T

he young Evie Yulin wanted to help others. She considered becoming a doctor, but her fear of blood prevented her from pursuing medicine. After graduating from high school, she opted for the next best thing — pharmacy — as her field of study.

It is only through working in a pharmaceutical company that she has come to understand the dynamics of the industry — the aspects that excite her and keeps her involved.

“Drugs and diseases have to run after one another. Sometimes a disease runs faster than a drug and sometimes the drugs lag behind. For example, when an antibiotic is not in use at the right time, or is not developed well, then it won’t be functional and almost all bacteria can become resistant to it,” said Evie, who heads Merck Serono, a pharmacy unit of PT Merck Indonesia.

“The dynamics have made me increasingly interested in health, medical treatment and drug development. One of the rapid developments in pharmacy is biotechnology [biotech] products, such as products for cancer and fertility treatment.”

Evie, 44, has been in the pharmaceutical industry for almost 20 years and has held several managerial positions at multinational pharmaceutical companies. In June 2010, she joined Merck Serono as a director. Merck Serono headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, and Geneva, Switzerland. Evie is in charge of ethical drugs, starting from marketing, sales, commercial excellence, and medical and regulatory aspects.

Changes have taken place in the company, especially in human resource development, in the past two years. “Now I have a supportive team. They can accept changes totally different from the past. They have become more creative.”

Merck Serono also has a medical team, regulatory team and supporting excellence team.

“The medical team acts as ‘police’ so that there are no violations of the code of conduct, while the regulatory team ensures that drugs can be marketed after receiving approval from BPOM [Food and Drug Supervisory Agency],” she said.

One of the pharmaceutical industry’s major roles is to educate doctors about the drugs that it produces, explaining developments, indications and potential side effects. “We also run continuing medical education and workshops,” she said.

Therefore, having the right person in the right job-based team is vital for Merck Serono to achieve optimal performance and commensurate high revenue targets.

“My team comprises several doctors and with ‘the right man on the right job’; the strategy that we set can be executed well because my team members are knowledgeable about the issues,” she said

In setting the right project strategy, Evie implements a bottom-up management style because, according to her, each team member has his or her own strengths.

“I first listen to their aspirations and input and then embrace them before making a summary action plan and arriving at the execution. They are the front liners that know the real conditions in the field,” she said. “Teamwork will provide better results rather than a thought coming from just one person.”

A top-down approach will be used only if the bottom-up approach ends in a bottleneck. “But this will be done after listening to aspirations. In this way, I get more trust from them [subordinates and colleagues],” Evie said.

Coaching
On the subject of employee performance, Evie disclosed her preference for coaching.

“Coaching digs up the real problems and the root causes of problems before seeking an action plan,” she said. “For employees with poor performance, they should be given more intensive coaching to make them aware that they have an area of improvement in A, B or C, and we try to improve them, but not through direction.

“By asking them to think together to set an action plan, their mind will be sharpened and they will be involved, plus they get buy in.” It also involves challenging employees beyond their usual scope of work.

“For good performers, I usually give them a project base because a project is very good on-the-job training. For example, for a senior product manager, I will give him something beyond his job desk. From there, we help him because he performs a responsibility beyond his daily job. The possibility of promoting them will be much easier because they have implemented a project,” she said.

They are also trained in the skills to lead a meeting. “We have an internal discussion once a month through which they are trained to be a coordinator. The discussion also serves as leadership training.”

 Evie’s must-do activities when it comes to external matters includes dealing with doctors, promoting and educating new products to doctors and assisting them in educating patients.

A job in the pharmacy industry is more than just an office job.

“We have to spend part of our time meeting with different people. I have to deal directly with doctors and patients. I have to meet with doctor associations, stakeholders, representatives from the Health Ministry and the BPOM. Discussions with different parties often give me inspiration to assist them in educating patients and to propose possible production of drugs,” she said.

“As a consequence, I have to keep learning and to keep abreast with the development of health, drugs and diseases. I acquire a great deal of new knowledge almost every day, and this encourages me to keep updated. That is why I have to read a lot. That’s the side of my job that I like,” she said. “Because doctors are clever people, I have to be scientifically ready.”

The most challenging task is “we have to meet the needs of our targeted audience, doctors. Internally, how do we have to meet revenue targets? Even though we have to be flexible in terms of regulatory aspects, as a multi-national company, we have to comply with a code of conduct,” she said.

Low awareness
Currently, Merck Serono is focusing on fertility given the huge potential of patients seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Indonesia and low awareness of IVF among infertile couples. Indonesian couples that need IVF treatment reach around 200,000. However, to date of the potential 200,000 couples, only around 2,200 couples actually receive in vitro fertilization

“Merck Serono provides innovative drugs and application devices that offer patients maximum ease of use and increase the probability of pregnancy. We have a website, www.maupunyaanak.com, that will help couples learn more about fertility problems,” she said.

Evie has a very tight schedule, with much of her time devoted to the company’s internal and external tasks. In her free time, Evie works out by playing squash and swimming.

“If someone receives more oxygen, he or she will feel more relaxed and as a result, a positive attitude will emerge and will eliminate pressure caused by emotional factors,” said Evie, who also loves listening to music and reading. But the demands of work can be intrusive.

 “I am striving to have a work-life balance. Finding a work-life balance remains a challenge for me,” she said.

The pharmacy world has kept Evie excited and enthusiastic about learning. But above all, it can satisfy her spiritual need: her desire to help others.