How the CEO of a 356-year-old company came to realize that potential mattered more than experience

How do you build a workforce that’s prepared for a changing world? 

German science and technology company Merck KGaA has had to figure this out to survive for over 350 years, weathering all kinds of challenges to grow into a $22.8 billion global giant across 66 countries. At a time when nearly half of CEOs aren’t even certain if their companies can survive the next decade, Merck CEO Belén Garijo says there’s one skill to surviving: Resilience. 

For any of us with kids, that term is one we hear all the time from their schools. But "resilience" in that world — the idea of not letting a setback set you back — is slightly different than how Belén uses it. As she defines it, “resilience means anticipation.” 

In other words, resilience isn’t just coping with change, it’s never not changing. She sees complacency as the biggest risk to a successful organization. Belén wants her workforce ready for any potential disruptions well ahead of when they might occur, delivering on short-term expectations while also looking farther down the road. As she says, “It doesn't matter that you are not sitting on a burning platform. Everybody understands that when you are sitting on a burning platform, you have to change,” she said. The trick is changing before the fires start.

In her 13 years at Merck, Belén has uncovered one secret to discovering resilience: not getting entranced by subject matter expertise. “I have moved from hiring exclusively on experience to hiring on potential,” she told me. She calls it, “hiring for aptitude."

“I have moved from hiring exclusively on experience to hiring on potential."

Belén applies this philosophy to anyone who is being considered for a Merck job, though she’s increasingly relying on internal bets vs going outside.  “I really get inspired by people who are acting as the owner, always raising the bar on themselves,” she said.

You can’t discover that in an interview; it comes from watching people work. 

That belief in finding internal bar raisers and giving them more and more responsibility is exactly what propelled her own career. She was a medical doctor specializing in clinical pharmacology before getting into the pharma industry, joining Merck’s healthcare division in 2011. (This is a good time to point out that Merck Group is totally unaffiliated with Merck . Belén's company has rights to the Merck name everywhere except the US and Canada and goes by Merck KGaA, MilliporeSigma, or EMD Serono in those countries. WWI is to blame and there's lots of lawsuits over the matter. Confusing!)

By 2015 she was the CEO of her division and by 2021 she was the CEO of the whole company. 

“Look, I came to the industry without knowing nothing about the industry… When you look at my career, I have been given so many opportunities to grow and develop when I was not obviously ticking the experience [box] that I should have had at some point in time to get certain job,” Belén said. “So I grew because some people took a risk on me and this is what I do.” 

It’s easy to see in hindsight why betting on Belén made sense. And since then she’s won accolades like being named to both Fortune and Forbes’ most powerful women lists. But I was curious what she thinks people saw in her when she was still green.

She didn’t list any skills or wins; she said it was all about her drive. 

“I think that they could anticipate that I was hungry to succeed, that I was driven by achievements, that very few things get in the way for me to deliver,” Belén said. “And most importantly, they trusted me many times more than I trusted myself. And this was a big lesson for me when I was also looking at other people and giving chances to our people to grow.” 

Not that it’s always easy —sometimes hiring a senior person who seems to have already learned all the hard lessons seems like the wise choice. Belén frequently finds herself on the other side of that argument, particularly with her senior leadership team. “Experience versus potential is one of the critical dilemmas that is always on the table.

The power of networking

One piece of advice she had for any aspiring leaders has to do with making sure people know you’re a bar raiser: Networking. Here again, she defines it slightly differently. Networking to her is working with as many people as possible at your level or slightly above. Forget trying to impress the CEO. You want to be known for your work by a large, diverse set of people.

“The best way to network is to have a mindset of collaboration,” she said. “Make sure that you are part of the team and that you aim to make an impact working as part of a team. This is the best way to network.”

People move and they bring you with them — or they raise their hands to work with you.

Finally, networking also means not always showing off what you know. Just being in the room and having your hand up can be enough. “It's being humble enough to basically seek advice from others. For me, this is an element of networking. It requires that you spend a little bit of time showing who you are and how you contribute to the final outcomes of any project or mission in the organization.”

🗣️ I'd love to hear from you: Where do you stand on hiring for a person’s potential over their experience? What traits do you look for when spotting for talent? 

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On LinkedIn’s video series This is Working, I sit down with top figures from the world of business and beyond to surface what they've learned about solving difficult problems. See more from Athletic Brewing co-founder Bill Shufelt, J&J CEO Joaquin Duato, former US President Barack Obama, top executive coach Mark C. Thompson, Kellogg’s Francesca Cornelli, Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva, cosmetics legend Bobbi Brown, F1’s Toto Wolff, and many more.