Yao, a fictitious, fast-paced global pharmaceutical company with a high performance culture, is thriving in the Blue World having emerged from the global financial crisis fit and agile.

About Yao

Yao is a global company that develops and manufactures pharmaceuticals. Started in 1913, in Treviso, Italy, as a soap manufacturer called Como, the company has, since its agreed takeover by China's state-owned Yao Generics in 2012, become one of the most profitable pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Patent expiries, an insufficiently developed drug pipeline and increasing competition from generic producers left Como vulnerable after the global recession. Today, the company’s Isis longevity product range, its euthanasia product Anubis, and its popular antidepressant Rise make Yao the most profitable pharmaceutical company in the world.

The work environment at Yao is high-pressure, fast-paced and not focused on job security. Nonetheless, Yao helps employees manage their lives outside work. The company is widely seen as an iconic employer, as well as a ground-breaking case study for tomorrow's business leaders

How Yao emerged from the global financial crisis

The takeover of Como by Yao Generics further codified the shift in global economic power to the East—already underway in the mid-2000s, but accelerated by the global financial crisis.

Like other pharmaceutical companies of the time, Yao faced an ongoing challenge maintaining its drug pipeline; it viewed the ailing Como as a long-term investment which would bring new products, key talent and a strong foothold in the European and US drugs market.

Yao had admired the sophisticated people and productivity measurements pioneered by Como, seeing them as a key component of its goal of becoming the dominant player in the industry.

To navigate the economic crisis, the company took several important steps:

+ Making HR a hard discipline

To save precious resources, Como drew on its advanced people metrics facility to find and remove poorly performing individuals and sections with minimum disruption. When the upturn came, Yao again capitalised on the metrics programme—this time to spot opportunities for growth and to nurture strong performers.

+ Private-equity-style structures

In an industry where fortunes rest on a healthy pipeline of new products, Yao managed to maintain an innovative edge during the downturn by promoting internal entrepreneurial bodies. These structures allowed individual divisions to share in the profits of successful new products they created, and promoted a high-performance culture internally, which benefited the entire organisation.

+ Recruiting talent from dark pools

Yao’s extensive customer and employee information database exposed them to frequent e-espionage and cyber-attacks. Realising it needed to attract technology masterminds who could better protect, manipulate and manage their data, Yao created a new type of recruitment tactic: fishing in “dark pools” for the talent they needed. This new wave of corporate employee included individuals previously involved in covert government operations and the military, as well as borderline technological innovators, hackers and ex-criminals.

+ Blurring the line between work and home

Yao recognised that many of its employees wanted the company to balance the heavy responsibilities imposed upon them by taking greater responsibility for their lives outside work. This required a sophisticated approach, as needs differed dramatically by geography and demographics. US workers, for example, wanted more flexible working arrangements and time off, whereas Chinese workers looked upon Yao as an employer that could offer security, stability and the possibility of employment to other family members. Millennials wanted overseas working opportunities and abundant training, while retirement-age workers in Europe were keen to have the opportunity to work beyond retirement to supplement government-funded pensions.

+ A healthy workforce makes for a healthy business

Both Como and Yao were strong advocates of promoting employee wellness, viewing regular health checks as part of “employee maintenance.” Their health and wellness strategy had a dramatic impact on sickness-related absenteeism, which fell by 60% in the first year of the programme.

+ Investment in training and development

Yao’s high-performance culture is supported by strong training and development activity across the organisation, at every level. Employees are encouraged to broaden their skills and knowledge, and mobility of roles is the norm. This has created a workforce of highly talented, highly skilled, motivated people.

Yao's strategic approach to managing people

+ 1. Foster a small-business culture

Entrepreneurial behaviour is encouraged and rewarded—a culture of healthy, competitive innovation that is made possible by careful, metric-driven management. In fact, more measurement of performance and output happens at Yao than at almost any other company.

+ 2. A meticulous search and selection process

From the beginning of the recruitment process, candidates (at all levels) are rigorously screened to ensure they have the desired attributes of a Yao employee.

+ 3. Invest in employee development, both in- and outside work

Yao invests significantly in training and development across all levels. International assignments are common, especially for junior employees (although they do not often get to choose where to go). To balance these requirements, Yao also helps workers manage their lives outside work.

+ 4. Link employee engagement, productivity, retention and customer loyalty

The company’s obsession with measurement is not just about performance and productivity. It also enables Yao to keep its core employees refreshed and engaged through training and role rotation. The Chief People Officer (CPO) sits on the board and is highly influential.

+ 5. A competitive atmosphere and high performance equals unique rewards

Yao excels at spotting underperformers and taking corrective action; it is one reason why the company is so successful. As evidenced by quarterly performance reviews, employees work in a super-charged, competitive atmosphere. Rewards for performance are high, and non-financial benefits (such as the employee health and wellness plans) materially enhance the value of the overall compensation package.