4 ms·

I think you’re really not giving L’Oreal the credit it deserves. It’s much more than just a lipstick vendor. Sanofi, Europe’s largest pharma company, has its ro

I think you’re really not giving L’Oreal the credit it deserves. It’s much more than just a lipstick vendor. Sanofi, Europe’s largest pharma company, has its roots in L’Oreal (L’Oreal previously was the parent company of Synthelabo, which used to be the #3 pharma company in Europe until it merged with Sanofi). L’Oreal also does research in things like methods to regrow human skin/hair, which aren’t on the same level as cancer treatments, but they do involve clinical trials and medical research. Hell, even something like launching a new facial moisturizer requires testing akin to clinical trials. Aside from that, Emma Walmsley wasn’t CEO at L’Oreal, and she left there in 2010 to join GSK, where she worked for 7 years before being promoted to CEO in 2017. It’s not as if she went from being some business bean counter straight into being the head of GSK; she had 7 years to build GSK domain knowledge before taking the helm.

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ramraj07 6y ago
Thanks for the context, but I suppose I just couldn't pass up on the poetic phrasing of "selling lipstick" a la Steve Jobs' "selling sugar water" phrase. Point still stands though. Even most of my PhD friends often lack fundamental understanding of how biology works, and I find it hard to believe an MBA can ever catch up no matter how much training they get. I'd argue that in general it also shows - biotechs run by scientists seem to do the actual path breaking research just the same as in technology.
- scarface74 6y ago
  What good is technology if you can’t bring it to market? The CEO that hires smart and listens to their VPs don’t need to know the technology. Often the “smart people” are the worse CEOs. I would be willing to go as far as saying that Cook may be a better CEO at this point in Apple’s life than Jobs would have been.
- t_serpico 6y ago
  You don't need to have a deep understanding of biology to have a decent grasp of drug development. You're operating at a higher level of abstraction. You could argue such a CEO wouldn't be able to independently gauge the value of a new innovative medicine or approach, but that's where the CSO and others come into play.
  - ramraj07 6y ago
    The issue is, what if the CSO is actually not competent? Can you tell if they're bullshitting or not? What if they are competent but giving incorrect advice because it's their pet project and invalidating it now means they look bad? How can you tell? In the end, I personally believe that the CEO needs to know enough of the underlying technology that their company is working on to smell bullshit. Otherwise his execs have a very high likelihood of taking them for granted. Ive seen it happen on a smaller scale repeatedly in my lab. If our professors are not well versed in one field of science, the postdocs and students will take advantage of it in every corner. This is especially true in biology. It doesn't matter how good your nanoparticle drug is, if you don't know that there are fundamental problems with immune recognition, half life, biodistrubution and non-specific binding, you would not know not to invest further. This evaluation is not something a CEO should outsource to another C level exec.
- txcwpalpha 6y ago
  Walmsley isn’t “an MBA”, she has a Master’s in Classics and Modern Languages ;) Real world experience trumps a degree in almost all cases. It certainly helps, but you don’t need a PhD to be a scientist, and you definitely don’t need one to lead scientists.

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ramraj07 6y ago

Thanks for the context, but I suppose I just couldn't pass up on the poetic phrasing of "selling lipstick" a la Steve Jobs' "selling sugar water" phrase. Point still stands though. Even most of my PhD friends often lack fundamental understanding of how biology works, and I find it hard to believe an MBA can ever catch up no matter how much training they get. I'd argue that in general it also shows - biotechs run by scientists seem to do the actual path breaking research just the same as in technology.

scarface74 6y ago
What good is technology if you can’t bring it to market? The CEO that hires smart and listens to their VPs don’t need to know the technology. Often the “smart people” are the worse CEOs. I would be willing to go as far as saying that Cook may be a better CEO at this point in Apple’s life than Jobs would have been.
t_serpico 6y ago
You don't need to have a deep understanding of biology to have a decent grasp of drug development. You're operating at a higher level of abstraction. You could argue such a CEO wouldn't be able to independently gauge the value of a new innovative medicine or approach, but that's where the CSO and others come into play.
- ramraj07 6y ago
  The issue is, what if the CSO is actually not competent? Can you tell if they're bullshitting or not? What if they are competent but giving incorrect advice because it's their pet project and invalidating it now means they look bad? How can you tell? In the end, I personally believe that the CEO needs to know enough of the underlying technology that their company is working on to smell bullshit. Otherwise his execs have a very high likelihood of taking them for granted. Ive seen it happen on a smaller scale repeatedly in my lab. If our professors are not well versed in one field of science, the postdocs and students will take advantage of it in every corner. This is especially true in biology. It doesn't matter how good your nanoparticle drug is, if you don't know that there are fundamental problems with immune recognition, half life, biodistrubution and non-specific binding, you would not know not to invest further. This evaluation is not something a CEO should outsource to another C level exec.
txcwpalpha 6y ago
Walmsley isn’t “an MBA”, she has a Master’s in Classics and Modern Languages ;) Real world experience trumps a degree in almost all cases. It certainly helps, but you don’t need a PhD to be a scientist, and you definitely don’t need one to lead scientists.