Alan Murray recently wrote here about America's century-old companies that have survived by refusing to " let their past be an anchor." They "heed the call to disrupt themselves, before they are disrupted," he wrote.

I was reminded of that column yesterday when I spoke with Mike Doustdar, CEO of Novo Nordisk, the 103-year-old Danish drugmaker behind diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

Doustdar was fairly fresh off an earnings call, but we connected to discuss a different milestone -- his one-year anniversary in the CEO role, which is tomorrow. He demurred when I asked him for a grade on his tenure to date and instead talked about how Novo Nordisk -- which has fallen behind in the GLP-1 wars despite creating the market -- is changing.

"I am encouraged by how people are coming together in the organization, thinking differently, acting faster, looking more outward, that the world is bigger than our company, that we don't have a monopoly on the best ideas," he said.

Introducing culture change had been part of the CEO's mission since he landed the job, and he arrived with notes, having already worked at Novo Nordisk for 33 years.

To be fair, past leaders created an environment where someone like 21-year-old Doustdar felt free to share his opinions on every move the company made, never mind that he was "almost a nobody young photocopier, " in the Vienna office at the time, he said. (He wishes he had a video of that person, he told me.) But some habits created drag. "On certain activities, it's good to reflect, and not in a haste go into whatever direction, but I also have seen that there are parts of the organization that get paralyzed by further analysis, get paralyzed by consensus decision-making."

Doustdar, the first non-Danish CEO the company hired, was tapped to make the drug company more aggressive, as the Journal has reported. As CEO, he has emphasized speed, he told me, and pushed for a mentality where teams benchmark themselves not against their history but against others. How fast is everyone else running? How quickly are they innovating?

The new posture is necessary because the consumer-driven, fast-moving weight-loss market is unlike the insulin market, which is where the Danish giant made its name, he explained. Keeping up requires having a low ego as an organization and a leader. "That also means, you know, maybe unlike some of the other peers, you don't need to go through five assistants to get to me," he said.

"I don't even have an office. I sit in an open area with the rest of my team. ...I remind myself where I came from, and that I'm also here temporarily."

Ultimately, of course, the CEO's effectiveness will be graded by the market. So far -- despite the striking success of its new Wegovy pill this year -- Novo Nordisk has mostly failed to convince Wall Street that it can push back against Eli Lilly's weight-loss ascendance. The share price initially dropped nearly 6% on Tuesday evening when Novo Nordisk reported earnings, despite the company beating quarterly expectations and raising guidance for the year.

Novo Nordisk has "work to do" when it comes to winning the market's trust, Doustdar said. "I tell my team, 'Don't do anything different. Continue to perform. The market will follow. We just don't know when.'"

Lila MacLellan

Editor, CEO Brief

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