Leadership: a matter of life and death

When Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen and his wife went out for a stroll around Lake Furesøen one day, their walk was interrupted by a jogger who turned back to greet them. He wanted to thank Fruergaard Jensen. The jogger’s three-year-old daughter had fallen deathly ill. When she was rushed to hospital in critical condition, she was diagnosed with diabetes. And after a just single injection of insulin, she came back to life.
 

“Imagine being part of making products that can give a child their life back,” Fruergaard Jørgensen says.

Life or death. In essence, that’s what everything comes down to at Novo Nordisk, Denmark’s largest pharmaceutical company . Fruergaard Jørgensen, who recently stepped down as CEO of Novo Nordisk, is back in Aarhus, where he earned an MSc in economics and business administration in 1991 from the former Aarhus School of Business, now part of Aarhus University. He drove out through the gates of Novo Nordisk’s headquarters in Bagsværd for the last time not long ago.

To understand him, we also need to travel, back to where it all began for Fruergaard Jørgensen: the small town of Skals in Jutland, just north of Viborg. (And in fact, Fruergaard Jørgensen is not the only distinguished alumnus to hail from Skals; it’s also the home town of former prime minister and distinguished AU alum Anders Fogh Rasmussen.)

Alone in the pig house
Fifteen-year-old Lars is standing in the noisy pig house, in rubber boots and a blue boiler suit. He and his two siblings are in charge of the farm this weekend, while his parents are away. And a sow is about to give birth. The three of them keep a close eye on her – ready to act if the sow rolls on top of the piglets or if they need help suckling.

“I clearly remember the responsibility I felt when my parents left the farm and the sense of relief when they came home again. They had faith in us, and that trust continually raised the bar for me. That kind of thing develops your self-worth, which is so crucial – for people in general, but also when it comes to leadership. When you’re at ease with yourself, you can be more authentic around other people,” he says.

But despite the valuable lessons he learned in the fields and in the pig house, Fruergaard Jensen gradually realised that he was more interested in the financial side of things – and that he didn’t want to become a farmer like his parents.

“Farmers are at the mercy of the prices on the world market. You can’t differentiate your product. All you can do is produce more and produce more efficiently. Realising that is what put me on the path to a business degree from the Aarhus School of Business,” he says. And at the age of nineteen, he left home and moved to Aarhus.

From the dance floor to Novo Nordisk
The farmer’s son from Skals enjoyed student life in Aarhus. He studied hard – but was also a regular at Klubben, the school’s legendary bar. And when local acts like Gnags, TV2 and Sanne Salomonsen played at the school, he hit the dance floor with his university friends – who are still his best friends today.

When he graduated, unemployment was high. He sent out four applications at once: to three banks and Novo Nordisk. Alle four companies asked him to interview. Novo was the first to offer him a job, and he started a week after he graduated.

“It was kind of a coincidence, clearly. But as things turned out, Novo Nordisk had a mission and a culture that was a good fit for me. Over the years, I’ve had job offers from other places, but every time I’ve compared the company’s mission and culture with what I’m used to, and I’ve thought: ‘No, I’m staying where I am’,” he says.

Life-changing weight-loss medicine
As CEO of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Fruergaard Jørgensen has spoken at the United Nations and testified before the American Senate; he’s met some of the world’s most influential people, from Queen Margrethe II to Emmanuel Macron to Bernie Sanders.

But mingling with the movers and shakers isn’t what motivates him: it’s the encounters with the people whose lives Novo has touched. Like talking to people who’ve gotten their lives back thanks to weight-loss medicine.

“A patient who was formerly extremely obese told me that food used to control his life. He stayed at home, couldn’t control his compulsion. Everything was about food. The he started taking our medicine. Suddenly, he was renovating his house and socialising again. That kind of thing is incredibly motivating,” he says.

Not a snowplow leader
Fruergaard Jørgensen is also motivated by his encounters with dedicated, loyal employees of Novo Nordisk all over the world. When he visited a division, he always held an all-hands meeting so employees could ask him questions directly.

“Hearing their questions, I could really grasp what was top-of-mind for them. I didn’t prepare for their questions in advance, and I answered all of them honestly. That gave me an intense, personal experience – and it doesn’t get much better than that,” he says.

A manager can solve some problems. But not all problems. And sometimes, a manager’s job is not to have all the answers. Fruergaard Jørgensen learned this important lesson from his father, back on the pig farm in Skals. When he was 14, Lars had a flat tire while he was driving a tractor. When he went to his father and asked for help, his father replied: “And what are you going to do about it?” So Lars did something about it: Took off the tire, drove to the garage and had it patched.

“On some fundamental level, it’s because of my parents’ trust in my ability to handle things that I have the courage to jump head-first into challenges. In the same way, a leader’s job isn’t to be a snowplow – to smooth the way for people. Sometimes your job is to challenge them,” he says.

An introverted person in an extroverted job
Fruergaard Jørgensen held a final an all-hands meeting when he stepped down as CEO for Novo Nordisk recently. The meeting ended with a standing ovation.

“So on my way to a TV interview right afterwards, I had to avoid too much direct eye contact with the employees – otherwise I would have had a really hard time doing a live interview,” he says. 

After the interview, he took the elevator to the basement. Started the car. Drove out through the gate.
And the Novo Nordisk app disappeared from his phone. Then he turned left and drove toward the tennis courts.

The future is open, and the pressure of the job is behind him. What remains is the privilege of making a difference for patients and employees.

“I’m an introverted person who had an extroverted job. A lot of people believe that a leader has to be an extrovert, incredibly dynamic, leaping around a stage. That’s fine. But being an introvert means you reflect – and that’s good when you’re trying to solve complex problems. I’ve heard from a number of people at Novo that I taught them to be themselves. You can focus on sales, profits and share prices. Nothing beats touching people’s lives.”