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How Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel Stays Relevant and Thrives in a Hyper-Growth Environment

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Can you name a company that has grown in revenue from $0 to $19 billion in one year? Here’s a hint: the biotechnology company that pioneered the messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccination – Moderna.

Founded in 2010, and led by CEO Stephane Bancel since 2011, Moderna is credited with one of the greatest discoveries of the past century, the Spikevax vaccine, which has found its way into the arms of hundreds of millions beginning in 2021. More than a one-product biotech firm, Bancel describes the company as having a “platform”, whose new way of making drugs can allow it to quickly pivot to deploy mRNA technology vaccinations and therapeutics to combat the most threatening viruses and diseases. Now with forty-eight different programs and with thirty-eight in active clinical trials, the company’s future is bright, with a market capitalization that surpasses many large pharmaceutical companies.

With the impact Moderna has experienced, over eight hundred million Moderna vaccine doses delivered in 2021 alone, it wouldn’t be a surprise to find the CEO enjoying the spoils of success. That’s not the case with CEO Stephane Bancel.

At the recent Wall Street Journal Health Forum in Boston, WSJ reporter and author of The Messenger: Moderna, the Vaccine, and the Business Gamble That Changed the World, Peter Loftus interviewed Bancel. My ears perked up when Bancel answered Loftus’ question about his unique challenges in the face of Moderna’s rapid transformation.

Loftus: “The company has changed so much in the last three years. It used to be a smaller biotech development stage. No products, a lot of people had never heard of Moderna. And now you’re a household name much bigger. What has it been like to go through that transformation? And what are some of the unique challenges you think that you’ve experienced there?”

Bancel: “I think it’s managing a company in a hyper-growth mode. You know, I worked at Eli Lilly, and I ran BioMerieux, two great companies, but neither was growing 50% a year. If you look at Moderna, as you say, actually, since the early years, we’ve grown 50% in headcount every year. This year, we started the year with around four thousand team members. We’re planning to hire two thousand people this year. So, it’s another 50%. Again, I know it’s not going to last forever, which is a good thing. But the thing that I have never done, and I think it’s, it’s the same for all of my colleagues, is ‘How do you keep reinventing your job all the time?’ Because as you can appreciate the job of a CEO at Moderna 12 years ago, when, you know, we literally had a couple of scientists and two million in the bank and only research is quite different than the job of CEO four years ago before COVID with 20 drugs in development and a public company, and running a manufacturing plant in Norwood to what it is today.”

“And so, I think it requires a lot of humility to, to really work with your boss, to work with your team. And to regularly kind of reinvent your job in terms of ‘What is the job of Moderna’s CEO today?’”

“What I do once a quarter is actually to kind of literally fire myself on a Sunday, where I try to think about where the company’s going. And I will literally write the job description of what I think the Moderna CEO must be today. And when I spent a couple hours comparing what the CEO must do today with what I’ve done in the last month or two. And I realized that some things I need to stop doing. Sometimes, it’s things I love to do that I just need to stop doing, because it’s not what the CEO of Moderna what needs to do. There are things I have not done yet that I need to start doing. Some things I must start, I don’t really like. It’s what the Moderna CEO needs to do. And so, it’s this constant reinvention that is really new. It took me quite some time to really get this as a muscle. Because again, I’ve never worked in a hyper-growth company before. That’s how to stay relevant.”

In my experience as a CEO coach, it isn’t uncommon to hear CEOs speak about the need for reinvention. Usually, it’s about how the company must reinvent to stay competitive. This perceived need has been highlighted with the findings of the recent PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey where 40% of the CEO respondents think their company will no longer be economically viable a decade from now, if it continues on its current path.  Increasingly, reinventing the company is on the CEO’s agenda.

What is uncommon is to hear a CEO like Bancel acknowledge that reinvention must start with him. Reinvention is a must for all who work to stay relevant and thrive. If you are not CEO of your company, see yourself as CEO of your function, or of your role and your life. The purpose of reinventing your role is for you to not only feel more purpose and passion from your work, but to design your job in a way that creates massive value and impact for your stakeholders.

  • Given your current business state and your desired future state, what tasks must you stop and start doing as CEO?
  • How will you bring a greater sense of purpose to your work?
  • How will you make the time necessary to focus on your few vital functions that drive the greatest value?
  • Over the next twenty-four months, what relationships are most important for you to develop and nurture?
  • And what must you learn and how must you grow, so you stay relevant and thrive today and tomorrow?

These are questions every CEO – whether or not they are in a hyper-growth environment – should reflect on quarterly, as part of their on-going reinvention. How about you? If you are a CEO, are you reinventing every quarter? What are you doing to stay relevant and thrive?

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”

Alvin Toffler

For more on reinventing your role as a leader, check out Reinvent Your Impact: Unleashing Purpose, Passion and Productivity to Thrive

Reinvent Your Impact - Bestselling Book by Executive Coach Chuck Bolton

Making A Critical Connection: New Non-Profit Matches Seniors in Need with Volunteers

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As a man who has a deep desire to be kind to all people, Plymouth, MN resident Jeff Johnson described his purpose: “To make life better for others.  We’re all put here for a reason, to serve others as best we can.”

It was late March and Jeff had been speaking with a few friends from his church about the COVID-19 crisis. Everyone was in shock about how drastically life as we knew it changed in just a few short days. Together, they discussed their concerns and the unknown consequences from the virus. People were worried about the health of their families and friends. People were out of work and some were in dire financial straits. Some suffered from depression and now self-quarantined, many felt isolated.  Together, they agreed that something had to be done.

In his job as Hennepin County Commissioner for District 7, Jeff was receiving calls from his county constituents, too, who felt the need to do something.  Many now had extra time on their hands and sought to volunteer.

Johnson recalled, “I was receiving a lot of calls from people who wanted to help. There just is not a mechanism in government for absorbing a huge influx of volunteers. We needed something to help connect the volunteers with those who were in need of help.”

A few days after his discussion with his church friends, Jeff learned of a new organization in Kentucky called the Louisville COVID-19 Match program. The purpose of this non-profit was simple.  Connect older people at-risk with a younger volunteer who was not at high risk so errands can be run, check-in calls can be made, and people can be helped.  Jeff contacted the coordinator of the Louisville program to learn about the details.

Immediately following that call, Jeff dialed in a few of his close friends from church to continue their discussion about doing something to assist those in need. During that call, the idea of Northstar Neighbor was conceived. They believed for every person in need, there’s another person ready and willing to help. The few volunteers got to work building a website, developing a launch plan and getting the word out.

The purpose of Northstar Neighbor is to spread a message of hope and compassion by serving neighbors in Minnesota who are at higher risk of COVID-19 complications.  One-on-one connections are made between a healthy volunteer who has low COVID-19 risk factors with a senior or other high-risk person in the same community for remote friendship, conversation and help with delivery of groceries or prescriptions.  Northstar Neighbor is not supported or sponsored by any governmental entity.

Johnson described Northstar Neighbor, “First and foremost, it’s about conversation and companionship and not being alone. We just match a volunteer who has time to help somebody who needs some extra help right now.  It’s nothing complex here at all, just a lot of people who need a lot of help and there’s people who want to help. We’re just connecting them.”

In the first three days of the program, with the help of media interviews and social media, over 100 volunteers were received and a couple dozen matches were made. By Memorial Day weekend, over 400 volunteers had been received and nearly 100 matches have been made.

The founding volunteers put together the matches, make an introduction and let the volunteer and the senior take it from there.  The nonprofit asks volunteers to call their senior every few days to check in on them and to pick up groceries or prescriptions for them if needed.  Once confirmed the volunteer has made the call, Northstar Neighbor moves out of the picture. Hopefully, a friendship is developed.

Johnson adds, “We now have volunteers who are calling nursing homes and assisted living centers to let them know what we’re up to. There are so many people with no one to talk to, or no family. They are so isolated and there is such a need for companionship.  The challenge is to identify those individuals who aren’t supported by religious communities or other nonprofits, the people who aren’t being looked out for and are isolated.

Johnson continued, “We have had two separate recent requests from wives who have husbands – one in his 70s and the other in his 80s – where the wives have said their husbands have no friends who are still alive. They’ve asked if we could find another man, closer in age, who can call and check in with them? So, a few seniors have volunteered to make calls, too.”

Thinking back to mid-March, when the world changed due to the COVID crisis, Johnson said, “I’ve been struck by how eager and willing people are to sacrifice and help. It’s bringing out the best in a lot of people.”

“This is a two-way street. The people volunteering are really providing a gift to people who need some help, but the people who are asking for help are providing a gift to people who desperately want to help someone right now and maybe don’t have any other avenues for it,” Johnson said.

Reflecting on the creation of Northstar Neighbor less than two months ago, Johnson said, “This initiative has also been a gift for me. I’ve experienced a different sense of purpose than I would have otherwise.”

Anyone in Minnesota wanting to volunteer or needing a volunteer should click this link: https://northstarneighbor.com

Jeff Johnson and the volunteers of Northstar Neighbor are operating purposefully, fulfilling a dire unmet need and creating quite an impact – one volunteer and one senior at a time.

How about you? Are you living purposefully and creating an impact during this uncertain time? If not, what’s the missed opportunity for you and others?

 

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me,

‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ “Fred Rogers

 

Frustrated Mom’s Startup Company to Create Home-Administered Diagnostic Test for COVID-19 

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It was a Friday afternoon in 2018 and Hopkins, MN resident Patty Post found herself at the clinic, for the third time that week, waiting for her daughter to be tested for strep throat.  On Monday it was her younger son who needed a strep test, on Wednesday it was older son, and on Friday, her daughter had a sore throat, needed a test and likely a prescription.

When Patty called her children’s pediatrician Friday morning to explain her daughter’s symptoms and request a prescription, it fell on deaf ears. “Bring her in the office and we’ll test her here,” she was told. Faced with burning yet another afternoon at the doctor’s office for a simple test, Patty asked herself, “Why can’t a strep test be administered at home? It’s a simple immunoassay. Why isn’t there a home test available for parents to administer to their children who are susceptible to strep? And if the test is positive, why shouldn’t you be able to get a treatment plan virtually and a prescription?”

A self-described “problem solver”, Patty says she caught the entrepreneurial bug when she was only ten years old, when she began marketing her babysitting services to families who vacationed near her family’s lake cottage, where she lived during the summers with her parents.

Frustrated by the status quo of going to the clinic to get checked for a simple infection, motivated Patty to start up a company of healthcare and technology experts to find a better solution to this problem. She founded Checkable Medical and became its chief executive officer.

Checkable Medical’s mission is to empower individuals to make clinical, evidence-based decisions from the comfort of their homes. They are focused on delivering innovative at-home diagnostic testing to employers and individuals.

Without having to go to the doctor, Checkable Medical’s diagnostic tests paired with a digital platform allows individuals and caregivers to administer their own tests for infectious diseases thus reducing the burden on our healthcare system and minimizing exposure to the population. Checkable Medical focused their energy and resources on developing an in-home, over-the-counter in vitro diagnostic and digital platform for the rapid identification of Group A Streptococcal bacteria

In March of 2020, as the COVID-19 crisis spread across America like wildfire, Patty and her team explored whether their technology could help in the fight against the coronavirus.  They became a distributor of a COVID serology antibody test and are now creating a platform for individuals and employers to detect antibodies of COVID from home. For individuals who test positive, they should seek the assistance of a healthcare provider. For individuals who test negative, that finding may help them in getting back to a new way of normal.

Their rapid-result antibody serology test, administered at home or at the office, will determine if the individual has the antibodies to fight COVID-19.  It is anticipated the test will detect the presence of both an acute IgM and chronic IgG immune response to infection of the COVID virus with a 95% accuracy. Patty Post’s hope is the serology antibody test will be a vital tool in reopening the economy.

Post said, “We believe the test will help identify if you’ve been exposed to the virus or have developed antibodies against the virus. We believe it can be helpful in identifying asymptomatic carriers and in identifying bigger groups of individuals who have been infected – potentially helping us get back to a more normal pace faster.”

“We’re in the early stages of a clinical trial, we will have data in late summer to submit to the FDA. Our hope is for a quick approval and we can offer the test and digital platform directly to consumers and employers.

Patty is a woman of faith and says her purpose is to serve others. She believes God has given her the gifts and nudge to create and provide diagnostic tests that can be administered around the world.

She described the heartbreaking problem of young women in parts of Africa and India who die during childbirth due to undiagnosed heart conditions caused by damage from strep infections.  She sees a day when diagnostics can be brought into rural villages of third-world countries to diagnose diseases like strep, influenza and COVID and pair positive diagnoses with antibiotics.

When asked if the COVID crisis has made her purpose more profound, she said, “Absolutely, I’ve been more purposeful since the crisis. We all have felt helpless, watching the virus coming down the pike. As a family member, you can’t visit your loved one at a hospital. We all feel a great deal of uncertainty. I’m an entrepreneur and I’m very driven to make a difference.  At Checkable Medical, we have tools and we are developing new tools. It’s our place – and it’s my place – to use my gifts and our company’s tools to make a difference.”

While Checkable Medical has regulatory hurdles yet to clear, the diagnostic tools and digital platform they offer will help consumers and companies make evidence-based healthcare decisions from home and work. Their success could make for an important tool that could boost the economy by allowing employers to safely bring their people back to work.

Patty Post is a leader who is driven by her purpose.  Through her focus, energy and leadership, she and her team are making a great impact during the pandemic.

A Tribute to My Mom – The Game of Catch

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When I was 8 years old, I was a happy 3rd grader, without a care in the world, living in a small town in Kentucky with my parents, Helen and Jack Bolton. The daughter of Swedish immigrants, Helen had wanted to be a missionary when she was young; she knew how to love and take care of people. Jack was a manager at a factory. At 6’4”, 250 pounds, he was like a mountain, in my eyes: My hero.

Every day, my Dad and I played a game of catch. And throwing the baseball with dad, every night, was my favorite thing. Every night, after he returned home from the plant, he heard me ask: “Daddy, daddy! Can we play catch?”

 

One Sunday morning in late August will forever be burned in my memory. I awoke to an empty house. A few hours later, Mom, tears streaming down her face walked in the front door. She said she had taken dad to the emergency room. She sobbed, and uttered two haunting words: “Daddy died.”

We’d played catch just the night before. Now he was gone – forever – felled by a massive heart attack. My happiness vanished. I no longer took interest in school, friends–or really, much of anything. Because the game of catch was over.

That winter, Mom took matters in her own hands. She saved the S&H Green Stamps they gave you at the Winn-Dixie supermarket when you bought groceries. One warm Saturday morning in March – early spring in Kentucky – Mom said we needed to go to Louisville to run errands. She drove us to the S&H store. She told the man behind the counter that she wanted to get the catcher’s mitt that appeared on page 34 of their catalog.

More than seven months had passed since I’d last played catch. Dad and I were both left-handed, but Mom was a righty; she couldn’t use his old first baseman’s mitt. Mom handed over the stamp books, and took the mitt, and we went on our way. The game of catch was about to resume.

Even though Mom wasn’t that great at catch, she gave it her best. We played for three years – until I was 11. We filled the holes in our hearts that way. Slowly, the happiness returned.

Shortly before my 12th birthday, Mom and I moved to Chicago. To support us, she needed to begin working as a secretary–and to care for her parents, who were in failing health. She told me I could ride my bike to the park to play Little League baseball. There, as she had predicted, I found plenty of other boys to play catch. She retired the catcher’s mitt — but by then, it had served its purpose.

That game of catch with Mom was a great gift. She got me over the hump of losing Dad that way. She got me playing organized baseball, and pitching. That was an activity I could throw myself into – I was happy being on the team and playing ball. Pitching ultimately helped pay for my college education. I was blessed to play college ball, under the tutelage of outstanding coaches. I also had caring professors, and a great four years in school.

Without that game of catch with mom, I wouldn’t have…

  • Gone to college.
  • Enjoyed a 20-year career as a leader in the fast-growing medical device industry.
  • Become a CEO coach, coached a Nobel Prize-winner, written a best selling book, or given a speech at the Harvard Business School.

Nor would I be showing leaders and teams how to reinvent themselves and become happier — so they can discover how to become their best and become even more successful.

Mom was a happy leader. A great role model. She was the person who was most generous, optimistic and inspiring. She taught me to care about others. For her, what seemed to be huge problems were challenges to be chunked down and conquered.

From her, I learned how to treat people, how to handle life’s curveballs, and when to swing for the fences — lessons I use daily in my work.

She had to reinvent herself, from homemaker to single parent, breadwinner, and caregiver. She never complained; she always smiled, and encouraged others with her happiness. Mom was the most remarkable person I’ve ever met.

And, Mom told me always to give my best—and become my best. She was my role model for happiness and reinvention. This book is for her. And for you. To help you become happier, more successful, to become your best.

It’s time to get started.

From the story, The Game of Catch from: The Reinvented Me: Five Steps to Happiness in a Crazy Busy World

Happy Mother’s Day in Heaven, Mom.