Dr. Leyla Boumghar-Bourtchai (PharmD, PhD)

The Ascentador Questionnaire

1. What core value has been most central to your success?

Although it is difficult to select just one, I have to say that passion has been the key to my career so far. I believe that passion gives rise to courage and resilience. In the world of innovation, we often encounter headwinds from competition or from system failures or from ideas that simply didn’t work. Being able to face those headwinds and keep moving is essential for businesses, for brands, and for teams. Passion for what we are doing is at the heart of it all.

2. What qualities do you prize most highly in your colleagues?

Authenticity.

3. For what attribute or achievement do you most often hear praise?

Leadership.

4. For what attribute or decision do you most often fault yourself?

Impatience.

5. Who are your real-life role models?

My life has been so full of role models that a great many people come to mind. But whether I’m talking about someone I knew intimately well - - my father, for example, for any one of a number of great bosses - - or whether I’m talking about a famous figure like Muhammad Ali, for example - - what they all have in common is that they were passionate achievers, yes, but they always remained true to themselves. It is difficult at times to hang on to your values, but the people I admire always do.

6. What words or phrases do you most overuse?

I too often begin a sentence in English with the words, “To be honest” but have since learned that for some English speakers, this makes them question my sincerity! Although I have taken the feedback to heart, I suspect the habit comes from my French roots, where to say “Pour être honnête” signals a direct opinion coming rather than anything else.

7. For what fault in others do you have the least tolerance?

Dishonesty.

8. What was the most important experience of your formative years?

I was recruited to my first corporate job at Danone from the very traditional, French public hospital system. To discover a world with structured KPIs, a clear career path, passionate and driven leaders who really cared for their teams was incredibly exciting. The group was geographically diverse and so were my colleagues in terms of nationality, language, perspective and many other qualities. Among many other things, I came away understanding the importance of letting every member of the team shine in their own way and not imposing one’s pre-conceived ideas of success on individuals.

9. What was the first job you ever held and what did it teach you?

My first role was as a lab manager and I learned that ambition and work goals can be very different from one individual to another, and that’s ok because contribution and impact can be measured in many ways.

10. Is your work more challenging now or when you were first starting out?

Work is more challenging now. With a large team, spread out over wide geographies and time zones, my need to travel is greater and simply finding sufficient time to be available to the individual members of such a large group becomes increasingly difficult. Of course, I rely on my direct reports but I miss the days when it was possible for me, as a leader, to have a direct connection with every member of my team.

11. In what area of business have you had the greatest impact?

Innovation.

12. What has been the most significant setback or obstacle you have had to face?

There is nothing more powerful at work in a business than its culture and the realization that, at one point in my career, I was in a culture that didn’t fit me was a difficult one. It’s not that I think of any given culture as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but rather as a ‘good fit’ or ‘bad fit’ for a given individual. Culture is what determines a company’s values, and those values are what guides the selection of leaders and strategies for the business. In hierarchical cultures, for example, innovation is much harder, since innovation relies on a matrix of people and ideas to be effective. Too much hierarchy can stifle the kind of candid feedback that fuels the innovation process. Cultures where occasional failures are expected and permitted as part of a discovery process and where it is recognized that good ideas can originate anywhere are the best environments for successful innovation.

13. What are your main passions outside your professional life?

I am interested in so many things and am often picking up new pursuits. For years, though, I have spent time in “deep dive” traveling to places with complex histories and big cultures, complex baking, jewelry design, and many others.

14. What ambitions do you have that are, as yet, unfulfilled?

My husband and I have found real joy in our lives as expatriates living outside our home cultures, but as our parents and families age, we cannot help but think about living closer to them than we do today.

15. What role, if any, has “luck” played in your career?

Luck has mostly benefited me by bringing the right people my way at just the right time.

16. What experience have you had with “failure”?

“Failure” is bitter on the palate, but sweet once digested. In other words, it is essential in setting up next steps and a bright future.

17. How has your underlying source of motivation changed over time?

My motivations are essentially the same as ever. I have always wanted to be useful to people and to society at large, to be learning continually, and to approach every interaction as a two-way street. I am lucky to have people around me who keep me true to what’s important.

18. Do you have any hopes regarding your “legacy”?

I do not think of legacy as a big thing. Instead, I focus on the everyday, little things which have an impact on those around me.

19. If some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them, which are you?

For me, responding to challenges and growing from them are what creates greatness. Greatness means pushing yourself to be even better.

20. What motto or slogan best captures your current state of mind?

Live. Love. Laugh.