Anand Narasimhan

Class of 2008





Tell us a little about your family background/ history. How has it influenced you?
I am a Tamil Iyer. My dad was in a transferable job and it gave the family an opportunity to move around the country and be exposed to different cultures. I spent most of my formative years between Calcutta and Hyderabad. While most of my family members (near and distant) are either engineers or doctors, I chose to follow my dad’s example and enrolled to become a Chartered Accountant.
The family is indeed the biggest influencer that shapes a personality. Skills are acquired with new experiences. However, values and behaviours are passed on.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
On the personal front, I lost about 70Kgs of weight! This was a turning point in my life which made me believe that anything is possible if you give it a shot. On the professional front, I was chosen for the CEO's Award at Novartis AG for Operational Excellence in 2012. This is the highest recognition an associate/ team can get. I was the only individual awardee.

Tell us about your profile prior to attending ISB and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
Prior to joining ISB, I was a chartered accountant with about 8 years of work experience across assurance and IT industries. I had also taken a shot at being an entrepreneur. At ISB, I was touching 30, was married and had ongoing financial commitments. This, in a way, forced me to eliminate opportunities which would require me to change track and perhaps start my career in a new track from a lower rung. I had to be extremely patient through the placement process. Finally, I signed up with Novartis to lead their Business Planning & Analysis function for the OTC business out of Mumbai. At Novartis, I gained diverse experience, moving across functions to do a stint in sales too. In the area of finance, I did stints covering the various facets of finance and was then promoted to a regional role in Singapore. Last year, I was offered a challenging role at Merck as the regional CFO for APAC and decided to accept it.

How do you think your time at ISB has contributed to your career and personal growth?
My time at ISB opened up my eyes. Here I was, amongst a group of smart young people eager to get ahead. It’s not that I was complacent till then, but I think competition is always underestimated until you face it. In the short span of one year, you are exposed to a myriad of challenges. The experience was enriching and toughened me. My biggest takeaway was from my interactions and conversations with my super-bright fellow classmates. It definitely changed the way I looked at things and broadened my perspectives. I think I use this experience the most in my current job. In my current role, overseeing a region, I need to put the big picture together for almost every decision made.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
There are new challenges every day in this VUCA world. Balancing risks and opportunities to sustain high growth than beats the market and delivers profitable growth for the $600m+ business is very exciting. The one thing I enjoy the most was supporting my team members and helping them in their journey to their career destinations.

Briefly describe a typical day at work, in a way that illuminates the kind of challenges and opportunities your role involves.
In a regional role, the lines between day and night can get blurred as you have customers/ stakeholders across the world in different time zones. My team members are in different time zones too, spanning from Australia to Pakistan. Typical days would involve catch up calls with team members, and alignment meetings with my business partners. In addition, there are multiple projects which I would be working on (e.g. increasing access to cancer drugs, integrated business planning, etc.). In the region, we have some set drumbeats/ cycles (processes/ meetings) which block out the calendars. The main challenge I face is that there is so much more to do and the time is perhaps not enough to do all of it. This is common in any regional role. However, this challenge improves your time management skills dramatically. If I look back 5 years, I think I have made some good progress in this area.

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Are there any trends that you can identify?
Pharma pipelines are drying up and the way companies are looking at their business models is changing. I think we have gone through one phase of change, which is getting focus on specific areas rather than spreading out wide and thin. Many MNCs like Abbot and Novartis have already begun moving in this direction. This trend will continue and we should see some more consolidation. In addition, companies are not just looking at drugs but are also looking at other opportunities in the health care continuum – for example, technologies (i.e. devices for diabetes, growth hormones, multiple sclerosis, etc.) to capitalize on. Investments in these areas are increasing. Another area where I see change happening is the way governments are changing policy w.r.t healthcare. The mature markets are seeing ageing populations and the financial burden due to healthcare costs on the exchequer is growing. This is increasing the pressure from governments on companies to reduce prices and share risks. Innovative risk share models are being developed by companies and this is opening up careers for people with expert knowledge on market access and pricing.

What was the main highlight or most memorable aspect of your programme at the ISB?
It was a one year 'bindaas' life in 'shorts'. I think I got my trousers out only during placements! I was the vice president of the finance club, and during a busy term we were organizing speaker sessions. I remember that Raghuram Rajan came down to campus for a speaker session. I delivered the vote of thanks in my shorts! Other memories I cherish the most are of the time spent with my groupies during the core terms and our section 'E' – it was a closely-nit section and super-united, always!

If you could offer a word of advice to the current class at ISB, what would it be?
Dream big, but think more long-term and don't be afraid to delve into the unknown.

How do you feel you can contribute to ISB?
I try and enroll for the mentoring sessions to help out and give back to the school. Folks from the later batches have reached out to me for guidance and advice. I think I will continue this and I invite people to reach out. I may reply late, but you will hear from me.