#218: Reimagining Pharma Supply Chains for Growth and Patient Impact with Arun Krishnan of AstraZeneca

Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Leaders in Supply Chain and Logistics podcast. I am your host, Radu Palamariu Group CEO of ELLCOT Global. Our mission is to connect the supply chain ecosystem by bringing forward some of the most interesting leaders in Venus.

Speaker B: Hello everybody and welcome to a new episode of the Leaders in Supply Chain podcast. I am your host, Radhu Palamario Group CEO of ELCAD Global. Today. Today it's my pleasure to welcome Arun Krishnan, who is the SVP of Global Supply Chain and Strategy at AstraZeneca, the leading biopharmaceutical company with over $60 billion in annual revenue, operating in more than 100 countries and serving millions of patients worldwide. Arun is responsible for the end to end management of AstraZeneca's global supply chain operations, collaborating closely with over 25 manufacturing facilities and more than 203rd uh, party suppliers in a global supply network. Arun, pleasure to have you and welcome.

Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you. Radu, good morning to you. Great to connect with you on this podcast and it's a great opportunity to represent the company AstraZeneca.

Speaker B: Our pleasure to have you. Maybe let's start Arun, first and foremost with yourself, with your career. How did you end up in supply chain in the first place? And maybe walk us through one or two moments that are the most memorable in your career. That was those inflection points that made the most difference to where you are today.

Speaker C: Great question. I'm a production engineer, industrial engineer by background, my professional skills and I've been in supply chain domain supply chain sector for the last three decades in multiple life science industry sectors all the way from medical devices to innovative branded pharmaceuticals to generics and specialty and also consumer OTC segment of the business. Also having lived in five countries around the world, truly supply chain always is a passion I always believe in this mantra of business is supply chain and supply chain is the business that was the inherent motivation and also the inner passion to drive something good, to create something competitive. And also it's always a happening place because it's the only function in the business that connects everything that you can see everything 360 degree view of the business. And also it's a truly cross functional segment of the business.

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker C: So from a, to answer your other question, from a career defining moments. So let me give uh, two examples. Both the defining as well as challenging. Challenging part was 30 years ago. Almost 30 years ago, back in 1997 when I finished my graduation, my first step out of India was in Singapore. It was a completely different environment. Even the first plane ride back in those days from India to Singapore was a new learning moment. I never been on a plane in right before uh, 97. So that was a learning moment and that was a exploration moment, I should say followed by that. When I went to Australia to do my master's program in supply chain was even more of a learning and defining moment. And then exploring my first graduate recruit job coming out of university, my masters was an enriching moment. So the enrichment always has been. Having lived and worked in five countries around the world, One multicultural, two cultures, the way people think, the way people act, the way people organize, the way people connect, it's always a learning moment for me. And I always fascinated by the multiculturalism aspect of people. And then the rewarding moments are how do you play that to strength, right? How do you take the best of every culture, every micro culture, and uh, how do I play that to the strength and also grow, grow for myself, grow my team, grow my skills and capabilities and also do good for the business.

Speaker B: Catastrazeneka, you are in this position where basically your work impacts and helps patients all across the world. So I wanted to also ask you in terms of some practical case studies from AstraZeneca, and I know that you're on this journey now of uh, reimagining your supply chain. So maybe let's start there, tell us a little bit more about this journey that you're on and then we go from there.

Speaker C: Yeah, great question, Radu. So AstraZeneca is a pride moment to be in the company. And the company's ambition is growth through innovation. The company aspiration is to be an $80 billion company by 2030. It's a significant ambition, it's a significant purpose underpinned by the company's values and behaviors. So that always motivates myself, my team, the organization to lead the industry sector, create values with, uh, purpose and also connect to the patients. The second aspect of this is we are in a business of delivering life changing, life enhancing medicines that create purpose value to patients, who we serve, that say our patients are our customers. And there is always a emotional and purpose behind who we serve, how we serve and putting medicines in the hands of patients. The third dimension is the complete reimagination of the supply chain from three dimensions. One is the growth dimension, new modalities, new technologies, for example cell therapy, antibody drug conjugates, redefining, uh, value, uh, in cancer care, in our cardiovascular hypertension businesses, and also in our respiratory and immunology. Right. And serving Medicines and putting medicines in the hands of patients in more than 100 markets around the world. That's one dimension. The other dimension is how work gets done. Where AI is an integral part of of how work gets done. The way we rethink process, reinvent ways of work and reimagine a supply chain, operating models. And the third thing is how do we also bring people along this journey to reskill upskill and also create a competitive advantage in our workforce through retraining, through reskilling, through upskilling and also create that thriving environment of growth for people. So if I put these three dimensions together, product and markets and growth and science and innovation, plus the AI in everything that we do, how work gets done, plus the people empowerment and the thriving for growth. It's a perfect platform to serve patients with purpose. Those are the three ingredients of the success and the ambition. And with full passion and energy, team is driving towards that growth ambition.

Speaker B: Got it. I know that also in your industry there's always tension. Yeah. The tension is between how much operational efficiency can you embed in the system and at the same time how can you make sure that the patient is at the heart that no delivery fails because literally you're dealing with life and death. How do you make this blend today's environment? Any principles that you apply?

Speaker C: Yeah, great question. First principle. Let me start with the principles. Supply first in this business, supply global supply to a market, to a patient comes number one. Right. First is supply. And these principles are so important in the context of the world around us is constantly changing and evolving from all the way to economic, tariff and trade tensions to geopolitical volatility to AI in everything that we do. From a technology aspect to science and innovation is changing so fast. Right. So from a contextual point of view, these are the dimensions and these are the variables that supply chain has to live with and also optimize the game is what we call the power of. And the power of and is supply which is effective on time, in full supply and also be uh, creating value through optimization, through lean effectiveness through technology excellence through process standardization and excellence and also re simplifying work. When I say re simplifying work is not only standardizing process but also optimize and remove waste from the end to end supply chain process and, and also the end to end value chain. So the success here is no longer, you know, supply chain traditionally has been the trade off is either or. But our growth ambition is based on the belief and also the actions to create impact using the power of and what we call the power of and is supply and efficiency and productivity and effectiveness so that the sum total of it is delivering growth.

Speaker B: Mhm. Can you share with us maybe one or two instances and results that you've achieved so far? You can pick some some of the more notable examples and how that helped shape and improve the business.

Speaker C: Exactly so some of the notable examples. We haven't missed a beat on our customer service or global supply delivery over the last so many years. And as we all know, the world around is changing and evolving so fast. We are living in a daily world of volatility. We are living in a daily world of variability. I don't need to mention all the way from like Covid post pandemic 5, geopolitical tensions around the world, war situations, our global vaccine delivery during pandemic times, and also our new product launch launch deliveries throughout this last so many years. Right along with that is enriching and uplifting the game of using technology in all aspects of the value chain. All the way from the way we look at our discovery and development, the way we look at our chemistry, manufacturing and control process, the way we look at our autonomous manufacturing to support our growth portfolio and also what we call a completely redefined operating model of self healing supply chains. Right? And we are not using technology or deploying technology for the sake of technology. Our programs are self healing supply chains and it's uh, a reimagination, reinventing the way we work. That's one example. The other example is how do we rethink process management? How do we rethink value creation? How do we rethink optimization? Right? Look at all aspects, right? Not just look at one element, look at all the aspects of the way we design to plan the way from design and plan to source from source to make, make to deliver in all these aspects, how do we remove the silos? How do we connect the interfaces vertically and horizontally? And how do we put the sum total together to create the best value for product delivery to the patient? Right? That's a reimagination. And then in these interfaces, process touch points. How do we apply technology to for example technology that can quickly retrieve information and speed up information. What we use something called AI assistant is the rapid response. What I call no sooner act faster. Number two, how do we create a digital twin of the entire and represent the physical supply chain as a replica in a digital twin in order to optimize and simulate the parameters in terms of speed, cost, cost of goods, manufactured velocity and how do we optimize and remove waste and variability. Third dimension is how do we look at risk sensing all the way from our extended value chains both on the supplier facing as well as the extended supply network. How do we use AI in the application of risk sensing so that we can respond quicker and act faster. And the fourth dimension is upskilling and reskilling people. Because we got to bring people along this journey, both not only the hearts and minds to drive the change, but also what is in it for them from a growth ambition, both uh, personal career skill development and also reinventing. Right. Everybody wants to come to work and reinvent themselves and create that thriving environment for growth. Create the thriving environment for success. Create the thriving environment for empowerment.

Speaker B: Mhm. You mentioned self healing supply chain. Tell us more. What does it mean? How does it work in practice?

Speaker C: Okay, great question. So self healing means the self means. So today in the supply chain is a lot of work that is done by humans assisted by or supported by systems. Right? The ratio of human to system in the supply chain end to end process is 90% humans, 10% systems. The reimagination is with the power of technology, with the power of write the first time data, with the power of process standardization and simplification. The reimagination is can machines do the analytics, the information processing and with human guidance flip the ratio where machines are doing the job for you. For example, machines as 80% and humans as 20%. But in this journey, what the reimagination is, the humans uh, are intelligent species. So how do you create the co intelligence between the machine and the human so that the humans can do that? More value added work, higher level of decision making, higher level of change management, higher level of using emotional intelligence to drive growth in the business. Higher level of next level of customer interface and commercial interfaces and value chain management. Right? That's what the two words are, self and healing is for example. I'll give you a context. If we make a plan on Friday, we come on Monday, everything has changed. What do we traditionally do or typically do come Monday? We reprocess, we rerun the analytics, we look at all the information, we by the time we come to a Recommendation, it takes 4 to 5 days again. Things have changed already in the world and in the supply chain. Instead you reimagine and say hey, I made the plan on Friday. A supplier has gone on quality hold, a deviation has occurred in a plant, a capacity shortage has happened, some disruption, significant disruption has happened around the world. Reimagine the supply chain to be an agentic supply Chain where agents are doing the job for you over the weekend and come Monday, the recommendations are already there, visible to the supply chain profession. And people look at those recommendations, manage by exceptions and say, hey, do I accept it, do I reject it, do I modify it? You significantly leverage the power of machine learning analytics, AI driven process in order to not only optimize but also learn from what has happened in the supply chain. So all the analytics, all the information processing, all of that is guided and done by the agents and the machines. What I call here is the machine is the agent. The agent does the job for you. The and humans are adding value to the process. Higher value add to the process in terms of decision making, the game is changing from task and workflow to decision stack. Because in the supply chain, every minute, hour, week, day, month, quarter, annual, we are making decisions. We are making decisions on speed, cost, cognum, cost of goods, velocity, sustainability, carbon freight, right? Every time horizon there is a decision waiting for to be made. If the mindset is, if you reimagine the supply chain to be a decision stack oriented supply chain or decision intelligent supply chain to underpin by the knowledge of humans with data and the velocity of information to creating recommendation. The shift is from task and workflow to decision stack. The shift is from efficiency to agility every day, every minute, every hour in the supply chain.

Speaker B: This mhm is a big shift. How do you get the humans to upgrade themselves as well? Right? I mean we are not always. Whilst we like to say the change is the only constant, when it actually comes to change, I don't think that most of us like it in reality, how do you. And you know, we almost need to upgrade ourselves constantly to be able to do these higher level tasks. How do you do that within AstraZeneca?

Speaker C: Yeah, so it's a great question. So in AstraZeneca. We are very, very fortunate to have our senior leadership in AstraZeneca all the way from the top level management of the company to what we call a mandate of AI 30, right. 30% smarter, 30% faster, 30% precise. And the company invests in people. The company puts a lot of investment not only in leadership development and growth, uh, leading self, uh, leading enterprise, leading organizations towards 2030ambition, but also the company invests significantly in lifelong learning of AI programs. We all, including myself in my team, all of us have a target of what we call staged certifications of learning AI. So that's the investment the company provides. In addition to that, the company provides tools and catalog of solutions to go and experiment. Our mantra for the company is growth through innovation. And innovation here means supply chain innovation, operations innovation, value chain innovation. Right. And innovation is how do you reinvent process? How do you look at your data? How do you use the technology to power your supply chain? How do you look at uh, end to end interfaces in the process? That's the motivation. And the other inherent motivation is doing this in a growth environment, Doing this with new products and technologies, new manufacturing factories in the network, new growth ambitions in the marketplace. That all motivates the workforce. So it's a combination of the environment in which we are operating. Yes, change is hard, but we also put a lot of effort in our internal environment to bring people along the journey. And it's a company, uh, we are very fortunate to be in a company that believes science and innovation drives that growth. And innovation is a key word. Innovation is not only in the product, but also process. Value chain, supply chains, manufacturing technology, every aspect of value creation in a product to delivery, you have innovation. That's how we think, that's how we wire ourselves and that's how we motivate ourselves. The other aspect is curiosity. The word curiosity is used a lot in the company and that's by intent and design. Be curious. When you are curious, you ask questions. When you ask questions, you learn. And then the motivation is how do you apply that learning to practice. But it's not easy. So one of the things in the supply chain is myself and the leadership team. We are investing in upskilling and upgrading ourselves. We as leaders have to be even more curious. We as leaders have to let go control. We as leaders have to empower. We as leaders have to ask the questions what we call mindset of, question behind question, mindset of grit, mindset of curiosity and innovation, mindset of um, upgrading ourselves. So then we can lead by example.

Speaker B: Yes. Bringing it to future talents and to the younger generation that perhaps one day wants to make to your role to the C suite. What would be some pieces of advice that you would give them? Arun?

Speaker C: Great question. I would keep it very simple. First is be excellent in what you do. Be excellent in whatever you do in your current job. You know, really excel yourself in your current job, number one. Number two, then look at adjacencies, adjacencies in the value chain, adjacencies in the end to end business. To say, hey, how does that work? How does a supplier facing thing work? How does a customer facing thing work? How does a technology aspect work? How does a market work? How does a manufacturing side Work what I call the adjacencies like the interfaces and adjacencies. The third thing is be very curious. Be very curious. You don't need to know all the answers. But the currency of successes ask a lot of questions. And if you think about AI, AI is inherent in the supply chain term supply chain has AI in supply chain. So if you think about supply chain and AI, uh, inseparable, right? They are so connected. And uh, by practicing, especially for the younger generation, early career, talent, new workforce, the more questions you ask, the much better you learn, right? So that's always a belief of myself is curiosity, question, question behind question. The other strength you add is never get demotivated by, you know, you try it once, you don't get it, then you try next time, then you pivot, right? You quickly pivot. So never de empowered or disempowered or demotivated by failures. Instead, take every failure or every failure as a learning, take every failure as every setback, uh, as a, ah, next path to growth. And I always say this to my children, right? Never be fearful, never be in comfort zone. The world itself is changing so fast because nothing is constant. So in a world where nothing is constant, why do you fear every, convert every fear and comfort, uh, to learning and growth? Because you redefine, you re pivot and you create a new solution. So the message I say to my organization, I also say to younger talent and early career, is take every challenge into an opportunity for every problem, come with two or three solutions and then always pivot into learning and growth zone versus fear and comfort zone.

Speaker B: Mhm. Love it. And I'm going to remember that part with AI already in supply chain, it's a good statement that I didn't quite think from that angle, so that's a good one as well. On that note, Arun, want to thank you for your time, for the great sharings and many examples that you gave today and wishing you a continued success in your journey at AstraZeneca.

Speaker C: Thank you Radu, thank you for the opportunity. It's a great moment of representing AstraZeneca, my organization and the team through this podcast and grateful to time and opportunity once again.

Speaker A: This is Radhu Palmariu.

Speaker B: Thank you so much for listening to

Speaker A: this Leaders in Supply Chain podcast episode. If you're listening it on itunes, Spotify or any other channel, we'd love if you leave us a review and of course share this with anyone you think might enjoy it. Thanks again for tuning in and I'll catch you next time.