New Bayer chief plans a radically different style to cut bureaucracy
Anderson joined Bayer in April and formally became CEO this month. His appointment followed pressure from shareholders who have been calling for a break up of the group, struggling to contain the continued impact its $63bn takeover of US crops group Monsanto in 2016.
Days after he joined, Anderson said he would consider all options. Two weeks in as CEO, the former head of Roche’s pharma division and ex-chief of its US biotech group Genentech, declined to elaborate on potential structural changes for the multi-headed group. “I hate to tell you more than I know”, he tells the Financial Times.
Instead, at the company’s headquarters in Leverkusen in north-west Germany, he lays out plans to empower staff with a “radically different approach to how our work is done, how resources are allocated, how budgets are determined”.
Anderson said that he wanted “every person at Bayer to have the same level of impact, fulfilment and accomplishment as a sole proprietor” who does not have to deal with any internal red tape.
To achieve this, he wants to axe internal bureaucracy and make individual employees more accountable. He added that this was not about job cuts but a better way of organising work.