growth rates to reach our goal for 2008.” “We want to be number one,” he says “and to be number one we need to grow faster in the future.”

”We want to convert our customers to our workfl ow solutions and we want to do the conversions early.” ”He also points out that, ”we have to get better at selling new products, so we can improve our growth rates. In the long

run, we need to focus on how we want to improve the service to our custo-mers.” He adds that it is important that the growth targets are fulfi lled and emphasizes that we must improve our way of running the Dako business, by using analyses, statistics and data. Patrik Dahlén concludes his welcome speech to the sales managers by saying; ”I want you to really impress me.”

Ask, ask, ask . . .Brian Naidoo, VP Sales Europe, pre- sents what he calls a prequalifi cation tool for completing accounts. The purpose of the tool is to highlight customer issues and costs that have not been thought of, and that measures the account across all stakeholders in

the hospitals. He says that, “it is important that we behave professio-nally and with determination in regard to our sales activity, and that we, in every single instance, prepare a business case“.

”Don’t just try to sell products – identify the customer’s pains. This can be accomplished if we adopt an inquisi-tive and scrutinizing attitude towards our work as sales people. We must collaborate with customers in another way than what we traditionally have done at Dako. We have to learn an entirely new inquiry technique. We must be able to ask open questions, disclose, identify, and ask further questions at a deeper level, for only in this way do we become reliable

And why so? Well, because good leadership is about getting people to grow with the challenges. ...


collaborators, and address relevant product and workfl ow solutions to the customers,” says Brian Naidoo.

“Speeding up conversion of competi-tive accounts, we have to learn from our experiences,” Ferran Prat, VP Sales, North America, says. “If we have had no sale that day, it hasn’t been a good day,” he states. “We have to score the winning goal!” During that session many of the attending managerscontributed to solving the problem.

The Devil is in the detailIt is a high spirited Jacob Thaysen, newly appointed VP of Global Sales Operation (GSO), who introduces the global organization. It must support the entire sales organization with con- tinuously improved transparency,

structured processes and an analyti-cal approach to the decision-making process. Among other things, the GSO organization must contribute to ensuring a more well-orchestrated go-to-market strategy and an improved implementation of new products within the local nation- wide organizations. GSO comprises a sales strategy group, a sales implementation group, and a sales analysis group.

The importance of the new GSO organization is emphasized by Per Sjö- berg’s, CVP of Sales, closing remark to the GSO presentation. “The devil is in the detail. We as managers need to be more informed. We have to get the reporting level up and to provide day-to-day sales data to account managers, regional managers and

country managers. It is not a question of a back offi ce problem, but one of managerial responsibility.”

Openness and commitmentThree very intense and effective days are over. A large portion of sales support tools have been marketed. Among others, People & Organization present a Sales Development Tool kit, a Solu- tion Selling Training Portal and a pro- posal to The Dako Way Behaviors. Product Marketing also contributes with input, which should make life easier for Dako’s sales people. The work within the many workshops has been marked by openness, earnestness, and sincere intentions to discuss the future’s sales challenges.


An Americanin GlostrupBY SOFIE KJÆRSGAARD HANSEN


”The Danes are not good at receiving foreigners – unless of course you’re a princess. At any rate,

things have gone very well for me, but then at Dako, we’re also pretty ethnic.” The words come from Benel

Tønners Alexandre, a researcher at R&D.

With an American background, a stay in Israel of longer duration, and a potential Danish citizen-ship, it’s a bit of a cosmopolite sitting opposite me. Benel Tønners Alexandre has a degree in Biochemistry from University of Copenhagen, so the road to Dako was no surprise, even though the Biochemist was somewhat surprised to discover that Dako was not exclusively a producer of antibodies.

A motor”It was really great to discover that Dako makes entire workfl ow solutions, because this is exactly the type of work I fi nd exciting. After all, R&D is the motor in a business like this one, as it is the products and solutions developed at R&D that drive Dako forward. It’s great to be a part of this.”

Benel has barely one year behind him under the aegis of Dako, where he has worked as a researcher at System Development, or, as he says himself:

”I’m more of a product developer than a typical researcher. Up until now, I’ve worked in Helle Grann Wendelboe’s team and have primarily developed and validated one instrument at the time, but soon I’ll be moving over to Workfl ow Application, which is Dave Stanforth’s depart-ment, and there we’ll be validating complete solutions. It’s going to be incredibly exciting and also very challenging. I think there are many possibilities for personal development in Dave’s department,” Benel Tønners explains.

The daily grindEveryday life at Dako consists of teamwork, independent work and a lot of work in the laboratory. “I am one of the few academics, who’s actually working in a laboratory on a dailybasis. Teamwork is important to me – of course, depending on whom I get to work with,” says Benel with a smile, and continues, “Recently, I was in Sheffi eld, UK in order to test the beta version of True Positive ID together with a Danish

colleague, and the collaboration was good, the visit worthwhile; we got some good pointers about TPID to take back home,” explains the American or the Dane. Confused? We ask:

Do you consider yourself to be Danish or American? ”I have lived in Denmark for 11 years, so I have long felt myself as very Danish, but after having started at Dako, I suddenly feel very American again. It’s actually a bit strange!”

Beautiful diversityWe have to hear more about this: “It’s probably something cultural. I didn’t know that there was such a big difference between being American and Danish, however, it dawned on me after starting here. It’s hard to explain, but in Den-mark, for example, there is a great gap between work and leisure time. I’ve been out with colleagues many times; only on one occasion did Danes join us. For me, the fact that there is such a great diversity in peoples’ nationality at Dako is clearly a plus. I enjoy working with Finns, Swedes, Americans, Tunisians – you name it. It allows one to get a better insight into things. For instance, if one looks at Danish commer-cials, then everything is the same, because the advertising industry only consists of Danes. Diversity contributes to creating inspiration and motivation at Dako.

What otherwise motivates you in your work?”It’s fun to be out in the fi eld, but until now I have only been there once. I like meeting our customers, sales people, and not least our application specialists. It creates a good feeling of purpose.”

And speaking of purpose, are there one or more of Dako’s values that you identify with?“Quality, that’s our trade. It’s what keeps our customers satisfi ed and, at the same time, also contributes to taking us a step ahead. We care! – Of course we do. We’d like to save the world!”

Benel Tønners Alexandre, Researcher in R&D.


What


makes you tick!

”Values are no good, before one discovers what they mean in practice for the employee and the managers.” It is straight talk coming from the expert, John Storm Pedersen, about value-based management.

BY SOFIE KJÆRSGAARD HANSEN

About half a year ago, The Dako Way was introduced, whereby Dako embodied mission, vision and values. That was the starting point for value-based management. Droplet has contacted John Storm Pedersen, who is Associate Professor in Management and Organization at Roskilde University, to hear more about the subject. And to learn in what way it can contribute to giving satisfaction to employees and managers. John Storm gets straight to the point:

”Value-based management is a kind of buzz- word. In my opinion, one cannot speak of value-based management and non-value-based management. All businesses have values, one just calls it something else, for example, culture or spirit in the company. However, one can say that when a company has made a conscious decision that a series of selected values will be governing for behavior and decisions, then one has a value-based management.”

OK, we know something about that, but if all businesses have values, then what’s the point?“The point is fi nding the right values, which truly make a difference for people, since this can create great satisfaction within the company. One can also, for example, have bad values in a business that are centered on

feathering one’s own nest, or not helping one another,” the professor explains and continues;

“There are three things that are of crucial importance when it comes to values. First, they must make the employees and manage-ment take responsibility. Second, the values must be comprehensible, and fi nally, they mustn’t be too broad in scope. Studies show that it is particularly ordinary virtues such as loyalty, sincerity, being a good human being and having a positive outlook that employees identify as their values. The scope can quickly become very broad, so the task lies in con- cretizing them, so that they are understanda-ble and applicable.”

With values such as: We move, we care, we deliver and we are passionate about quality, we can also nod in recognition of the broad values. How do we concretize them?”Recently, I have introduced a new set of values within Aalborg Township. Here, we used a long time just identifying the values. That was the fi rst step. The next thing was to test the values on management and the employees.”

Testing?”Yes, we set up cafés, where managers, middle managers and employees could meet to discuss values, and then we drew up ques-tionnaires in order to ascertain whether the managers had adopted the values; because one cannot talk about values in a business if the managers don’t live them. When one has values that have been approved at the top level, one way or the other, they have to be disseminated to the entire business. It works both ways.”

John Storm Pedersen continues: ”One has to work at making everyone speak about the same thing. If one looks at your value: We are passionate about quality, then I’m pretty sure that it will be perceived differently by a sales manager and by a laboratory assistant in R&D. The manager will construe a good sale as quality, whereas a laboratory assistant interprets quality as a good staining.”

“The task lies in making everyone speak the same language. Moreover, it is of course a debate that never must cease; a fi re that must never be extinguished, so to speak. Because, with the passage of time, values will always change, and this is something the business has to refl ect to keep the employees content.”


In briefWelcome to Dako’s new CVP for RA/QA & HSE Annika Berg is Dako’s new Corporate Vice President for Global Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance and Health, Safety & Environment. Annika Berg, a Swedish citizen, comes from a position as Head of RA/QA at GE Healthcare Life Sciences. Read more about AnnikaBerg in the upcoming issue of Droplet– January 2009. (mfs)

Acquisition of InstrumeC fi nalized

Dako’s acquisition of the Norwegian company InstrumeC was announced in a global press release published in August. InstrumeC, a company of fi ve employees and an extensive external network, has more than 15 years' experience in the innovation, design and production of cover slippers and H&E stainers. The acquisition means that Dako can now integrate H&E staining in Dako’s overall workfl ow solution. All tests done in pathology laboratories must go through H&E staining, also known as "routine staining", before any cancer diagnosis can be made. (mfs)

PharmDx™ Collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb

Dako has entered into collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) to develop pharmacodiagnostic tests intended to identify patients more likely to benefi t from treatment with certain investigational cancer drug candidates under development by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dako’s tests will be developed as companion products to BMS’ investigational therapeutics. Pharmacodiagnostics are increasing in demand with the recognition that personalized medicine may provide a way to improve patient care and manage healthcare costs by targeting treatments to individuals who are more likely to benefi t from specifi c therapies. (mfs)

Global Operations Management Strategy Workshop

We have already taken the fi rst step to roll out the strategy in the Operations organization. On September 2 and 3, all Operations Managers, under the theme ”Think, Strategize, Execute”, participated in the fi rst Global Opera-tions Management Strategy Workshop, held at Marienlyst, Denmark. The purpose of the strategy workshop was threefold: 1. Provide all Operations managers

with a general insight into the Corporate and Operations strategy plans

2. Allow the team to perform an in-depth analysis of Operations’ strategic focus areas and provide valuable input to be used for refi ning the plan and moving it into the implementation phase

3. Create engagement and ownership of the strategy

As a result of excellent group sessions, well-crafted analyses per focus area were presented, which now will be used for further refi nement of the plan.We are now ready to move on to the execution phase. (skh)


Web Traffi c: This Is How Popular We Are During Summer

As expected, the decline in visitors to Dako’s websites during the summer holidays in Europe was quite signifi cant. Compared to an average Tuesday in mid-June with 850 unique visitors, Dako only had 612 on Tuesday during the last week of July. This was the second least visited week in 2008 in Europe (Easter Week in Europe being the least visited). With August visits down by 3% compared to July, September is the month when visits are expected to pick up again.

Totals (Worldwide) for the month of August • Unique Visitors: 30,499.• Visits: 38,510.• Page Views: 281,094.

In other words: 30,499 different people came to visit 38,510 times and looked at more than 281,094 pages during August. (MarCom Newsletter)

Dako DuoCISH™ praised in Award Winning Poster

The laboratory technicians, Marianne Pedersen (Dept. of Pathology, Roskilde Hospital, Denmark) and Birgitte Bruun Rasmussen (Dept. of Pathology, Hilleroed Hospital, Denmark), won a convincing fi rst prize at the 28th World Congress of Biomedical Laboratory Science in New Delhi, India, this August.

The two laboratory technicians presented their work, comparing the FISH pharmDx™ method to the DuoCISH method for detection of the human HER2 gene. Their poster concludes an almost perfect agreement (99 %) between the FDA approved HER2 FISH pharmDx™ method and dual color CISH method when assessment of HER2 gene status (amplifi ed/not amplifi ed) was performed.

The poster states that the CISH method with its benefi ts, such as morphological features, bright fi eld microscopy, and stable chromogen signals, seems to be a good alternative to the FISH method. (mfs)

Dako Creates Global Commercial Operations Function

New Senior Vice President of Global Commercial Operations Appointed.

A Global Commercial Operations function (GCO) is being established. The GCO will be dedicated to driving and supporting growth and commercial performance across Dako. The GCO will work closely together with other functions in Dako, especially Global Sales and Marketing.

To lead the new GCO function, Jacob Schambye will join Dako as Senior Vice President of Global Commercial Operations, reporting to Patrik Dahlén, CEO. Jacob Schambye brings extensive experience in sales and marketing management, in shaping and driving aggres-sive growth strategies, as well as in leading major change programs. Most recently, he was head of Global Sales in GN Netcom, a 2.5bn DKK high tech com-munications company. Jacob is Danish, 38 years old, married, and has two children. (skh)


Do we care?

Three employees answer the question: What does ‘We care’ mean to you?


BY LILLIAN LYKKE ANDERSEN

A short word with tremendous meaning“’We care’, a short word that carries huge meaning. In my native language, it is almost impossible to translate it in one single expression. It’s hard to say what it means, you have to feel it and live it, and since I joined Dako 8 months ago, I’ve been feeling and living it daily.

When customers have strange issues, when they are obsessed with what we consider as less relevant issues, it would be easier to let go, to take time and hope that they would forget the question. But this is not the Dako Way, because we care. We try to put ourselves in the customer’s shoes and to fi nd the right answer every day.

Dako cares for patients and we demon-strate this by providing the appropriate solutions which shorten the time to diagnosis and infl uence the accuracy of the diagnosis itself. All the effort that has gone into the RTU’s project was aimed to ensure that there are no false positive or false negative results, and involves a very immediate means of use.

Dako cares for its employees as well. As I said before, I’ve been working for Dako for a short time. For a new employee, the main expectation is to obtain the right tools in order to be able to work in the best possible way and learn in the shortest possible time. I came from a completely different sector and therefore, it was even more important to me to be trained quickly and effi ciently. I got what I needed and I’ve felt CARED for!

We are not a perfect company yet, we still have to improve certain things. Sometimes, I feel that communication takes a complex route, and that a few details may be lost along the way. We,

as application specialists, need all the possible details about our products, our instruments, our solutions in order to be able to care for customers and patients thoroughly.”

Carlotta Dell'Agnello, Application Specialist Pathology, Italy

We impact people’s lives“The phrase we care means that when anyone comes to us or to me personally, with a concern or an idea, they automatically and respectfully deserve a thoughtful response that directly addresses their immediate need. Caring for sick patients embo-dies this idea in that if you do not give the appropriate and direct response, in most cases the patient will not get well. Caring is directly connected to healing in mind. Taking care of each other is probably the most important thing we can do.

I manage training, technical support and applications specialist depart-ments, which comprises Customer Care in the US. I try to get the pointacross that the information that comesfrom Dako will affect someone’s lifeeither directly or indirectly. Imagine that one’s family is on the receiving end of our recommendations.

There are so many things outside our control, playing a crucial part in getting the diagnosis correct or identifying the right disease model with our testing systems, we can never discount theintegrity of the answers we give to ourselves and to external customers.

Living this value is a continous process. Being extremely mindful of what your contribution will be down the line from your actions can help keep Dako on

the appropriate course of living this value.”

Gale Pace, Manager, Training and Technical Support, Carpinteria, USA

It’s a Dako trade”The choice of ”We Care” as one of Dako’s fundamental values is a very strong one. We send a signal that our customers are not just some people we earn money on and live off. No, it actually means a lot to us to get close to our customers, to understand them and their needs. Yes, we would gladly get right out to the patients and contribute to infl uencing their quality of life by ensuring them a safe and quick diagnosis, and thereby increasing the possibility for correct treatment in time.

For me, it’s just as important that ”We care” also gains a great signifi cance for our way of working internally. A workplace, where the individual employee is concerned about both the business and colleagues is a really good starting point for a good working environment. We must be concerned about each other and take one another seriously. In a changing organization with great demands, it makes a difference if one surrounds oneself with colleagues that care about one, and feel like taking the time for a personal chat when the need arises.

If we as employees really adopt ”We care” as a central value in our way of working with each other, I believe that we as a company will be in a much stronger position. Our customers will be able to sense this.”

Malene Gundestrup,Director, Supply ChainGlostrup, Denmark



Portrait of Jørgen Andersen

Dako’s new Human Resources

chief Jørgen Andersen learned one of his most important lessons in leadership and human resources from the battlefi eld. He’s Dako’s new CVP for People & Organization. Many years ago, he worked for the Danish Air Force.

BY JACK JACKSON, JOURNALIST

The leadership stuff“It was at a time when Denmark began sending soldiers to war zones,” says Jørgen. He trained personnel in leadership development. “When some of our colleagues came back from a mission, we asked them, ‘What about all this leadership stuff? Does it hold water when the bullets are fl ying?’ They said that whenever it was obvious that their platoon comman-der didn’t know what to do, it created anxiety. They didn’t care whether it was riskier going one way or another. They just wanted to go. Just standing there, not going anywhere, was also a risk.

“That was quite a lesson for me,” he explains. “As long as managers make a decision – even though it might be a wrong decision – I can live with that. It’s much more frustrating if managers just stand around, doing a lot of thinking but doing ›

D“There is nothing special about me,” claims Jørgen Andersen, 44, who comes from Copenhagen, Denmark. After 12 years “trying more or less everything possible” in the Danish Air Force, he began working at FLSmidth, a global cement and mineral industries producer. He spent seven years in human resources, starting an Internal Leadership Academy and establishing HR functions in India and the US, only to mention some of his achievements. He moved on to become Director, Training and Development in Dong Energy in 2005. “And now I’m here,” he says with a smile.

On the home front, he has been married for 23 years – to the same woman, he points out. “Yeah, yeah, that’s amazing, isn’t it?” They have three kids, all teen-agers. In his spare time, he plays badminton or fi xes up the family’s home from 1950. “It seems like something is always falling apart on it,” he says.

nothing. Of course,” he adds, “You must make a reasonable decision and naturally, you will use your team to assist in this, but at the end of the day, you must act.”

Being readyJørgen Andersen is ready to act. Re- laxed, dressed casually in a lime green golf shirt, he points to one of the few things he has hanging in his nearly empty offi ce, a poster of the Dako strategy 2008-2011. “This is the journey we’re setting out on over the next three years,” he says. “We can do it. And our people are the most important thing we have. They are the ones realizing this vision. If HR doesn’t care about people, then it’s hopeless.”

In his previous job at Dong Energy, an integrated energy/utility company based in Denmark, Jørgen was hired to help merge Dong Energy from six companies into one that covered the whole energy value chain.

One Dako team“That was a cultural challenge,” he said. “Each company was unique, they had their own culture, but we needed to become one company, and at the same time maintain the uniqueness of each individual com-pany. We needed to understand and respect each company, all the way down to each individual person. We all had to see the benefi t of working together in order to be able to pull off larger scale projects than we could have previously handled alone.

“It’s the same challenge here,” he says. “To become a united Dako team. We’re in different countries, and we also have our different cultures, say, in R&D, and Production and Sales. We therefore really need – even more so – to see the benefi ts of working together cross-

border, cross-site and cross-depart-ment. This way, we’ll gain even more respect for each other and manifest even more passion for our mission to fi ght cancer.”

Bring it onIn addition to focusing on bringing together Dako, to work as one team, Jørgen initially plans to fi nalize Dako’s transition into the new performance management system, create a more motivating incentives system (starting with sales globally), develop Dako’s succession planning and talent management program and, fi nally, improve HR data fl ow and quality.Despite all this, Jørgen describes himself as focusing much more on people than on processes in his HR work.

“I’m all for clear and open communica-tion. I’m quite simple. What you see is what you get,” he says, while swinging boxing movements. “That’s the way it is.”

Who is Jørgen Andersen?

Documents

full4d12fcbf92f2d