"People work for people, and then, the company"
- K V Subramaniam, President, Reliance Life Sciences
Reliance Life Sciences (RLS) is a medical biotechnology-led company, established in 2001.
RLS specialises in the research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of differentiated medical products and services.
Dedicated to serving patients primarily in intensive and critical care units in hospitals, RLS focuses on three core businesses: plasma proteins, biosimilars, and advanced oncology pharmaceuticals.
The company's president, K V Subramaniam, has had a long and illustrious career with Reliance. He has overseen a range of functions—from corporate business development, corporate planning, project management and economic analysis to marketing, in initiatives as diverse as petrochemicals, energy, alternative energy, infrastructure, insurance, education, health care, agriculture, and life sciences.
Here, he shares how the 10 Tenets resonate in setting a culture of excellence at RLS and insights from his journey as a leader.
Can you share how the 10 Tenets resonate in building a culture of excellence at RLS?
K V Subramaniam (KVS):The first thing that comes to my mind is human capital. To me, that's the biggest factor as far as the business is concerned. More so in our context, because availability of talent and access to talent is a big issue in the biotechnology domain.
Over time, I've realised that people work for people, and then for the company.
So, it's very important to have the right level of engagement with people so that you're able to motivate them and inspire them.
That led me to take up a lot of soft skill development sessions in our monthly retreats. Over time, I've done more than 100 such sessions.
The idea is to motivate, to inspire, and get people to perform at the best levels possible.
You expand the horizons of people beyond what their engagement is.
And all this rests on the premise that a company grows to the extent that its people grow.
Can you share insights from your leadership journey?
KVS: There are many things that I have learned over a period of time.
First, on leadership. To me, the greatest challenge for leadership is to grow the organisation, so that people have opportunities to grow. The company has to grow in a sustainable manner. .
The second is, when you have a disparate set of people coming from different domains or different age groups, there are bound to be interpersonal issues. So, if you're able to deal with such issues; if you're able to get people to have good inter-personal relations and strong written and oral communication skills, I think most of the work is done.
Three things are important: One, good interpersonal relationship. Second, good communication ability. And third, how good a boss you have.
Everything else is secondary - you can always pick up.