Written by Vinam Puri Dr. Navneet Puri is the Founder and CEO of Nevakar, Inc. in Bridgewater, NJ. He started this company in 2015, with a vision of creating a fully integrated specialty pharmaceutical company focusing on hospital injectables and ophthalmic products. As Chief Executive Officer, he sets the strategic and operational direction of the organization. Prior to this, he was the Founder and CEO of Innopharma, LLC (now a Pfizer company). A Rutgers Alumnus, he received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. He has received several prestigious awards such as the Future 50 magazine's Smart CEO award and the EY Entrepreneur of The Year award from the state of New Jersey. He is also a current board member of Alzeca Biosciences, Inc. In Dr. Puri’s words, “Leadership means having good vision, a good understanding of individuals and leading people in the right direction”. Good leaders lead by example. Dr. Puri referred to a famous Leaders lead from the front and take the entire team with them in order to achieve the objectives of the organization. 
A leader establishes his credibility with examples. If a leader has strong fundamentals, is true to his own words, and takes ownership of his actions, people will want to follow his lead. In an organization lead by the CEO, the Executive Leadership team aligns with the shared vision of the company and once that shared goal is established, there is no other alternative. Leaders communicate with their teams as much as possible. Dr. Puri gives the highest level of importance to having a strong vision. His vision, being the CEO, is what drives the vision of the company. At Nevakar, the vision is to Improve patient’s quality of life and healthcare outcomes. When talking about the importance of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Puri said AI is a beautiful thing and by the natural process of evolution, it must be incorporated in the pharmaceutical industry. From pharmacy practice to manufacturing and even R&D, automation is a key part of helping the industry grow in all ways. Dr. Puri is a role model to me and his strong attitude of determination in achieving his goals is commendable. I look up to him as a leader and have heard great words from the people who work in various roles at Nevakar. Personally, I have observed him setting a good example and being an energetic and cheerful personality at the workplace. At Nevakar, there are several team building activities that are regularly conducted that make employees feel like members of the family contributing towards growing together. A quarterly townhall, for example, not only updates all members about the progress made in all active projects but also reminds everyone about the shared vision of the company. Because of the excellent leadership at Nevakar, it is an extraordinary environment to work in and grow. One piece of advice that Dr. Puri would give to future leaders is to have a vision. To promote growth, you need to have foresight. Be it a scientific project or the evolution of the industry as a whole, a leader needs foresight which is guided by insight. It is important to have strong as they are your foundation. That is what will give you a clear vision, vision is Key. Leaders definitely face challenges on the way and Dr. Puri shared some that he has faced on his journey. The number one challenge is Team Alignment, which means that everyone on the team is in line with the shared vision of the company. At the executive level, the leader listens to various perspectives and the executive team identifies and defines the direction for the company. At this level, you do not want yes-men but a culture of sharing perspectives. Once the direction is set and the vision is identified, the team has to be aligned and although it is challenging, it is very important to achieve alignment at this level. Another challenge is to envision the evolution of the environment. A leader has to be opportunistic and whenever there is a shift in the landscape – political, financial, regulatory, etc., they have to keep re-calibrating in order to head towards success. The leader also has to be strategic. Fundamentals as mentioned before, need to be solid and there has to be conviction and a strong belief in them but pragmatism has also to be kept in mind. One has to be flexible and must maintain a balance; one must retain the fundamentals while being pragmatic. Think of it from the example of a river flowing down from a mountain. The river has a final destination which is the sea and it could get there by a straight-line route but has to demonstrate flexibility and travel around the rocks and obstacles. If you are not willing to change, you better be right every time or the whole company will face the consequences of your actions. The third biggest challenge is to have alignment with all of your value providers. Value providers exist in various forms such as outside lawyers, vendors, suppliers, cross-country collaborators, global collaborators, etc. and it is important for a leader to work with them, bargain hard, at times, and stay focused on the goal. If this alignment does not exist, the business suffers. Dr. Puri is optimistic about the industry’s future and thinks that the pharmaceutical industry will continue to grow, despite all the challenges- regulation, price control, lack of compliance or lack of oversight. When a couple of organizations lose the industry’s purpose and lead with the purpose of greed, they do not define the industry as a whole. The industry is much bigger and stronger than one or two companies who take the wrong direction. With a 5% average CAGR projected over the next five years, growth has to come, and it must come. Finally, for all future aspiring leaders, here is the one skill that you should have according to Dr. Puri, absolute and relative value proposition of the mission. The value is the product and it is absolute because it is based on the identification of an unmet need. When the unmet need is validated, value is provided. Value is also relative because it has to be adjusted based on how the landscape is evolving. Hence, the value proposition has to be absolute and relative. 
Here are some of the takeaways from the interview:
- Leaders lead by example and from the front.
- Leaders communicate with their staff as frequently as possible.
- Leaders must have a clear vision, which is based on their fundamentals and guides their insight, which in turn directs foresight.
- Leaders need to identify the evolution of the industry segment they are in, in order to steer in the right direction timely.
- A successful leader is one who keeps re-calibrating from time to time.
This article was edited by Andrew Petryna and Maryam Alapa