In the pharmaceutical industry, leadership can often be the defining factor between success and stagnation. At the helm of such transformational change within West Pharmaceutical Services stands Nilesh Shah, the Vice President and General Manager of Emerging Markets, whose distinctive leadership qualities have pushed the company and propelled its strategic imperatives across key markets in the Asia Pacific and South America regions. A passionate and purpose-driven leader, Nilesh Shah is a team player who continues to propel the company toward greater heights of success. With over 25 years of rich experience in the healthcare medical device industry, he exemplifies an influential and instructive leadership style.
Passion Stemming from Humble Beginnings
Nilesh Shah has been a seasoned professional in the healthcare medical device industry for the past 25 years. He currently leads the emerging markets of South America and the Asia Pacific region for West Pharmaceutical Services (West). His career began in the United States, where he worked for prominent companies such as Johnson & Johnson and GE Healthcare and gained the bulk of his experience. However, he also spent some time in Europe, particularly in Italy and Germany, before returning to the US. He has been based in Singapore for the last 8 years.
Nilesh Shah has held significant roles throughout his career, including that with ASP-Fortive as Global Chief Commercial Officer. His responsibilities in these roles have been substantial, underpinning his strong motivation to be part of the healthcare industry. He has always been driven by a purpose that transcends mere professional achievement, feeling a profound sense of making a difference every day in healthcare. This purposeful drive is what continues to inspire him in his endeavours.
Key Qualities for Successful Leadership
Nilesh has long championed a leadership style that exemplifies leading by example and from the front. He firmly believes, as he often says, “A leader’s job is not to create followers but to create future leaders within the organization.” This philosophy is foundational in his approach to guiding his team and the broader company.
Over his extensive career, spanning more than 25 years, Nilesh has identified several key qualities that he believes are essential for successful leadership:
- Courage: “Courage,” Nilesh Shah notes, is the backbone of leadership. It empowers a leader to make bold decisions, take risks with the business and its people, and stand firm in their convictions.”
- Empowerment: He greatly emphasizes a leader’s ability to empower others. “Empowerment is about unlocking the potential of your team members, enabling them to make significant contributions and grow within their roles,” he asserts.
- Learning Mindset: Maintaining a learning mindset is crucial. Despite his years of experience, Nilesh observes, “Every year, every month, every position teaches me something new. It’s about staying open and adaptable, learning from every experience and every individual.”
Through his leadership, Nilesh Shah has woven these qualities into his team’s operations, fostering an environment where empowerment and continuous learning are encouraged and expected. His story reflects a journey of perpetual growth, not just for himself but for all he leads, ensuring that the company remains dynamic and forward-thinking in an ever-evolving industry.
100 Year Legacy as an Innovator in the Healthcare Industry
Nilesh is a part of West, a company that boasts over a century of history. Recognized as an innovator in its field, the company is regarded as a vital partner for the pharmaceutical industry. Anyone injected with medicine or vaccinated is highly likely to encounter products from West. The mission of West is driven by a noble purpose: to improve patient lives. This underpins West’s commitment to innovation and quality. And these factors drew Nilesh Shah to the company.
West’s leadership envisions significant growth in emerging markets, aiming to enhance their success of past experiences. This aligns with Nilesh’s passion for developing and expanding markets. He relishes the opportunity to broaden the company’s reach in the Asia Pacific region, including India, China, Singapore / ASEAN markets, Australia, and Korea, as well as in the South American markets like Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. The thrill of creating something new with his team fuels his motivation and drives the company’s ongoing innovation and expansion efforts.
On the Most Cherished Professional Accomplishments
Numerous achievements have marked Nilesh Shah’s career, but one particularly cherished accomplishment stands out from his tenure at Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP)-Fortive. During this period, he led the international transition of 164 markets and 1,100 employees from Johnson & Johnson to ASP-Fortive. This mammoth task involved setting up new warehouses and teams and organizing operations from the ground up—all while ensuring that the ongoing business continued to serve its patients and customers effectively. Amidst this complex transition, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, adding unprecedented challenges.
Nilesh recalls, “We had about 7 to 10 personnel in Wuhan who were stuck during the terrible times of COVID-19. Sales were down, elective surgeries were reduced, and there was palpable anxiety about the future.”
Despite these obstacles, Nilesh led his team to keep the business afloat and maintain high spirits. He emphasizes, “In the midst of a crisis, it was crucial to keep our team motivated, engage them, and ensure that our engineers could still attend hospitals despite restrictions, maintaining our machines to serve patients.” His leadership during this time also enabled him to nurture his team’s resilience and commitment.
Reflecting on this period, Nilesh Shah feels it was a profound learning experience that enhanced his leadership qualities. “Navigating through those challenges with my team made me a better, humbler leader,” he states. He takes immense pride in how the team rose to the occasion, demonstrating adaptability and dedication. This experience, he believes, was his most cherished accomplishment, providing a vivid example of leadership under pressure and the power of collective effort in facing immense challenges.
A Leader’s Mantra for Success
Nilesh has long adhered to a personal and professional mantra that resonates deeply with him and guides his leadership style: “Do what you say and say what you mean.” This straightforward philosophy is crucial for building trust, confidence, and reliability within his team and the company at large. He believes firmly in the importance of integrity and accountability. “We must have a very high ratio of follow-through,” he says, emphasizing the need to deliver on commitments. This principle is foundational in establishing trust and dependability among his team members and partners.
Furthermore, Nilesh Shah advocates for open and honest communication and encourages his team to speak their minds, stating, “There is no reason to sugarcoat or be politically correct. Just speak your mind.” This approach fosters a transparent and direct communication style, ensuring that ideas and concerns are expressed freely and without reservation. By embodying these values, Nilesh Shah leads by example and cultivates a team environment where actions and words align—enhancing the effectiveness and cohesiveness of his leadership and the company’s operations.
Unique and Skilled Innovators at the Core
At West, the team’s uniqueness in the Asia Pacific and other emerging markets is distinctly marked by a blend of longevity and passion. West is notable for the long tenure of its employees, with some team members dedicating up to 30 years to the company in these regions. This longevity fosters deep technical know-how, customer-centric approaches, and extensive industry knowledge, which Nilesh Shah considers second to none.
Furthermore, the team exhibits a relentless drive, feeling a profound sense of making a daily difference. This isn’t just about providing containment solutions; it’s about enhancing quality and access to healthcare for patients in emerging markets. The team is committed to continuous learning and adaptation, not resting on past methods, which have evolved significantly over the last three to four decades. They are constantly adapting and expanding their business, while ensuring strong partnerships with pharmaceutical companies in these markets, aiding them in their mission to deliver top-quality healthcare to patients everywhere.
For Nilesh Shah, the unique aspect of his role is the enthusiasm and enjoyment he observes in his team. Their passion for the work they do continues to drive his happiness and motivation, making his role all the more fulfilling and meaningful, as it contributes to a noble cause—improving patient care, but with a passionate and dedicated team. He believes this dynamic environment sets the team apart and underpins the company’s continued success in emerging markets.
Unmatched Innovation and Quality = Long-Standing Success
West is a company with a storied history, having celebrated its 100-year anniversary last year. Founded by Herman O. West, the company established itself through strong partnerships with industry giants like Eli Lilly. During World War 2, West partnered with Eli Lilly to solve the problem of supplying penicillin in mass quantities for the US government. This innovation that saved many soldiers’ lives and has gone on to impact billions of other patients’ lives since then..
The core purpose has been to provide containment solutions that maintain the efficacy and safety of drugs. Over the decades, the company has focused on this niche, fostering enduring partnerships and committing to unmatched innovation and quality. This dedication has kept West at the forefront of the industry, not just in containment solutions but also in simplifying and enhancing the safety and effectiveness of medical injections for patients.
The company’s charter extends beyond simple containment, encompassing devices that patients wear on their bodies, such as continuous glucose monitoring devices. These innovations represent various methods of administering medicine and monitoring body parameters, embodying West’s commitment to improving health for patients worldwide.
Globally, West boasts an extensive manufacturing footprint, which provides the agility and flexibility to meet diverse customer needs effectively. This global reach and service commitment make West a preferred choice for its customers and have contributed to its century-long legacy—a legacy that Nilesh Shah and the company hope to continue for many more years.
Analysing Healthcare and Emerging Trends
Nilesh Shah observes several key trends shaping the industry and driving West forward. Firstly, there is an increased need for biologics, predominantly in the form of injectables. This burgeoning market is propelling companies like West to innovate in containment solutions, ensuring these new drugs’ safe and effective delivery.
One example is the rise of GLP-1 drugs, a new classification indicated for obesity, previously approved for diabetes. As pharmaceutical companies expand indications for these drugs, there is also an increasing demand for innovative containment solutions to manage these drugs effectively.
Secondly, there is a notable shift from traditional healthcare settings such as hospitals and clinics to home healthcare. This transition is evident in both developed and emerging markets. The challenge for West and similar companies lies in making it safe, easy, and effective for patients to self-administer injections without the direct intervention of a healthcare provider.
The third trend Nilesh highlights is the increased regulatory focus, particularly on quality control and the reduction of particulate matter. This global trend affects markets in the US, Europe, and beyond. It necessitates that West stays ahead of these regulations to support its customers—both established and emerging pharmaceutical companies—in aligning with these stringent standards and meeting customer needs effectively.
These trends collectively outline the evolving landscape of the healthcare industry, steering West’s strategic initiatives to meet these dynamic challenges.
Onwards to Continuing the Legacy
For the last over 100 years, West has been a leader and innovator in its field. The company’s focus is to continue this legacy, keeping the patient at the centre of their strategies ensuring the safe and effective administration of medicine, particularly in emerging markets.
Nilesh Shah’s vision is to continuously drive quality and access in these markets, where access is often the primary challenge, followed by quality and cost considerations. His broader vision involves addressing these three aspects effectively to enhance the company’s impact in emerging markets. He aims to develop his team to be second to none, harnessing their strong passion for innovation and dedication to customers.
By leveraging these strengths, he envisions that West will solidify its global leadership position in emerging markets, always prioritizing patient care in all strategies. This will be integral to West’s continued success and innovation in the years to come, ultimately supporting West to deliver its commitment to improving health for patients worldwide.
