Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - September 2008 - (Page 19) Executive Profile however, wasn’t particularly phased by having such big shoes to fill: prior to joining NNIT, he spent ten years at the multinational software corporation CA, Inc., a role that he says prepared him more than adequately for the new challenges he had in store. “Here we have an engine running on all 12 cylinders. Can I keep that up and maybe do it better? That was the challenge…” believe it or not, so it was a good grounding for pharma.” The NNIT board contacted Kogut in 2006 with a specific view to taking the company to the next level. Kogut thought: “Here we have an engine running on all 12 cylinders. Can I keep that up and maybe do it better? That was the challenge, and so far it’s going well.” There are still things to be achieved, clearly, even in Denmark if NNIT is to be mentioned in the same breath as IBM; outside the country it will be a formidable task to catch up to the IT giants. But this is the goal in Kogut’s sights, and he Building a name He may have taken the reins of a strong, healthy company, but Kogut still has his work cut out, as he’d be the first to admit. A recent article in NNIT’s staff magazine Interface1 began by describing the scene at a business gathering: “‘Anyone who knows NNIT, put your hand up!’ Only 58 of the 100 participants raised their hands. The rest looked blank. ‘Then who knows IBM, KMD or WM-data?’ All the hands went up. It would be the same if we gathered 100 IT and finance managers together. And if we started by asking each of them to name the first provider they thought of, only four out the hundred would say NNIT.” “At CA I was running 11 northern European companies — delivery, services sales, etc. I spent the first five years building up the company, and the next five focusing on turning around the countries where sales were lower. So I’ve been heavily involved in building up and turning around companies,” he says. And the fact that he was moving to a pharma-focused company wasn’t a problem either: “Prior to CA I was ten years at SAS Scandinavian Airlines. That’s a relatively heavily-regulated industry, 22 Regulatory Affairs Will the FDA/EMEA joint inspection programme work? 25 Last Words The month’s key events from the industry’s mouth. 4 News A round-up of the last four weeks in pharma. 7 Calendar Upcoming conferences and exhibitions. http://www.ebdgroup.com/bioeurope
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