Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) will be investing in start-ups besides partnering with external entities for research and innovation.
“You cannot expect people to focus on increasing market share, growth, and driving the business while also disrupting the world. So for the disrupt part, we are re-architecting our organisation. This has to be outside the mainstream,” DRL chief executive officer and co-chairman G V Prasad told global consultancy firm McKinsey in an interview.
“We have a couple of initiatives going on-a new-ventures group, as well as someone in the US who looks at emerging technologies. We will invest in start-ups. All innovation that cannot be done internally, we have to do it externally or partner with someone or invest,” he added when asked how the company builds for the future.
“Today, innovation is either R&D or collaborative R&D outside our existing core businesses or by acquiring technology platforms. We are going to have another leg where we will focus on small companies, universities, and ideas and back people from outside and inside to build businesses,” he said.
According to Prasad, DRL will be a much more global company in the next ten years with changing business models.
“A large part of it comes from generic drugs today, and in ten years much of it will come from innovative products,” he replied when asked about the future of the company in ten years.
Building technical capabilities and people practises are certainly among those areas where the company is doing well besides governance, he said.
“Where we have not done very well is bringing discipline to performance and bringing accountability for results. If we can build this, I think the company can be in a much better place,” he opined.
He said the company is largely on track as far as the path of building the organisation for the future though some changes are required in some areas.