Leading the charge without giving up

Leaders aren’t born, leaders are made – this is a time-tested fact and one that we’ve seen at Dr. Reddy’s come up again and again, as our people take responsibility for their deliverables and go beyond the call of duty to get things done, motivating their peers and colleagues in the process. Birendra Kumar David, PE Formulations Lead, is one of them.

Recently, Birendra’s team was tasked with working on a topical anaesthetic for gums. “We realised the potential of the product at a very early stage and the teams worked tirelessly to produce the trial batch,” says Birendra. But when the time came to check the product and how it went, the team was in for a shock.

The formulation’s viscosity was completely off. Naturally, everyone was disheartened. They understood the problem, but they didn’t have a solution. “The team was devastated and didn’t know how to sort things out,” says Birendra.  

The team lead realised this was not their time to lament; it was the time to learn from their mistakes, steel themselves and start again. With constant dialogue and counselling, he motivated his large team to work together proactively, while putting an efficient collaboration system in place.

Birendra created five to six parallel approaches with a war-room like system, where they would discuss all issues, logistical or technical, and devise solutions together immediately. “Using my expertise in simulation, I came up with an idea to achieve viscosity,” he says. The team travelled to the partner plant and shared the idea, but there was initial hesitation because the method had never been done before. Eventually, the partner agreed to give it a shot.

The team, along with Birendra, stayed at the plant for 24 hours straight, monitoring production in real time, to great success. The product was launched in India in time, but what was another noticeable win was that this success galvanised Birendra’s team and made them more confident. 

“I don’t believe in the carrot and stick approach when it comes to motivating my team,” he says. “I focus on giving them a purpose and autonomy to discover and learn, so that they’re ready to take on any challenge in the future.”

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