Future-Ready Enterprises!
The sustainability field continues to shape industries by integrating responsible practices into business strategies. With an increasing focus on environmental and social accountability, companies are reevaluating their operations to meet growing expectations. Regulatory frameworks, stakeholder demands, and technological advancements are driving this transformation. The sector now focuses on long-term value creation, ensuring businesses contribute positively to society while maintaining profitability. Companies are incorporating sustainable supply chains, reducing carbon footprints, and investing in ethical governance to meet sustainability goals. This shift reflects a broader recognition that responsible business practices enhance resilience and competitive advantage in a progressing global economy.
Petra Wicklandt, Chief Sustainability Officer at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany brings a thoughtful leadership approach to developing sustainability initiatives. Her ability to balance strategic vision with practical execution has enabled her company to make significant progress toward its ambitious sustainability goals. She cultivates collaboration across diverse sectors, ensuring sustainability remains a core business priority rather than an auxiliary concern. Petra believes in transparent communication and fair decision-making, enabling her teams to stay engaged and innovative. Her leadership style integrates sustainability with broader corporate objectives, ensuring environmental and social considerations align with business growth. Petra continues to influence sustainability strategies beyond regulatory compliance by cultivating a purpose driven approach.
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, integrates sustainability into its core operations, reinforcing its commitment to responsible business practices. With a history spanning over 357 years, the company remains dedicated to scientific and technological innovation while addressing global sustainability challenges. The company’s long-term sustainability goals are to deliver sustainable innovations and technologies to its customers, positively impact the health and well-being of its patients, integrate sustainability across its value chain, achieve climate neutrality by 2040 and reduce resource consumption. By setting these targets, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, ensures its operations align with global environmental and societal expectations. Through continuous innovation and strategic investments, the company demonstrates how integrating sustainability within corporate frameworks contributes to long-term success while positively impacting communities and ecosystems worldwide.
Let’s explore Petra’s inventive leadership in sustainability:
A Journey of Professional Growth and Leadership
Petra often gets surprised looks after sharing that she has spent 30 years at one company. However, Petra is pleased to say there was never time to get bored. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, has more than 357 years of science the Life Sciences, Healthcare, and Electronics sectors. Petra has always found new opportunities to develop and grow; each new role has taught her meaningful lessons.
After leaving her first job at DuPont, Petra began working as a Pharmaceutical Development Lab Manager at the Healthcare business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. She loved the work and eventually led a group of lab managers. Petra learned that a good leader does not always have to be the top expert and should trust the team.
A few years later, she was offered the opportunity to serve as Production Manager for one of the company’s pharmaceutical manufacturing sites. Initially, this was nother goal, but her manager and mentor convinced her it was a good step. She was first sent to one of the plants in France to train, and then, over the next few years, she drove a complete rebuild and modernization of the facility she led. This required influencing and securing budget and investment and advocating and lobbying at various levels of the organization. Petra learned to never lose sight of longterm goals, stay persistent, and never give up.
Following this, Petra moved into the job she had always dreamed of Head of Pharmaceutical Development, and then Head of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Development in R&D. It was gratifying for her to be part of a team developing new and better medicines for patients fighting cancer and multiple sclerosis. Petra learned how to manage a large team with several staff levels where she realized that you can never overcommunicate and cannot merely cascade information. Engaging people, hearing ideas, and building consensus around information are essential.
Petra’s next role was in a completely new environment, requiring some personal and professional courage. She was asked to build a government affairs organization and develop a corporate sustainability strategy. During this time, Petra gained deep insight into the opportunities and challenges of various business sectors and functions within the global organization. Petra learned to embrace big changes and realized that the most significant learning comes from a job far outside one’s comfort zone.
Petra’s most recent move has brought her to her current role, where she oversees various functions, including Sustainability, Cybersecurity, Animal Welfare, Trade Compliance, Corporate Quality Assurance, Crisis Management, and Bioethics & Digital Ethics. Petra’s learning process is still in full swing.
Sustaining High Performance and Engagement in Teams
She believes successful leadership requires effort and attention across three dimensions: innovation, continuous improvement, and inspiration. Petra also believes in the performance of highly engaged teams. Fortunately, most people are highly plugged-in when they join a company, but the goal of a good leader is to help sustain and expand performance and engagement as a team continues to grow. Petra’s priority is to ensure a fair process, especially when making difficult decisions. For her, fairness, honest and open communication, and appreciation are central elements of leadership and inspiration.
Petra also thinks having a strong individual, team, and organizational purpose is essential and powerful. To her, purpose is more than a buzzword; it is part of the cultural fabric of teams and workplaces. Petra’s team has its purpose of shaping a sustainable future in mind when contributing to innovations that help patients, protect the environment or animals, develop more sustainable offerings, prevent the counterfeiting of medical products, and ensure the safety of employees. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is about “Sparking Discovery, Elevating Humanity,” a newly refreshed vision statement for the company but a centuries-old conviction of the organization to contribute to health and the world positively.
Balancing Local and Global Interactions in Teams
Petra highlights that global team management carries unique challenges and great opportunities to bring together a broad set of talents through local and global lenses. Indeed, on a local team, one can interact directly with all team members face-to-face, sitting across from them inmeetings or seeing them in the hallway or at lunch. In larger, global, or now hybrid organizations, one relies more on digital channels and needs to respect different time zones. She once had a team with direct reports in the US, Europe, and China. In this case, virtual meetings needed to be limited to a certain amount of time, which was good for driving focus and clarity.
With all the current virtual communication technologies across messaging, video, and audio, global team meetings and collaboration have greatly improved and become more personal and connected. Petra also holds regular bimonthly town hall meetings with all colleagues in her organization via video call.
However, she still believes that nothing can truly replace face-to-face interaction. Therefore, she travels to different locations and meets with team members face-to-face. Virtual interactions cannot replace having a nice dinner together or engaging in team-building activities.
Finding Personal Balance in Leadership Roles
According to her, every employee, whether in a leadership role or not, must find their balance, which can look very different for each person. For some, part-time work is the answer; for others, exercise or mindfulness practices can be a tremendous stress reliever.
Petra’s primary source of balance has always been her family. It is certainly not easy for employees to juggle family and work. In Petra’s case, she has two daughters, now 15 and 24 years old, and she always worked full-time aside from six months of parental leave for each child. Petra’s children kept her busy from the moment she got home. Like most women, there was little time for sports, time-consuming hobbies, or pets. And yes, sometimes Petra wished she had more time for friends.
She had strong support from her husband, who was an early adopter of fathers taking parental leave when their first daughter was born. They had a daycare for their children on the same street where they lived, which helped a lot. Petra’s in-laws were always available to pick up the children or care for them when they were sick.
They were very fortunate to have this support structure around them, and Petra knows not everyone has this. However, she would advise any employee or leader to try to build an ecosystem of support around them and their family as much as they can. She also believes everyone needs to give themselves a little bit of grace. A friend once gave her good advice: “Stop worrying. Mothers always have a guilty conscience, whether they work full-time, parttime, or stay at home.”
Addressing New Challenges in Sustainability Investments
Petra thinks it’s natural that new challenges can feel the most difficult because solutions have not yet been found. With this in mind, she shares the challenge of calculating the return on investment of sustainability investments, for example. There is hardly another area within Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany that has such concrete, externally published targets which are set 15-25 years beforehand.
For instance, the company aims to reach climate neutrality by 2040. Acting on climate neutrality is not philanthropy; it is a business imperative that will ensurethe organization’s resilience. Investing today in reducing the carbon footprint will pay off. As a business, the company is accustomed to positive business cases being calculable. The business case for investing in climate neutrality until 2040 and beyond has many unknowns.
Considering indirect Scope 3 emissions in an intricate supply chain and where a company’s influence is limited, for example, is complicated. Here the cost of inaction can be calculated by multiplying the remaining emissions by an expected carbon price or tax or by the expected cost of offsetting or removing carbon. However, even this is highly speculative. Regardless she is confident that a solution will be found and appear easy in hindsight.
With every challenge, Petra has learned more and expanded her repertoire of solution options. This experience allows her to act calmly and thoughtfully, even in stressful situations.
Professional Choices & Personal Practices for Sustainable Living
Petra’s most significant and most direct positive impact on society and the planet is undoubtedly through her work. That is why she recommends to all young professionals still deciding what field they want to work in to carefully consider what kind of changes they want to see in the world and then decide what role or industry they want to invest their energy in. She feels sustainability is certainly a good choice.
She also tries to be sustainable in her personal life. It starts with shopping at a local supermarket just a few steps from her home. She does not have to drive and prefers food from local suppliers. At home, her family tries not to waste energy by leaving electrical appliances on standby, and her children can testify that “please turn off the lights” is one of the most common phrases in their house. They also have a solar panel on their roof, and Petra’s current car is a hybrid that allows her to commute without using fossil fuels.
Team-Driven Success in Personal and Professional Life
Petra’s successes are always the result of well-functioning teams in her personal life and business. On a personal level, Petra is most proud of her two daughters, whom she and her husband have raised together. Their daughters have grown into individuals who make thoughtful decisions and Petra thinks they are doing well. Their 24-year-old daughter is studying medicine, and their 15-year-old daughter has just decided to spend six months abroad in New Zealand.
Professionally, Petra is very proud to have contributed to the success of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s long history during her 30 year tenure. Whether it was modernizing a manufacturing site that provided local employment at the beginning of her career, contributing to new and innovative cancer and multiple sclerosis drugs during her tenure in Research and Development, or driving progress in reducing carbon emissions. Petra feels proud to have helped bring these positive things into the world.
Creating a Legacy of Shared Value
She considers legacy a significant term, but she also believes any passionate leader with a long-term vision and goals wants to see their work have a lasting impact. Including her. However, Petra acknowledges that many external and internal factors will change, and the next generation of leaders and sustainability drivers must respond to new challenges, embrace new technologies, and address new unmet needs. She would be pleased if one ofher strongest convictions survived all these changes: Doing the right thing for the planet, human health, and society creates shared value for organizations and society.
