Dear readers,
Wow! It is the beginning of January and I realize that I have been working at Novo Nordisk for four months already – and I can tell you, these have been everything else than boring!
When I was told that my first rotation would be in the ‘Innovation Strategy Office’ (ISO) in a department called ‘Global Stakeholder Engagement’, I was very excited and really looking forward. This was because I had met the director of the ISO during the Graduate Recruitment Centre in March 2012 and was fascinated by the work he and his team was doing. Moreover, I had also been studying innovation during my Master degree at Copenhagen Business School, for which reason it seemed like the perfect match for my first rotation. The goal of the ‘Innovation Strategy Office’ is to foster strategic innovation at Novo Nordisk – besides the classical R&D function – by exploring opportunities adjacent to the current core business.
My tasks so far have been very interesting as I had the chance to work both on one of the Innovation Projects, but also on tasks related to the department in general. Project-wise, I have been supporting the project manager for the Base of the Pyramid project in Kenya (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQPPr_c6a3k), where the goal is to optimize the supply chain to ensure that insulin is available at a location close to the patients and at an affordable price. My responsibility was mainly to write a baseline report and my highlight was to be able to present the results to the Steering Committee in Nairobi in November, which has definitely been a unique and memorable experience for me and a great learning opportunity. Besides this project I have been involved in the organization of two workshops for students as well as other daily tasks and in 2013, I am responsible for organizing a pre-conference workshop at a conference on non-communicable diseases in Zambia.
Even though I highly enjoy my work in the department, I think the real beauty of the Graduate Programme lies in the fact that we have lots of activities in addition to our daily work. Thus, in the first four months I have had a three-day trip to a Summer House, two meetings with the other Graduates about topics such as the Pharmaceutical Industry and Personal Development, monthly one-on-one’s with my responsible manager in HR and lots of social activities with my fellow Graduates – all of which has allowed me to have a very pleasant transition into my new job and to get a good sense of what it means to be a Graduate at Novo Nordisk.
Summing up, I really enjoy the work that I am doing at the moment and the possibility to take over responsibility from day one. My colleagues – both in my department as well as in the huge network of Graduates – have been very supportive and I now look forward to further discuss my tasks for the second half of my first rotation and to learn more about this interesting company!
In case you have any questions – just shoot, that’s what we are here for :)
Happy new year to all of you and best regards,
Teresa
One Comment to What a journey! My first four months in the Innovation Strategy Office
Brilliant!
I was browsing the posts by graduates like yourself and what really prompted me to read your experience is because I saw you work in Innovation department. Like the work you do there.
I’m also pursuing a master program in innovation & entrepreneurship at BI in Oslo and want to work in this department at Novo Nordisk. Your experience really got me curious.
I run a small start-up which I co-founded with a friend. In your opinion, how much do you feel Novo Nordisk vale entrepreneurial people?
Would be waiting to hear from you.
Divye