Episode #76 – Dr. Cristiano von Simson

Do you work in the animal health industry or veterinary profession? Have you ever wondered how people began their careers and how they got to where they are today? Hi everyone, I’m Stacy Pursell, the founder and CEO of The VET Recruiter, the leading executive search and recruiting firm for the animal health industry and veterinary profession. I was the first recruiter to specialize in the animal health industry and veterinary profession in the United States, and built the first search firm to serve this unique niche. For the past 25 plus years, I have built relationships with the industry’s top leaders and trailblazers. The People of Animal Health podcast highlights incredible individuals I have connected with throughout my career. You will be able to learn more about their lives, careers, and contributions. With our wide range of expert guests, you’ll be sure to learn something new in every episode. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the episode.

Welcome to The People of Animal Health podcast. Today on The People of Animal Health podcast, we welcome Dr. Cristiano von Simson, head of marketing and veterinary services at Virbac U.S. With more than 30 years in the animal health industry, Cristiano brings a rare blend of veterinary expertise and business leadership. His career spans clinical practice, global marketing and technical innovation from launching groundbreaking parasiticides to shaping post-approval research. A native of Brazil and lifelong horsemen, Cristiano’s journey reflects his deep passions for animal science and people. Join us as he shares insights on leadership, innovation and the evolving world of veterinary medicine. Cristiano, welcome to The People of Animal Health podcast. How are you today?

I’m doing great, thank you Stacy. Happy to be here, thanks for having me.

Well, I’m so glad to have you here today. I’ve been looking forward to our conversation for a number of weeks now. Cristiano, I’d love to start off at the beginning, what was your life like growing up and where did you grow up?

So, as you said in your intro, I am originally from Brazil. I grew up in a big city in Sao Paulo, so typical urban child. No big farm relations or anything. But as a young kid, I went up in the mountains and saw the horse for the first time. I was probably seven or eight. And for some reason I got in love with horses and that led to many of my career choices, including going to veterinary school and being in animal health.

Well, you began your career as an equine veterinarian in Brazil. What was that experience like for you?

So, as I’m growing up and thinking of career, and the big driving force for me was my love for horses and wanting to be around horses, I decided to go to vet school specifically with a single focus of being an equine veterinarian. So, I did the vet school in Sao Paulo and then I did a residency at the racetrack. Back then it was the way to learn more about horse, the best way to learn more about horse medicine. They had six spots available every year for residents, and you would get exposed to the best medicine and best veterinarians in Brazil. They had 3,000 horses stabled there, so a lot of experience, hands-on experience. I gained a lot of that hands-on experience in a year. Independent practitioner, but that was a nice build up to that.

Well, what compelled you to move from clinical practice to industry?

Yeah, that was not on my original plan. When I was in vet school and all that I never thought that I would be working industry. In fact, I had very little knowledge on what vets do in industry. But after a few years with my equine practice in Brazil, I realized that I was happy. I was working a lot, was having a lot of fun in my work, but I felt at the somewhat of a routine, I realized that I wasn’t doing anything new, anything different, and I wasn’t learning anything new. And I am one of those people that always need to be learning more and need new challenges.

Talking to a classmate from vet school, he was working in a animal health distributor in Brazil, and he started to educate me on vets in the industry and the opportunities, and basically suggested that I should interview because there was a company hiring for a veterinarian. They were launching their companion animals business in Brazil, and they wanted somebody to help support the equine vaccines. So, that’s how I joined industry to be a field veterinarian, visiting the other equine vets. So, it was not that dramatic rupture. Little did I know that soon after that they will drag me in to help with marketing, and the first product I launched was Frontline, which was a big game changer. So, that kickstarted my marketing career.

Well, I know your background pretty well, and you and I have worked together on a couple of your career transitions over the years. I’ve placed you in a couple of different leadership roles and worked with you in a variety of capacities. But I’d love if you could give our audience an overview of your work experience in the animal health industry, starting from when you joined industry.

So as I said, I joined as a veterinarian to provide technical support, and serendipity took me into marketing. Again, that was unplanned, because when I joined the company to sell the equine vaccines, as many times happen in animal health, equine was not a focus for anybody in the company. They had limited resources, they were launching also dog and cat vaccines, and nobody had done anything in terms of marketing literature, vet detailer, marketing materials for equine. So, when I show up for work and I ask, “What materials do I have to share with the veterinarians I’ll be visiting?” They said, “Well, we don’t have it yet. Can you help us do it?” And that’s how I started marketing. Soon after that, they asked me to help with marketing for, take over the marketing function for the Companion of Vaccines, and then we were launching Frontline, which for the ones that are younger and don’t know, Frontline was a big game changer.

It was the first new flea and tick product in Brazil, adulticide right after Program, or lufenuron, and it grew like crazy. It changed the face of the industry. So, I was fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. And as now I was doing mostly marketing, then I decided that I needed to learning. So, I did an MBA to get some marketing training, and not only do it by the seat of my pants, which was really good. The fact that I had done some marketing before, taking the course was probably really good because I took more out of that course knowing what I needed to learn and knowing how I would apply things. Marketing and animal health is not always the same as in other areas, so a lot of it is the same, a lot of the marketing science is the same, but the way you apply and our customers, they are somewhat unique.

So, being a veterinarian always helped me to identify with our customers and understand their drivers. For example, many times we think that the vet hospital is a business and we think we’re going to be, if we don’t know any better, you say, “Oh, it’s just like any other business owner.” Well, vets are very emotional. They are there because they want to protect pets, so the levers can be different. I worked with Ron Mariu in Brazil, and then we became Merial with a merger. Merial offered me at the end of the ’90s, in ’99, they offered me a position in the U.S. and their global marketing team. So in 2001, no, in 2000 we moved to the U.S., April of 2000, and then I experienced the global marketing function for a few years. Then I joined the U.S. operations marketing, I launched Previcox, and I was in charge of the pharmaceuticals for Merial.

My next step in my career was a bit of a move from marketing to key opinion leaders. Merial realized that every company needs opinion leaders. A lot of people have relationship with opinion leaders, but usually there was not somebody in charge of the overall strategy, coordinating the efforts, bringing all that information together, and really have a planned and strategic approach to it. So, they created that function and invited me to do that, which I really enjoy doing. It’s a long-term proposition. When you were talking about developing opinion leaders, you don’t do that in a week or two. Like many other things in animal health, you need to plan, and be persistent, and build towards your goals. So it was again, new opportunity, new learning. At that point, you called me and told me that Bayer was looking for a head of vet services. And you might remember this, I told you I’m not interested because a head of vet services the top of that career and I’m too young to be at the top. I need to have more opportunities.

But you clarified to me that what Bayer wanted is somebody to turn their vet services team in a function that will really support the business instead of being just the technical people there. And that was very attractive to me because it was strategic, it was business, and because for the first time I’ll be in charge of people, developing people. I had few people reporting to me in marketing, but at Bayer I had 50 people under me and it was a whole new learning again. And what I learned since is that that’s the only thing that never gets to be a routine, that you never finish learning. Working with people, developing people, helping them grow, motivating them, it’s always fun and challenging, and it’s a very big responsibility.

Well, I do remember our conversation that day, by the way, and I’m glad you do too. And I’m really curious, Cristiano, because you have worked across major animal health companies for more than 30 years, you’ve had an impressive career. How has veterinary marketing evolved during your career, especially in the age of digital engagement and data-driven strategy?

Oh, that’s a great question. I started back when we didn’t have digital. In fact, we had very little. We didn’t even have integrated computers in some parts of the industry. The way I see it, so I was doing TV commercials and print advertising and all that, very old school. The way I see it, the concepts in marketing, what you want to do never changed. The science is still the same, your goals are still the same. The tools that we have today are so much better, you can get feedback on what’s working, what’s not working instantly almost. You can test things with all the digital capabilities. You can segment your markets much better, you can reach them at a lower cost and much faster. So, all these digital tools that we get and we keep getting new things every minute it seems, made it so much more fun and so much more rewarding to do it.

Now, I remember back in the day when the big thing was to do a TV commercial if you are talking pet owner advertisement, that was one year preparing to it. And you do so your research, your test concepts and all that because you have only one chance. If that commercial is not perfect, it’s not the best one, it flops, hey, come back next year. You just wasted all that money. Today you can be a lot more entrepreneurial, a lot more creative because if it doesn’t work, you tweak it and the entry cost is lower, and the agility is much higher. It made of course, a lot more challenging for the marketing person to move at the same speed and not to get distracted by it, still focus on goals and strategies and be very organized on what I really want to achieve, and then pick the best tools to do it. That never changed.

Well, with you having both a veterinary degree and an MBA, you’ve successfully combined medical expertise with business knowledge. How has that combination shaped your approach to leadership and innovation?

Yes, I love marketing and I love the business, but when I’m traveling and I’m filling that immigration form, I still write profession veterinarian. So I identify as a veterinarian, and why I’m saying this, it’s because that helps me understand our customers really well. Not only the vets, but also the pet owners and their love for their pets, which helps me a lot on the marketing and business part of our business, of our industry. At the end of the day, the moment you lose connection to what drives the decisions for your customers, you cannot be an effective marketeer. You cannot sell well. So, having the technical background to understand products, what they do and what potential differentials they have from competition helps me position them well, and helps me explain that better to our customers, both the veterinary customers and the pet owners. And that’s one of the things I really enjoy doing is bringing new solutions to people that take care of animals, to allow them to do a better job, and then have that message being clear and simple so they can understand it and do a better job taking care of animals.

Well, at Virbac you lead both marketing and veterinary services, two functions that can sometimes be siloed. How does integrating these teams create value for both veterinarians and pet owners?

Yeah, it’s very true, it has been several times in my career that was hard to explain am I a marketing person or am I a technical person? And many people have a hard time understanding how come you’re both, and that doesn’t fit the mold. I have a passion for both. So, when I was in a typical marketing role, I always did a lot of the technical work too. For example, when I was launching Previcox, we did the 1,000 dog trial to support the launch, and that explains well what I do. I use the veterinary, the technical function to allow me to do better marketing, to create claims, to create differentials. So aligning, finally having both responsibilities and a job that encompasses both makes sense in that sense on my personal journey, but it also makes sense for the business because even when you have a large part of your communication going directly to pet owners, a good chunk of our communication still go to the veterinarians and the veterinary recommendation and endorsement is still critical for many of our products, if not all of them.

So, being able to align those two functions so our vet team helps the veterinarians on how they’re going to educate their pet owners, and everybody’s on message and on strategy makes it really efficient. The vet team also is working hand-in-hand with the sales force. So a big part of their role is coaching, mentoring, and training the salespeople so they are on message and they can talk to the veterinarians and be aligned. We are at the day of omnichannel messaging. It’s really important that if your product is in different channels, on retail, on the RX channel, on veterinary hospitals, that the pet owner, the final user get that consistent message in all the different places that they go. So, that’s one of the reasons I like having both functions. Of course, I have great people supporting me, otherwise that wouldn’t be feasible.

Well, Cristiano, Virbac is known for its dermatology and parasiticide products. What innovations or trends are you most excited about in these segments?

Yeah, globally Virbac has roots in biologics. The name of the company, Virbac, comes from virus and bacteria. But in the U.S., Virbac is the dermatology, dental and parasiticide company because that’s how we got into the U.S. So, we really partnered with the dermatologists and dental experts, and then we brought the parasiticides on board. I’m really excited with all the innovations in dermatology. We have monoclonal antibodies, we have JAK inhibitors, and we have a host of new versions of those coming. What our challenge today is make sure that we don’t oversimplify it. What I see is that there’s a growing disconnect between what the experts in dermatology recommend and what the general practitioners are doing, and there’s lots of frustrations because of that. So, one of the things that we are trying to do at Virbac, and we’ve been doing, is facilitate that communication and give better tools for the general practitioner to really be up to speed with the best approaches.

In an environment where the consultations with the pet owner are getting shorter, and most practicing veterinarians are being pressured to not spend much time talking to a customer, it’s hard to not oversimplify your decisions. There’s a lot of interesting innovation coming in dermatology, not only new molecules and new products, but improvements on our ongoing products and new ways to use older products that make them complementary. And parasiticides has been a passion all my career, and again, there’s been a lot of innovation. What I am concerned today is that as we move to very innovative and extremely interesting products that combine a lot of parasite protections in one product and that are very convenient to give to the dog, the price of those products also increased a lot, and we’re protecting less and less pets at the veterinary hospital.

There’s more and more pets skipping years going without protection. There’s a whole conversation in the industry about access to care or spectrum of care, we need to bring that discussion to products too. I think we should have, as a veterinarian talking to a customer, they should have their best in class favorite product, but also have a plan B for people that cannot spend or do not want to spend that kind of money so we can continue to protect more pets. That’s one of the things that Virbac is really engaged with. We are bringing some additional products and some innovation in the future, but we have a good range of affordable parasiticides products that will allow people to protect more pets or veterinarians to protect more pets.

That’s so important. Well, your team also manages pharmacovigilance and post-approval studies. How do these efforts feed back into marketing strategy and customer trust?

So, those are two areas that really feed into the marketing and the overall messaging and positioning from the products. On the pharmacovigilance side, of course it’s a regulatory requirement, but that’s not all it is. There’s a wealth of data coming in through that group that takes those calls from customers inquires. So, what are their questions when they’re using a product, or adverse events? And many of the adverse events are caused by, “I didn’t use the product right,” or, “My client didn’t use the product right despite my recommendation.” Bringing that information in is a great wealth of knowledge of what parts of your communication on your product are working and what are parts are not working, how you can educate your customers better so they have better results with your product on top of the regulatory and the quality control that you also are important for a product stewardship.

So, we see the pharmacovigilance group as a source of information and insights, but also as the ones that maintain client loyalty. It’s been demonstrated that if you buy a product of a brand and you don’t have a problem with it, you’ll have about 56% of chance that you’re going to buy again from the same brand. If you buy it, have a problem and you get great service, that repurchase intention to over 70%. Because problems happen even in the Rolls Royce, but if you know that the company is going to have your back that makes a big difference.

The data I mentioned is for consumers, so pet owners and normal people. For veterinarians, I believe that is probably even better. I haven’t seen research specifically on that, but the fact that you can back up your veterinarians when they experience issues is, we all know in the industry that’s a big source of load. Now, the post-approval studies or what you call marketing studies is where you really generate differential claims to bring your product, to differentiate your product from the crowd. And so, particularly in more commodity markets or more competitive markets when you have several players, it’s important for your product to be unique in some way, and many times those post-approval studies can do that.

So, I love to have them on the marketing side, but as a veterinarian I also love the fact that we can bring more information and develop the science and the medicine by industry funding those post-approval studies. I had the opportunity to sponsor in company studies that really answer important questions, how Bartonella is transmitted from cat to cat? What’s the time that it takes for a tick to transmit Cytauxzoon felis? So, a bunch of those questions that would not be answered if there were industry funding can be answered with those post-approval studies.

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Well, Cristiano, you have managed cross-functional and multicultural teams across the globe. What have you learned about leading and developing teams in a scientific and highly regulated industry?

So, the first thing you learn as you travel around the world, or even if you don’t travel around the world, if you interface with people around you that have different backgrounds, socioeconomic, ethnic or anything else, is that there are a lot of differences in your vision of the word grow, because if you understand their perspectives, because we all see the world through our very individual filters that are mostly based on our background. But also that the main drivers for everybody around the world are very much the same. The basic needs, the things that people are really looking for, being healthy, have a family relationship, live in a nice place where people are kind to each other, that is ever across the globe and everywhere. Every person that you talk to will have those basic desires.

When we think of our customers, the same thing. Why do people have animals? That’s the same around the world. Why did somebody go to vet school? Same thing around the world. Our customers, the vet clinics might look different, the way they operate might look a little bit different. The reason that people are there and what drives them, it’s very similar. So, when you’re doing marketing and selling product, or when you’re leading and developing people, you need to go beyond those superficial differences and focus on the real personal needs. And usually it’s about empathy, it’s about being able to communicate and both parts being aware that yes, there’s a common ground and we all are looking for the same goals here. Being kind, and trust.

Well, I love that, being kind and having trust. Well, Cristiano, you started in the field and now you’re operating at the executive level. How do you maintain connection with veterinarians and customers on the ground today?

It’s always a challenge. Myself, every time I’m in the office behind a computer screen for more than two weeks, I start second guessing myself. So, I try to create lots of mechanisms to do that. I love going to conferences because I talk to my customers there, and with our industry colleagues and with other people that have the same job. So, I learn also from other people’s experiences, but you are not seeing them in their original environment. The veterinarian at the conference is not a veterinarian in the clinic. And so, I go to the field on a regular basis to ride with the salespeople, and we have a series of input service.

So, we have an advisory board with veterinarians, we have different field advisory teams in the company. The people that are in the front lines aren’t providing input and feedback to the executives in the office, and I’m happy to report that at Virbac that goes to the highest level. Our president in the U.S. loves to go out in the field and ride with our reps, and he really pays attention to the input of everybody that is customer facing. So that keeps us connected, not only myself but the company connected to the customers. It needs to be intentional, it needs to be organized because otherwise the other responsibilities of the job and urgencies will drive you away from that. And it needs to be visible. It’s important for your frontline team to see that management cares is listening and responds. It’s not all about listening to them, it’s about coming back and saying, “We heard from you guys this need. Here’s how we’re addressing it. Does it make sense?”

I like that. Well, after decades in a dynamic industry, what keeps you passionate about animal health and marketing?

So, my passion for animals and animal health in the veterinary industry is ingrained from day one, so I don’t know what keeps us alive but it’s still very strong. I love my colleagues in animal health. Not only the veterinarians, but the people that work in animal health industry are very special kind of people. The other thing that drives my passion, both on the technical marketing side, particularly on the marketing side nowadays, is learning. Learning new things, new challenges, and the ability of being creative entrepreneurial. One of the reasons I’m today with Virbac is because being a significant enough company but not one of the biggest players, so the top tier animal health, we cannot just play the same game with the same tools as the big players. We have companies that are 6 to 10 times larger than we are, we got to be creative, we’ve got to be entrepreneurial, we’ve got to do different things, and that always fuels my curiosity and my need for learning. So, that keeps me going.

Well, Cristiano, you still care for and ride your horses near Grapevine Lake. How does staying connected to that part of your life influence your leadership and outlook?

Nowadays, I care for them a lot more than I get to ride with a busy work at Virbac. Virbac is growing so fast that we are always very busy, but it is my therapy in terms of it’s what brings everything back in perspective. When I go out there either caring for the horses, very basic task by feeding the horses or whatever, or I go out on the trail riding my horse and look at nature, the small things that were getting big in your head, the small frustrations, the stresses of day-to-day all fall back into perspective and you realize what’s really important, and how it doesn’t pay off to stress too much about the small stuff.

And I try to bring back into my conversation as an influencer to my colleagues and my customers, and a leader. When I’m talking particularly to veterinarians, but veterinary staff and even pet owners, I always go back to the basic reason. It’s the passion for animals. Sometimes we lose that connection, we’re too focused on the other parts of the story and we forget that the reason that we’re all together on this is because we all love animals. If you connect at that level, everything else works a lot better. Same thing with leadership. As I said before, we all have the same basic needs. We all want to grow, to learn, to get better, and to work in a nice environment.

In my experience in different companies, in different situations, most of the environment, the work environment comes from leadership. If you’re not very conscious at not allowing the environment to deteriorate, to reinforcing the good behaviors and watching for the bad behaviors and correcting them, the whole work environment goes way downhill. And then your effectiveness or the quality of your results, your ability to do good work and to win, it’s much lower because everybody’s very distracted with the stresses of the work environment. If they don’t trust the company and the leader, they are not creative, they’re not entrepreneurial, they’re not going the extra mile. So, I bring that passion and that perspective in all those different areas.

Well, all of that is so true. Well, what has been the most surprising thing to you during your career in the veterinary profession or in the animal health industry?

The first big surprise is that I ended up in animal health industry, because my plan was to be a horse vet for life. So, I tell that to a lot of the young people that are starting their career, sometimes we have conversations about, “How do I plan for my future?” The big question, “Where do I want to be in 5 years or in 10 years?” And what I tell them is the important thing is to know what you like and what you don’t like, what drives you. Don’t label it too much. Think from the big perspective, “What drives me, what makes me happy? What do I enjoy doing?” And then opportunities will arise. You’ll be able to choose your path based on the different opportunities that will appear in your life.

I think another big surprise is that as I joined industry, there are two surprises. One, I was somewhat lucky to have the opportunity to launch big products, work in amazing teams, and that’s the biggest reason why my career is successful is that I was at the right place at the right time, but also I had the right people around me. Which brings to the second surprise, which is how generous and kind so many people have been across my career. And this goes from the industry people to customers, but also to the big experts in the veterinary profession. The specialists and all that. I’m extremely grateful to all the people that helped me along. I can tell you amazing stories of how they went out of their way to help me for no personal profit, and I’m trying to pay for it as much as I can now.

Well, that is the reason that attracted me to this industry, and I was talking with someone this morning and he said, “We are privileged to work in the animal health industry,” and I was reflecting on that after our conversation. And it’s so true, we are privileged to work in this industry.

Yeah, we hear that across the board from people that comes from other industries, join our industry. They say, “Oh, this is different then. I really like it here.”

How have you seen the animal health industry and the veterinary profession change over the years?

There’s been several changes. When I first started, the veterinarian in Brazil didn’t do much business in terms of product sales and all that. They were mostly selling services. With the advent of the Frontline and Advantage, and new flea and tick products, that changed dramatically. So, that was one of the changes. There’s been several other changes along the way, some good, some not so good. The change that concerns me today is the fact, well, the fact that the cost of veterinary care has been increasing for several years now, way above inflation, and we’re reaching a limit, and we are hearing everybody in industry have seen the research showing that people are skipping their annual visit, that they’re going to the vet less, the visits have been down in animal hospitals for a couple of years already. Vets are still increasing their profits because prices are going up, but the number of pets they are seeing and the number of services they’re providing is less.

That concerns me, and I think part of it is just pricing and that discussion is happening on access of care and spectrum of care. How can we be flexible and work with people that might not be able or willing to spend that money? But also price is related to value. When we stop educating customers, when we stop investing time to show that we care and to educate them on why we want them to do things, it’s really hard to get them to pay that price. If they don’t see the value, if we don’t help them see the value, why would they pay for something? With people trying to get veterinary hospitals more efficient with shorter visits and moving clients fast, we’re losing the trust in the vet. People are not getting the service that they really go there for, which is, “I want you to explain to me how to take care of my pet and give me peace of mind.” I think that’s an area that our profession as veterinarians and industry by extension should help the veterinarians to be both efficient, but not lose the key value of the veterinary service.

What does your crystal ball say about the future of the veterinary profession?

I think it’s going to be a bright future. We have challenges, we have areas that I am concerned about, but it’s a bright future because there’s so many people, because what we talk about the people here, we do this out of love, both the veterinarians, but again, many of the people in animal health first. Now, I could be doing marketing and other things that I like, cars, beer, I don’t know, but I love to be in an animal health industry and I’m staying here because of that. I think that will drive this profession to always be good, and there’s so much innovation coming in terms of new products, new ways of doing medicine, new ways to communicating with our clients. There will be a lot of transformation. Telemedicine is a hot topic, and there’s several other, AI, et cetera. So, I think we will have big events that we’ll have to manage well but I’m very optimistic about the veterinary profession.

Good, that’s so encouraging. I am as well. Cristiano, what are a few of your daily habits that you believe have allowed you to achieve success?

Well, I think the part that I struggle with, so I have to make sure that I’m very organized and I make it, I schedule it and monitor, is keeping healthy. And I say keeping healthy is mental health, is giving yourself time. My challenge is because I love so much what I do, my work is my hobby. If I let it be, my work is my full life because I enjoy it so much and I have so many amazing opportunities. So, I need to consciously allocate time for other good habits. It’s exercising, it’s spending time with your friends and family, it’s doing things outside of work to clear your head. And what I realized, I had moments in my life that I failed big time doing that and I was working too much.

I didn’t have such a clear head, I wasn’t so strategic on those moments because sometimes in your time off when you’re doing other things, you’re not really consciously thinking about it, you have your best ideas. Or you have other experiences that make you see things different. So, staying healthy is mentally and physically healthy, but also habits in terms of relationships with your family, with your friends, and the community around you are extremely important. Other than that, it’s the network. Being kind to people. As I say, I am trying to pay forward for everything that helped me, for everybody that helped me in the past, and I find that that is a very good habit just to help people as much as you can to find their way to further their products and their career without thinking exactly what’s in for me. It will come around.

You’ve always been good about that. I’ve seen that many times over the years, how you’ve helped people. You’ve helped me over the years, many times.

I don’t believe it’s a zero-sum game, I believe it’s synergistic. I believe we all grow together.

I love that. What has been the biggest adversity that you’ve encountered during your career?

I’ve been fortunate that I had challenges, had moments that I had adversities, but never something that was extremely difficult. Or maybe I didn’t see it like that. I think I had moments when, I guess I’ll go back all the way to company mergers, for example, or when Bayer was losing market share, was getting ready to be sold and my job was eliminated. Those were dramatic moments in my career, and particularly the job elimination came out of the left field. I wasn’t predicting that, but I think a lot of the way you look at things help a lot. When that happened, Bayer cut 40 jobs and they were selling manufacturing plants, selling products, et cetera, to make the business goals.

Some of my colleagues that went through the same job cut took that extremely personally, and they were hurt, personally hurt, saying, “Wow, I’ve been so loyal to this company, I do so many things, how they do that for me?” And they personified that business, that company, and that made it really hard for them to move on to say, “Okay, what can I do about this? How can I find another thing that’s going to be good?” Of course, they missed a good job at Bayer, was a good company to work for, but they could not move on. I immediately, immediate, I soon realized that it was a business decision. It was not a personal decision. It was not based on performance or anything, and Bayer was always very fair. I worked, they paid me and everything was okay. It just didn’t work any much. The goals for the company didn’t fit with the structure that they have.

So I could quickly say, “Okay, now let me find my next fund job,” and take ownership, take action and be in control in that sense, not being so much going a downward spiral because something difficult happened to you. Many times during my career I had other challenges, and this is one example. What I found is that the sooner you get over that, those negative emotions, you put it in perspective. And the way I like to think is, okay, there’s stuff I cannot control. What part can I control? What can I do to get to goals? It’s really a powerful feeling. It’s daunting, but it’s a powerful feeling to take control of your own life and work hard on finding the next job or achieving the next project, or anything like that.

And you and I worked together during that time to find your next position.

That’s correct.

At Virbac.

That’s the other thing, the network helps a lot, both in terms of that emotional support. So, the messages I got from everybody in the industry when that happened, the support message, unsolicited support messages were really helpful to get me in a confident and positive mood to find my next big job. And then, the network that will bring you opportunities will help you along the way and all that.

Well, Cristiano, what advice would you give the younger version of yourself?

I think the advice is what I might’ve mentioned before is concentrate on understanding really well what drives you, what you like and what you don’t like, and be very open-minded about opportunities. Don’t think that because you have a plan for a career and for life, that’s the only plan. You can always try different things, and if it doesn’t work you can come back and try something else. Be really open-minded and flexible, and experience different things, because that will certainly make your life more interesting and make your career grow, if not faster or not higher, it will be certainly a much more satisfying career if you’re doing what you want, what you like, and learning more about yourself and what you enjoy doing.

That’s really good advice. What message or principle do you wish you could teach everyone listening to our podcast?

I’m a team player. I love to work with other people, so my message is reach out, talk to people, listen to people, collaborate. It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s a lot more fun to grow together, and find common ground and areas that we can collaborate to get bigger results for everybody. I tried to do that a lot during my career and it always paid off.

Well, some of our guests say they had a key book that they read that helped them along the way. Do you have a key book in your life that has impacted you the most?

I have several books that were important at a time, and helped me either see things clearer or from a different perspective, bring new insights. Most recently, the one that I really enjoyed and I read a couple of times, and I’m probably going to read it again a few times in my life, is Simon Sinek book Leaders Eat Last. There’s several important messages in that book about business in general and the way it goes, but it really focused on the fact that industries exist, not to … The first reason for a business is not to generate profits for shareholders, that’s an important part of the business so they can survive. But the first reason for that business is generating value for whoever’s buying their product, being that a service or a physical product. The moment you lose connection and you focus too much on generating value for somebody else, shareholders or anywhere else, the business ceases to exist because if the client is not buying whatever you’re selling, you will eventually fail.

So, that book has clear examples, statistics and case histories that demonstrate that really well. It also talks about developing your people, and addresses something we discussed earlier today, which is the work environment and how much they trust the company generates very different results. If there’s no trust, if there’s no work environment, there’s no way they’re going to be as productive as they could be on top of not being a good place to work. So, it’s a book that I recommend to anybody in any business.

Well, Cristiano, you’ve got the mic. What is one thing that you want to share with our listeners of The People of Animal Health podcast before you drop the mic today?

I think the one thing I want to share is I know a lot of people in animal health, I love to keep in touch with my friends in all the different companies and areas of our business. I’m sure that a lot of, I don’t know a lot of our listeners, the biggest part of your listeners, though the fact that over 30 years I know a lot of people, I would love to get to know you all and learn from you and learn your experiences. So, if we ever have the opportunity to get together at a conference or if you want to reach out to me, I’m on LinkedIn and you can find me on the usual places. I’m always open to new connections, new conversations, and new collaborations. So, don’t hesitate. If anything you heard today resonates with you, reach out to me. I love to make new friends.

And that’s what I love about you, you’re so collaborative. Well, Cristiano, thank you for being my guest today on The People of Animal Health podcast. You and I have known each other for many years, and I enjoyed our conversation today.

Thank you so much for having me here, it was a pleasure. I really enjoyed working with you for many, many years. So yeah, looking to do a lot more of that.

I do as well. Thank you, Cristiano.

Thank you, have a good one.