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“The more accurate our calculations and analyses are, the better the company is able to, for example, reallocate funds to research and development of other medicines and treatment options for patients, both human and animals.”

Same company. Same position. They must be similar in personality, right? Not Murat and Miquel. Miquel likes clear strategy, timely decisions while Murat likes to take the initiative, drive them with a high level of ambition. Murat tends to see things as black and white while Miquel likes to avoid extremes, if at all possible. Murat likes to move fast, and Miquel prefers to take his time to make decisions. Murat jokingly comments, “If you’d let me go, I would probably go straight to the moon, but then I would realize I forgot the plans and miss the landing. You need Miquel there to be able to make the landing. We complement and learn from each other. It’s beautiful harmony.” Despite their differences in character, they do – like astronauts – share a common passion. For numbers, strategic analysis, and getting things done, albeit in their own ways.

Born and raised in Turkey, Murat is the Finance Head for the Human Pharma business unit for mid-sized EU countries. Miquel, born and raised in Spain, is the Finance Head for the Animal Health business unit for the same regional operating unit, internally called MIDI. Both are based in Boehringer Ingelheim’s MIDI office in Amsterdam.

Financial firemen
A normal day for Murat begins early, around 7 in the morning. “Between 7 and 8:30 is when I process my mailbox, cross-check my agenda, and get ready for the day. Everything in the company has a financial aspect to it, whether new windows need to be purchased in one of the offices or management needs insights for a critical decision they need to be made in just a few hours. We have to be ready to respond when issues arise and drive actionable insights. That means we need to be agile and think along when situations arise, such as with COVID-19 when many borders closed. What are the financial implications for medicines that can’t get access to where they need to be? We calculate those implications, make long-term scenario plans, but also feed into quick decision-making at a moment’s notice.” Agility is key for someone like Miquel and Murat.

Miquel echoes his colleague’s description of a typical day, except for one point – the starting time. For Miquel, it’s 9 am, and that’s because that’s when the core business activities begin to happen. Miquel says, “All decisions we feed into have impacts on real people and animals. So, we also have to be accountable for what we do. The more accurate our calculations and analyses are, the better the company is able to, for example, reallocate funds to research and development of other medicines and treatment options for patients. Finance is a tool to achieve the company’s final goals, and to put the resources where the impact on society can be maximized.”

“Finance is a tool to achieve the company’s final goals, and to put resources where the impact on society can be maximized.”

Miquel and Murat are financial firemen, suppressing any hot flames that pop up and preventing any fires from happening in the future. They are “silent heroes,” as Murat puts it. He goes on to say that “while the days can be long, we can be flexible with our working hours. Boehringer Ingelheim doesn’t measure our hours, but the output. I could close my computer up now and head home if I wanted to, as long as I get my work done, and do it well, of course. It’s important that I feel good about what I’ve been able to contribute that day and am ready for what may come next.”

“Silent heroes...”​

Open communications and trust​
The hard work doesn’t go unrecognized, as Miquel describes. “I have very open communications with my business partner; we talk on a daily basis, so if something went well, my manager tells me. But I also think recognition comes in the form of trust here. “For instance, I will be asked to assess a risk or opportunity and provide my input on it for a strategic decision, and my manager, management team, and colleagues will simply trust that my judgment call is correct – no second-guessing. That is an incredible sign of trust. And the more you can show that your calculations or judgment calls are correct, the more trust you build over time.”

Murat shares his own story of trust and, with it, career growth. “In 2014, I was asked to go to the Netherlands from Turkey – where I had been working for a couple of years already as a business controller in the Istanbul office. I was supposed to carry out the same role in the Netherlands, but after the second week in the role, I was tasked with the additional (and more senior) responsibility to build up the financial structure for the regional office and support management in everything they needed in a start-up phase. I was put into cold water, but I think I survived. I’m still in that office today, and I see many of the bits and pieces I put into place five years ago. That opportunity came because my managers trusted that I could do the job. That experience was the most challenging and rewarding of my career so far. I will remember it forever.”

“Trust and empowerment on me were very high. Yes, I was put into cold water, but I manage to survive and learned a lot. I’m back in that office today with my current role…”

Murat and Miquel could go on for hours talking about their passion for their work. What makes it all worth it for them is knowing that, at the end of the day, their time and dedication go to helping animals and people around the world. As Miquel points out, “it’s an adrenaline rush.”

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MIDI center is Boehringer Ingelheim’s regional office based in Amsterdam, which takes care of 8 different operating units (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden).​

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