The “Business Acceleration Program (BAP)” talent development project, jointly designed and delivered by Duke Kunshan University’s Executive Education and BD Medical, aided the company in achieving an “organizational” leadership transformation. This case was awarded the 2023 Ram Charan Management Practice Award for Excellence.
A century-old medical company known for valuing processes and systems, BD Medical has been able to achieve sustained growth, and has successfully merged with a culturally very different peer company of a similar age. What is the secret that has enabled the company to continue adapting to the market in the uncertain era of VUCA? BD Medical’s experience offers a model for reshaping middle and senior leadership to find the right balance between robustness and flexibility, and to achieve continuous growth.
Based on data taken from the National Medical Products Administration, the operating income of China’s medical device market has increased from RMB 20 billion in 1996 to RMB 1.3 trillion in 2022. This rapid growth has made China the second-largest medical device market in the world today. Operating income has grown at an annual rate of around 12% over the past two decades, significantly higher than the overall growth rate of the pharmaceutical industry. It is expected that in the next five years, it will continue to achieve a rapid annual growth rate of over 10%. Facing such a large and rapidly growing market, major global medical device companies, including BD Medical, have increased their investment in the Chinese market.
BD Medical is a medical technology company founded in the United States, with a corporate history spanning more than 120 years. Its main business comprises three sectors and nine categories: medical (drug infusion solutions, drug management solutions and pharmaceutical systems), interventional (peripheral intervention, specialty surgery, tumor diagnosis, urology and intensive care), and life sciences (biological science and integrated diagnostic solutions). BD Medical is a pioneer in numerous disruptive medical technologies and devices, including commonly used hospital equipment such as vacuum blood collection tubes and implanted needle devices.
| Medical | Interventional | Life Science |
| Drug infusion solutions | Peripheral intervention | Biological science |
| Drug management solutions | Specialty surgery | Integrated diagnostic solutions |
| Pharmaceutical systems | Tumor diagnosis | |
| Urology and intensive care |
Since entering the Chinese market in 1994, BD Medical has witnessed the rapid development of China’s medical device industry. With the philosophy of “In China, For China”, the company has so far invested in 8 companies in China, establishing 3 local manufacturing plants, 7 training centers, 2 R&D centers, and 1 customer service center, as well as 2 customer experience centers and innovation centers. BD Medical is a beneficiary of the rapid development of China’s medical device industry, with its operating income in the country growing from $200 million in 2011 to over $1.5 billion in ten years, achieving double-digit annual growth.
I. The Secret of Rapid Growth
The rapid development of BD China, besides benefiting from the growth of the industry, primarily stems from its focus on talent cultivation, nurturing talent teams, and improving leadership. Unlike other countries, the medical device industry in China features a ToC, ToB, and ToG model: it services not only a wide range of patients and medical staff but also hospitals and government agencies responsible for volume-based procurement. The industry is a high employee involvement industry, placing exceptionally high demands on its staff, particularly its leaders. Human factors are considered a key variable influencing performance.
BD China emphasizes talent development, especially in leadership, closely linked to the efforts of its current leader, James Deng.
James Deng is Global Senior Vice President and General Manager of Greater China at BD Medical, with nearly thirty years of management experience in the healthcare sector. A medical practitioner himself, he once taught at Zhejiang University School of Medicine and has five years of clinical experience. Before joining BD Medical, he served as CEO and President of Novartis China and Vice President of Marketing at Novartis USA. Prior to Novartis, he worked at Johnson & Johnson (Xi’an Janssen).
In 2011, James Deng left his position as CEO and President of Novartis China and became General Manager for Greater China at BD Medical. Under his leadership, the company launched its strategy of being “In China, For China”.
Over the following decade, BD Medical established a complete value chain system in China, covering all links from R&D and production to marketing and after-sales service, forming a business ecosystem centered on BD. This promoted the localization of the company in China, especially in terms of “talent localization” – James Deng considers talent to be one of the driving forces behind BD China’s innovation, and one of the company’s significant competitive advantages.
James Deng takes great pride in cultivating local talent. He often compares the HR Department to BD’s R&D Department, seeing their role as identifying and nurturing people with BD DNA. This is achieved by aligning their business capabilities, cultural values, team spirit, forward-thinking approach, and innovative mindset, then placing them in suitable positions and doing everything possible to support their growth.
II. Challenges in the VUCA Era
In early 2016, BD China designed and developed its “Group Mentoring for General Managers (GMGM) Leadership Development Program”, combining resources from globally renowned universities such as Harvard Business School and The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. This Program condensed the wisdom of the entire Greater China senior management team at BD Medical, with James Deng personally serving as a mentor and guest lecturer. In addition, the GMGM Program introduced an innovative digital training camp, oriented towards business operations, selecting real business scenarios to explore innovative business models and uncover new opportunities for growth.
The GMGM Program is an 18-month initiative deeply rooted in BD Medical’s strategic development plans and global health industry trends. It employs a multifaceted approach to talent development, including leadership breakthrough exploration, strategic and digital transformation training, general manager mentoring, one-on-one leadership coaching, and interdisciplinary learning. This approach continuously drives the spiral growth of talented individuals in terms of perception, cognition, and practice.
This Program aims to shape a diverse and multifaceted leadership for the future of BD Medical and the healthcare industry at large, targeting high-potential senior managers within Greater China. Participants on the GMGM Program not only improve their capabilities but almost invariably also receive promotions in terms of their responsibilities or positions. However, the challenges brought about by several significant events made James Deng realize that as well as the GMGM Program, there was also a need for leadership programs aimed at heads of business units and functional departments.
The first challenge was the acquisition and merging of Bard Medical – a real life test of whether business synergies could be achieved and key talent retained. On April 24, 2017, BD Medical acquired Bard Medical for $24 billion in a cash and stock transaction. This acquisition enriched BD Medical’s oncology and surgical product portfolio, significantly expanding its share in the global medical device market. Notably, Bard held a large market share in China, which was a rapidly growing segment, meaning the key to merging and acquisition lay in the Chinese market.
Bard, known for producing high-value consumables, had a long-standing reputation in the industry. Unlike BD’s conservative and process-focused style, Bard was known for its innovative spirit, smaller yet refined operations, and emphasis on flexibility. In the Chinese market, it lacked basic functional departments, yet its teams operated much like special military forces – flexible and strong. How to successfully integrate the two companies and retain key talents was the challenge James Deng was facing. It was not a matter that regional heads could resolve simply by holding a meeting, but required different business and functional departments to gradually build up trust and achieve true synergy.
Another challenge arose from the volume-based procurement of medical devices. In 2018, China began piloting volume-based procurement for pharmaceuticals, and the following year, medical devices were also included. This introduced significant uncertainty to the medical device industry at the time: on the one hand, the implementation of volume-based procurement directly impacted suppliers’ sales models; on the other, if products failed to meet procurement demands, it could lead to reduced orders and revenue. Volume-based procurement also brought immense pressure due to the ensuing sharp decline in product prices.
With the escalating U.S.-China trade war and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic, it was as if “grey rhinos” and “black swans” were coming one on top of the other. James Deng began to realize that in the VUCA era, although traditional “organizational” leaders still had advantages in terms of strategy, planning and execution, and were capable of timely implementation of strategic transformations, “because they tend to maintain the current pace and seldom set challenging goals, and follow superior directives without much initiative or creativity, there is a need to transition towards leaders with greater foresight, creativity, and capacity for transformation”. (quote by James Deng).
III. Seeking New Solutions
James Deng believes that “leaders in the new era of the healthcare industry must be able to seize the moment, be willing to take risks, use their own influence to expand their networks and social circles, actively seek cooperation, and obtain broad support”. Focusing on BD’s 2025 business strategy of “Grow, Simplify and Empower”, and based on the company’s overall talent development strategy, he began to push for a transformation in “organizational” leadership. He prioritized improving leadership in various business and functional departments such as innovation, R&D, finance, human resources, and marketing, and started looking globally for professional institutions that could work closely with BD China to drive change and enhance leadership.
BD Medical’s 2025 Strategy (Source: BD Official Website)
James Deng wanted to find true partners who understood the challenges of BD Medical’s business, and were more aligned with their actual needs to achieve three key objectives:
First, to develop local talent that is well-versed in international medical regulations: As a global medical technology company, BD Medical actively incorporates global innovations in the medical device industry, while remaining grounded in local challenges to enhance clinical treatment quality for healthcare workers and improve the clinical experience for patients. This also means that BD Medical’s managers in China not only have to face China’s local challenges, but also need to work effectively with BD Medical’s global innovation ecosystem while gaining recognition and support from stakeholders in both China and the United States. The ability to build consensus is particularly significant when faced with linguistic, cultural, and policy differences between China and the US, especially when coupled with geopolitical conflicts and pandemic lockdowns.
Second, to cultivate talent with extensive management and leadership skills across departments: BD Medical’s business development activities constantly face enormous disruptions and challenges: digital technology, the COVID-19 pandemic, and medical insurance policy reform, to name but a few. Addressing these challenges requires not only an interdisciplinary perspective but also cross-departmental collaboration, turning people familiar with departmental operations into leaders who can guide the company in battle.
Third, to solidify the foundation for the company’s sustainable development through a culture of innovation: Innovation is undoubtedly the core driver of BD Medical’s growth. However, balancing the generation of ideas with a focus on resources, maintaining an open attitude with controlled management, and ensuring future business development while maintaining current performance, all of these require key talents to have an accurate grasp of the scale and pace of innovation.
James Deng believes that clearly defining these key objectives is essential for achieving the company’s 2025 business strategy goals.
After a round of global consultation, BD chose to collaborate with the Executive Education Department at Duke Kunshan University to jointly design and customize an executive education program. The Executive Education program at Duke Kunshan University is globally renowned, having been ranked first in the world for customized executive education by the Financial Times for over a decade. It adheres to Duke’s rigorous academic style and unique philosophy of customization, combined with a deeper understanding of the Chinese market, making it the optimal choice for BD Medical. This program was later named the “Business Acceleration Program (BAP)”.
Duke Kunshan University’s executive education model covers four aspects: (1) Problem based design: Center the program design around your key opportunities and challenges; (2) Co-create to drive change: Create a learning environment conducive to change for your people and organization; (3) Seamless execution: Make the program delivery and execution hassle free to your team through a total service orientation; (4) Memorable experience: Employ unique active learning methods that stick with participants and measure impact to prove it.
Methodology of Duke Kunshan University’s Executive Education program (Source: Duke Kunshan University’s Executive Education)
The Executive Education program at Duke Kunshan University recognizes that every company faces a learning dilemma: the smartest executives are often the hardest to teach. Leaders are often constrained by their own success; people around them are reluctant to challenge them or to pass on honest feedback from clients or teams. Some executives persist in entrenched beliefs and behavior, often leading to emotional tension, and thus affecting the organization’s transformation and personal change. Duke Kunshan University’s learning experiences are carefully crafted to help participants increase self-awareness at the right times and places, effectively integrating these insights with the future vision of their organization, thereby improving both themselves and their impact on the organization.
Creative Tension in the Educational Process (Source: Duke Kunshan University’s Executive Education)
IV. Transformation of ‘Organizational’ Leadership
James Deng believes that in the context of rapid industry changes during the VUCA era, mainstream ‘organizational’ leaders in the healthcare industry urgently need to transform into leaders with greater foresight, creativity, and capacity for change. They must find a balance between robustness and flexibility. “Leaders in the new era are adept at seizing opportunities, willing to take risks, able to use their influence to continuously expand their connections and social circles, and actively seek cooperation and widespread support”, he says.
James Deng firmly believes that outstanding leaders should have the ‘muscle’ of a large enterprise with the ‘soul’ of a startup. Employees should not only gain professional skills, broadened horizons, and a wide range of information through the platforms and resources of large enterprises, but should also possess an innovative spirit and an entrepreneurial mindset, daring to take risks.
The BAP Program differs from traditional business school talent development programs. The deep involvement and support of BD Medical’s own executives ensure that the program maintains the highest level of openness and breakthrough from design to delivery. The program comprises five major modules: global thinking and agile leadership transformation, strategic corporate finance and digital empowerment channels, innovation and design thinking to solve complex business problems, global medical device innovation and commercialization and business simulation, and corporate athletes and entrepreneurship. The depth and breadth of the content ensure a qualitative enhancement in terms of leaders’ foresight, creativity, and capacity for change.
BD BAP Course Modules (Source: Duke Kunshan University’s Executive Education)
The program design is forward-looking, incorporating a global perspective on development trends within the healthcare industry. It uses a combination of classroom teaching, business simulation, and immersive interdisciplinary learning, centering on BD’s business challenges to carry out innovative and action-learning projects that truly create value for the company’s business development and digital innovation goals. At the same time, participants’ action-learning projects are supported by the company’s senior management, with dedicated project teams established for their implementation, gradually realizing actual commercial value.
Transformation is also initiated on both organizational and structural levels:
Cultivating servant leadership and creating strategically agile organizations: (1) In the process of adhering to a localized talent strategy, BD China places particular emphasis on leadership development. BD Medical adheres to a people-centric corporate development philosophy, vigorously implementing the BD Way, which includes values (code of conduct), leadership commitment (traits and leadership styles), and mindset (work attitude). (2) BD advocates servant leadership, selecting potential employees from within the organization every year for one-on-one discussions with the general manager, and thinking about how to align their development with the company’s growth. The company advocates de-emphasizing ‘positional power’, prioritizing the empowerment of teams and partners, and fostering better trust, complementary growth, and efficient execution between team members.
Encouraging internal mobility and diversified development to improve talent retention: Considering BD’s high standards for talent selection, recruiting people directly from the field becomes increasingly difficult. Therefore, improved internal talent retention through structured channels is crucial. (1) BD Medical introduced the ‘L-shaped’ talent development curve, balancing the retention of BD DNA with diversified talent development. This breaks away from the traditional pattern of employing people for specific tasks, driving a new approach of tasking people for jobs, offering internal rotation opportunities and TAR (Take a Risk) projects, and encouraging internal mobility. (2) BD Medical actively cultivates an ‘inclusive culture’ within the company, helping people from different professional backgrounds and industry experience to work closely together, thus maximizing team efficiency and individual innovation.
V. Initial Success in Reshaping
Although the BD BAP Program has only been in place for a little over two years, it has already begun to show initial success in terms of reshaping and enhancing middle and senior leadership. This is evident through a number of example cases:
Smooth integration of Bard. After the merger between BD Medical and Bard, BD China undertook what it considered a “relatively comprehensive” “journey of transformation”: firstly, not changing the heads of each product line team, and secondly, not advocating a one-sided culture. James Deng proposed a new BD culture that merged elements from both the original BD and Bard approaches. In the early stages of the GMGM Program, core executives from both sides were distributed fairly widely, at approximately a one-to-one ratio, but it was later found that such a training scheme did little to enhance overall synergies. This situation only changed after working together with Duke Kunshan University’s Executive Education on the BAP Program: BD China’s HR team and the Executive Education team designed the project together, covering all aspects of system construction, content design, integration of internal and external resources, arrangement of online and offline courses, and how groups communicated. Through exchange-style rotation and talent mobility between personnel from the original BD and Bard teams over 1-2 years, genuine integration was achieved, gradually forming the new BD team culture.
BAP Program Data on Talent Development and Key Talent Retention (Source: Provided by BD China)
Breaking down departmental barriers. BD China’s products cover over 5,000 hospitals, but due to the large scope of its product range, different product lines within BD were represented by different distributors, and there had never been a sharing of distribution channel resources. The reason is understandable: channels are the “private domain” of sales personnel, who not only have no incentive to share, but also fear “losing their territory”, not to mention the high cost of decentralized communication. Consequently, when a sales person leaves, resources might also be lost, and new employees may struggle to take over. Although James Deng had always considered ways of escaping this dilemma, conditions were never quite right to put his ideas into practice. As part of the BAP Program, an action learning group made up of members from different product lines and functional departments (the “BD Didi” project group) showed James Deng the possibility of breaking down inter-departmental barriers.
The initial idea of the “BD Didi” project was to allow BD to send orders and distributors (channels) to accept orders online, rather than through specific sales personnel. The project gained attention at a high-level reporting meeting. Initially considered no more than a “homework exercise” for the project group, senior management decided to officially launch and support the idea, promoting in-depth discussions and exploration of the project’s overall value. After six months, with strong support from various BUs, BD Medical’s mutually beneficial business opportunity platform was established, creating a full-process digital platform covering all aspects from posting business opportunities to achieving cooperation. Through a transparent, efficient, and fair system, this was able to break down product line and departmental ‘hoarding’ of information, further strengthening cooperation with distributors and partners, rapidly increasing hospital coverage, and achieving a mutually beneficial, win-win situation.
BD BAP Program action learning.
BD BAP Program Action Learning (Source: Provided by Duke Kunshan University’s Executive Education)
The Emergence of “Strong Teams”. Before the merger with Bard, BD Medical was known for its stringent processes and well-established management systems, making it adept at the “legion warfare” model. Bard, known for its flat and flexible structure, excelled in a “special forces” model, making use of smaller teams. After the merger, as departmental barriers were broken down, the new BD was able to combine the strengths of both companies. Within a hierarchical framework, it put forward the concept of flat, networked, and virtual “Strong Teams” for specific projects. Each “Strong Team” has clear objectives. According to specific tasks, members from different departments voluntarily combine to establish dotted line connections in new projects and cooperate with each other without changing the original reporting relationship. Once the task is completed, the team also disbands – indeed, this is a prime example of BD finding a new balance between robustness and flexibility.
Cognitive Enhancement in Leadership Development (Source: Provided by Duke Kunshan University’s Executive Education)
Any transformation comes from within, but it often requires a catalyst. The BAP Program is a catalyst for change. Akin to Duke Kunshan University’s motto “Knowledge in Service to Society”, the Program design emphasizes driving transformation through knowledge, and not just imparting knowledge. If a good leadership development program is likened to pouring water into a cup, filling participants with knowledge, then BD Medical’s BAP Program design pays more attention to the cup itself, i.e., the participants’ self-awareness. Once self-awareness is allowed to open up, people’s self-imposed limitations will shrink, enlarging their capacity for learning. In the journey of reshaping middle and senior leadership, BD China has found a balance between robustness and flexibility, and while accelerating business development, a new culture and DNA are also gradually taking shape.
Yu Liang, Deng Yongbing, Zhang Xiujuan | Text
Reposted from Harvard Business Review Case Study
