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Procurement, The Convergent Department in LabOps
Episode

Luis Portela, Procurement Director of Indirect Materials and Services at Hovione

Procurement, The Convergent Department in LabOps

Labs aren’t so different from home.

 

In this episode, Luis Portela, Procurement Director of Indirect Materials and Services at Hovione, talks about what his job in procurement entails concerning skills, challenges, opportunities, and leadership. Whether for raw materials, packaging, or equipment, this department touches every area in a company like Hovione. It is Luis’s job to be prepared to tackle any procurement-related complication and solve it in the best way as fast as possible. He illustrates this by sharing his experience with the lack of materials and supplies at Hovione’s scattered factories during the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating how one can pull a team together and make things work in difficult environments. Luis pulled from his chemical engineering experience in labs and from his organized, technical-minded brain to structure himself within the procurement area. He provides advice on managing people and how you must prove your knowledge with humility to gain respect and lead amongst equals in your team.

 

Tune in and listen to what Luis has learned as a Procurement Director in the pharma industry!

Procurement, The Convergent Department in LabOps

About Luis Portela:

Luis is a highly experienced Procurement Director from the Fine Chemicals/Pharma, Petrochemicals, and FMCG industries with a solid background in Chemical Engineering. He excels in achieving cost reductions in direct and indirect spending and in delivering “bottom line-meaningful” results to exceed the company’s targets. He leads international procurement teams, developing and implementing the right strategy for the area, and focuses on aligning people, processes, and tools to reach the required high-performance levels and deliver its contribution to the company’s goals. His positive attitude towards handling difficult problems and the added value that resulted thereof lead to my being nominated to various cross-functional international teams mandated to redesign processes, implement new technologies, or assess the feasibility of important new investments.

 

LabOps_Luis Portela: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

LabOps_Luis Portela: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Kerri Anderson:
By building a platform to share challenges, thoughts from leaders, and network together, the LabOps Leadership Podcast is elevating LabOps professionals as well as the industry as a whole.

Samantha Black:
With the intent of unlocking the power of LabOps, we deliver unique insights to execute the mission at hand, to standardize LabOps, and empower LabOps leaders.

Kerri Anderson:
I’m Kerri Anderson.

Samantha Black:
And I’m Samantha Black. Welcome to the LabOps Leadership podcast.

Samantha Black:
So today we’re with Luis Portela, who is the Procurement Director of Indirect Materials and Services at Hovione. Thanks for joining us today, Luis.

Luis Portela:
Thanks for having me.

Samantha Black:
Awesome, so let’s jump right in, and can you just tell us how you got to where you are today?

Luis Portela:
It’s a long story, but it starts with Chemical Engineering at college, and then I did a PhD in chemical engineering, so I lived four years in Belgium. So I’m back to the country, to Portugal, where I’m in at the moment. And I went through a range of companies, FMCG, detergents, food industry, petrochemicals was a big chunk in me, and somewhere along the lines and I ended here, so where I am now in the pharma industry. So Hovione is well, strictly speaking it’s a fine chemicals company, but we work exclusively for the pharma industry, so we manufacture exclusively what it’s called active pharmaceutical ingredients. So the part of the medicines that actually has a therapeutic effect on patients. And yeah, so I’ve been in procurement for over 20 years now, but something that I actually, to begin with, I told some interview that I would not like to do and that’s like many years later, I landed on this and it’s actually something that I like a lot because it’s a very transversal, it touches each and every area of the company, especially indirects, because it’s, you know, if it’s not a raw material or a packaging material, then it’s indirect and then it’s the whole company, in fact. So services, materials, equipment, so a bit of this and that, everything runs through this area. So that’s, that’s where I am now. So I’m responsible for, this area in the company. We’re not a huge company, but we are geographically very scattered, which is good. So culturally, time zone-wise, problem-wise, it’s very, very, very diverse. And so I run teams at the factories and also centrally in Lisbon where the head office of the company is located. So, so much for Luis Portela.

Kerri Anderson:
I think it’s really interesting that you made jump from chemical engineering to procurement. What was that like originally studying chemical engineering and then switching over to procurement? Because I know that’s something a lot of our listeners can relate to, just because a lot of us have a science background and then we leave the bench and end up in operations.

Luis Portela:
It’s about real, has a, there’s a lot to do with this, as you may imagine. I didn’t go, you know, as I said, it was not in my mind to start in procurement to have a procurement activity. So I started in production, when I first moved to the second company I worked for, actually, I moved to planning and that was probably production planning. That was a deliberate move. So I’ve been in, I was in, in, in production. So I said, okay, fine, no. I know, now know about maintenance, I know about production, so let’s do something different. So I learned it, in production planning. I organized the area and then we restructured the company and there was an opportunity in procurement, they we’re looking for someone, but they didn’t want to bring someone from the outside, so they asked me, well, will you take this? And because of the restructuring of the company, I said, yeah. I kind of restructured myself and then switched to this new area and I ended up liking it a lot. So that’s what’s, why in the subsequent moves, I remained in procurement and I didn’t want to go back to production within, let’s say, an intermission of a year and a half, two years where I actually did chemical engineering, so design and calculations, but I quickly returned to procurement. So yeah, actually what I like to be and where I wanted to develop the work that I’ve been doing with this company.

Samantha Black:
So, you know, you’re in procurement for 20 years. I bet the last couple of years have been crazy, so, and in a unique way, because I feel like you probably had a lot more visibility than you have in the past. So what has that been like? You’ve probably been seen as more of a key team member in the last couple of years. Like do you have maybe an example of how you’ve really impacted like the speed at which things are happening and drugs are being developed, maybe faster than before?

Luis Portela:
I can give you an example, and COVID for good and bad, you know, gives us all a lot of examples, a lot of experience. I can give you an example in what happened at the beginning of COVID. In fact, so we’ve got, our company we’ve got four factories, one in the US, in New Jersey, two in Europe, so one in Cork, Ireland, and another one in Portugal, and a fourth one in Macao, in China. So when the pandemic started in the East, so it affected that factory first, and there was immediate lack of materials, especially lack of PPEs. People did need masks, suits, and mind you, so because we are a pharmaceutical company in certain areas of production, people wear suits which are the exact same suits as hospitals, as the people that, the professionals at hospitals use, and especially in these days, they were fully uniformed. They were the exact same ones. So what we did across the company, actually, we started to manage the company as a whole and not as different units, and so the West fed the East. And so we started pumping materials that they needed and we keep on feeding the factory with everything, so as, so that production would not stop for want of either the actual raw materials or spares or equipment, but also PPEs and all the equipment they needed to just keep operating the unit. It was not a COVID-related thing. It was just the suits and garments they had to use in order to operate it. So then the pandemic spread, and so it hits Europe and then eventually the US, and then we reversed the flow because by the time it hit the US, in fact, it was alleviating a little bit in China, in our production, you know, the industrial base of China started to come alive again, and so we managed that sort of reverse the flow, and then it was the East that was feeding the West. And it was an interesting exercise because you could see, and it also happened with raw materials here and there and some and some services. So this is where probably the most challenging ones because it meant people moving about, which was not an easy thing at that time, but we still managed to do it somehow. So in the end, you know, like three years later, you look back and said, well, did we stop? Did we have a problem, a hiccup? Now, we had lots of stress, definitely, but no stoppage. Together with this, and it was an interesting one, so the company decided that because of all industrial setup, we could also be able to produce, we were also able to produce disinfectants. So we’ve gotten the UN formula for hand disinfectant and we started producing it and distributing it free to hospital or NGs, you know, in all factories we produce I think in excess of 200 tonnes or so of material across, let’s say across the world in these four areas, and we started, you know, feeding the adjacent areas of hospitals, of daycare centers, and things like that. So, and it was interesting because at one point in time I had to go to a hospital. My father was ill, so I took him there and I was waiting in the waiting room and I start looking around and it was very strange because there were some bottles with the Hovione’s logo. I said, well, this is very strange what this is, because we don’t sell to the end public, we sell to the big pharma companies, and it was the disinfectant that we were producing. So it was, you know, one feels proud because conceptually you’re helping, you know, we’re setting up things, we work with our suppliers and make sure that everything runs smoothly, we get the bottles, you know, everybody is happy getting disinfectant for free, but you don’t actually see the effect of those actions until you are, you know, flip the coin, now you’re on the user end and then you look at that and say, wow, this is the result of our work, and that’s, that was weird but also very satisfying at the same time. So we didn’t accelerate production per se, but we kept the flow of active pharmaceutical ingredients to our customers that they could continue producing their medicines, which eventually landed on the patient’s body because they could take it, there was no stopping. So very, very challenging, but interesting to see how one can pull the team together and make things work, even in very difficult environments. Hasn’t become any easier since then, so I must say so, for one reason or another, you stop pandemic or no, just isn’t the same problem as it was like three years ago, then you have a different sort of geopolitical problems and you have to adapt in different ways. So that’s, let’s say that’s our take on this. How can you contribute, you know, if things keep on working as they were, no changes, you know, it’s like there you are, you’re breathing, you know, it’s fine. You only notice them until it’s not there, and then their problems come. So we’ve become a bit under focus, probably more now in these last, say, nine months or so, with the energy crisis, then, yes, there is, it starts, there starts to be this, you know, you get impacted by a cost question. Pandemic was not about cost, it was about availability. Today it’s about cost. And there, yes, you know, where are my savings? Where are you know, where are my cost of licenses? These are the questions of, you know, the powers that be and that, yes, then we become under the spotlight and we get, we do.

Samantha Black:
Yeah, I mean, I think it takes a ton of creativity, honestly, and going from the bench to a support role, I think some people think that it’s less taxing, but it’s you know, you’re just flexing a different muscle in a different way. And so I think it’s really incredible that you’re so problem-solving, you’re still trying to figure out the best solution. And so just, it just looks a little different, but I love to see that work and that effort. And, you know, it takes a lot to not be a cog in the machine. You know, sometimes that’s really valuable, and so I think it’s really great to see the light shine on that because it’s, you know, maybe it’s not all glitzy and you have some big … in the end, but it’s still super important.

Luis Portela:
Sometimes it’s frustrating because, you know, we get a lot of questions from all areas. And sometimes, I mean, we look at that and say, well, I wish you just, you know, stop 5 seconds to think about what you’re asking me and you’ll probably solve it on the spot without asking us anything. The flip side is, you know, they come to me because they know I solve problems, and in fact, you know, we’re proud, you know, we don’t go out and tell telling how good we are. However, we see that day in, day out, people come to us to solve things which, and then because we touch so many areas and we have to think about, in so many different ways, it’s not like your brain is prepared to tackle a problem and solve it in the best possible way fast as we can. And so it’s more, let’s say, convenient to people that say, well, rather than we know we spent here 2 hours. I mean, let’s just go over to those guys over there because, you know, their brains are made to solve problems. It’s frustrating because, well, I also want, I also have other things to do. But on the other hand, you know, the contribution to the company doesn’t come just strictly on what you’re doing, but actually what more can you do, you know, support other areas and not just you know, I just found, you know, an alternative for a very critical supplier. Blah, blah, blah. So it’s interesting, this area, I think it’s, you know, it’s a sort of underdog for one, however, once you’re in it, it’s very pleasing because, you know, it’s so diverse that you know, your, if you have a brain that is focused on, that needs to be fed with different topics, different things happening, then definitely, yes, you know, procurement and especially indirect, it’s a place to be. It was a good speech, wasn’t it?

Kerri Anderson:
Yeah! Absolutely, I think it is an area also that, in lab operations, a lot of people end up being part of but don’t have a background or experience in it. What’s something you can say to people that a lot of times at a startup, you know, a lab manager or lab operations director, ends up kind of being the procurement person in the beginning? What are some tips or tricks you have to offer to people for that?

Luis Portela:
Well, let’s say, so, I was a scientist once, during four years and interestingly, probably halfway through that period, so as you become a senior member of the scientific staff of the lab where I was working in Laval and in Belgium, so myself and a colleague of mine, we were asked by the lab director this, you know, gases, gas distribution lines, spare parts, and things and glassware for, you know, that’s all scientists, all technicians were using. It said, well, this is a bit of a mess, now you’re two of the most senior people I have here, you know, just do something to organize this. So it was probably my first procurement slash management function that alongside my scientific activity there. So we set us, we set the two of us together to the task of managing resources, physical resources, not people, but actually the physical support of the lab, you know, all these distributions. So, we reduced by two-thirds the number of bottles at the lab. We reorganized lines. We put feeding points to each and every point. We manage the spares for chromatographs. When we were on the verge of buying new chromatographs, we would interact with the lab director and say, okay, you know, let’s not buy 20 different brands, you know, sort of unconsciously applying what we do today as solid logistics slash planning, slash parts management, warehouse management. We were doing that intuitively. He also said, well, we are spending a lot of money in spares and they are quite expensive, tooth connections and stuff like that. And that’s, so if you have, I think for these you do need a sort of engineering or technical-minded mind. You have to be a technical-minded person to see these in a pragmatic way. So, the lab, you know, what do you want to produce out of the lab you produce science, with, in order to produce science, you have to have the means. And you know, the worst thing that could happen is that, you know, like six months before Congress or something, you want to finish your experiment and suddenly you’re out of, you know, five-inch tubing or something like that, and that really doesn’t work. So working there in the lab environment, but alongside it, managing the lab’s resources to make sure that they were available to our colleagues was actually very interesting. So, you know, establishing cupboards for, I was going to say raw materials for reagents, you know, glassware, you know, making sure, also pushing people into cleaning them because it’s not just making sure that it exists, but it can be depleted very quickly if nobody does housekeeping. So it was very, various areas, so managing stocks, managing the physical distribution of things at the lab, but also, you know, asking people to change it with their minds so that enough resources were put back to service, you know, with a fast cycle. So, yeah, it was interesting. It was a sort of antechamber to professional life in there. So, yeah, that’s what you can do, and if you really want, there’s so many things that you can do in these, even in small labs, but just making sure that don’t have an oxygen bottle and the nitrogen bottle at each and every corner of your lab and just have one and then buy stretch of stainless steel tubing and then distribute it. So you have to think about that, so it’s not an unsolvable problem. You may need a little bit more resources in the beginning, but then in the long run, it pays to be organized. So you have to have a structured mind to do it. But if you can, then by all means, you know, where you’re working will immediately feel the difference of your activity.

Samantha Black:
So you have so much experience in this. And I know, which is, I think actually more unusual, because I think, you know, when we talk about LabOps, it’s more of an evolving field, you know, like technology implementation now, and that side of the, you know, you’re really strong in like the lab management side. So I think it’s really incredible that you have so much experience in this for somebody who’s not or who’s new or not as well versed as you are, like what are some of the different things that you can do now or that you see? You know, obviously, there’s a lot of management side, procurement, but you know, if you were talking to a younger LabOps manager out there, what does a career in this look like? Because you do, you have had one. And so how have you managed that and what might that look like for others?

Luis Portela:
Well, as I said, I mean, it’s not, you know, a lab is not so different from home. And if you dislike, as I do, living in confusion and disorganization, then you eventually bring that to your own workplace. And then you start pushing those practices about, and influence people. I think before, you know, materials are materials and they will do whatever you want, and if you have the money, then you’ll have the solution, so it’s fine. So I think more difficult than that is actually managing people. And even worse is if you don’t have a hierarchical relationship with them. So just at your level, you’re just first among equals. So what you have to do and that’s what I found at that time, changing people’s minds, not because you tell them to, but because you manage to make them see the right angle, the right approach to being in a lab. You know, very quickly, I mean, if you work in a lab, you see that, again, take glassware. I mean, you know, try and not clean them just one day and then you’ll see the next day when you come, it’s a mess. It’s totally not organized, you know, some cleaning requires chemical cleaning so things have to be put and stashed somewhere and they have to stay there for one or two days before they are properly cleaned and then can be put back to service again. So if I can give some advice, you know, start trying and influence people the right way, you know, get your brain organized. Think you’re at home, think that you don’t want to have a, trip on roller skates. I mean, likewise, I mean, you don’t want to just get to the lab and say, I need a glass cup somehow or pipettes or something, and then just realize there are 20 of those and you can’t use them. So then suddenly you’re very well and neatly organized schedule for that day is gone, because then you spend like one hour trying to clean things. So, you know, if you are organized, please continue to be organized at work. On one hand, and on the other hand, you know, you have to create an impact in others, and if you manage to do that when you’re not their manager, then later on you will be more than a manager. You will be a leader because people, you know, just give advice to people and they will take it as a very strong recommendation to follow. So you’ll become a leader. So, and these, you have to practice. I mean, sometimes you have it in you, but if you, if you have never used it then it’s very difficult to make it work. I can give you an example, and actually, it was, my first company I first worked for was L’Oreal, the French cosmetics company, and that was in a factory. And I was put to, shortly after I was in a living maintenance. I had to handle, I had to lead people that were like 20, 30 years of experience, and I was just fresh out of the university or my PhD and came back to Portugal and then went to this company. So, and we had to test an equipment and it involved, you know, what the circuits are, we need to have a bucket. And the guy said, oh, it’s working well. But my, I’m very curious, so I said, okay, fine, but let’s just test one by one of these circuits because I want to see them working and open rather than closed. And you looked at me and said, we need the bucket. And I told him, yes, we need a bucket. And he told me, bucket is in the washing area. Yes, the bucket is in the washing area. And in my mind, you know, I’m, you know, late twenties. The guy is 50 years old. I said, you know, I have to tell him to go there. I will not go, so he has to go there. So I, you know, I gave a direct order to go and get the bucket. No, you know, you’re telling these and you need your mind says, what if he says no, you know, but he just says, I will not do it. So I gave him 2 seconds. So it was, I mean, I remember this deal as if it had been yesterday. I told him, go and get the bucket. One, two, please. And the guy, you know, you give the direct order, give them some time, and then, you know, you soften the blow and the guy look looked at me and said, now, I will go. So, you know, it looks a bit silly, but it’s this, you know, the principle, you know, stick and carrot, you know, you order, but, you know, you also, you understand I mean, this I’m just a little guy and the guy is 20 years in the company and I’m giving him orders just because I’ve got a university degree and, you know, handling this. He knows about the machine far more than I do, but actually what I want to do is learn it. So if you do that, then you gain respect and then you can be a leader even amongst equals. So this is what I, if I can recommend anything, you have to show that you know how to do it. Another example, I’m actually, I always was full of good experiences, you know, we just disassembled together with a technician, a machine to put the shrink graph and the guy, you know, everything was dismantled. He looks at me and says, It’s 5:00, I have to go. Can you reassemble it? You know, there was a team waiting for the machine to start. And I said, no problem. I can do it. There was another technician there. It just, was just looking at me and wasn’t doing anything, but I knew how to reassemble that. So I reassembled the machine, put it to work. I didn’t say anything else, but just looked at them and said, you can now work. And then I left and went home. But you know, people just start looking at you in a different way because, you know, just they just prove-test you, and if you succeed in the, you know, in those trials, then you get respect. I mean, they may not like you, but they say, I mean, you know, it’s no use, you know, putting this guy in a difficult situation because you can come out of it. So it’s all these things, is this type of interaction. You have to understand, you have to understand who is on the other side. You have to be strict, but you don’t have to be harsh or, you know, I know if this even exists in English, but gratuitously harsh. I mean, it’s just for no good reason, that doesn’t work now. And if you insert, you know, a please or if you do the right thing, and then, because I could have looked at the other guy and said, you come here and help me, it was easy, but that was the easy way out. So, you know, here and there you just have an attitude and you show them. So, and this is among equals amongst scientists, you know, even with the lab technicians, if they are there to support you in your activity, if you prove that you can do, then even if you don’t, they will just fine. I mean, we cannot, we cannot play with this guy because, I mean, he will just play along with the exact same level of proficiency as we do. So that’s no good. So if I have a recommendation is yes, know, know how to manage people, and this is very difficult, but this is important. And the second thing is if you can show to them that you’re able technically to execute things in practice as they do, then they will accept whatever, whichever instructions you give them, because, you know, they acknowledge that you are at least as equal to them. So these are my two main thoughts about this, what I’ve gotten throughout this life.

Kerri Anderson:
I think that’s beautifully well said. It is one of the hard things I think about being in lab operations is those soft skills that people can’t teach you, you have to learn on your own, and I think it is what makes the difference between an incredible lab professional.

Luis Portela:
I got one here in, I was already in procurement, by the way. I draw, you know, for me, these very experiences and the different environments I was exposed to are a huge source of experience and skills, and capabilities. So was already in procurement, we had to close a deal on some chromatographs, so we had to buy them, and then we needed the surfaces for the chromatograph, and then I was explaining to the heads of the analytical chemistry area at Hovione, already, the head of that lab. And I was telling me, okay, so but we need, we need this service. So the guy has to come and, you know, and start to tell, you know, he has to disassemble the detector and then the column, oh, we’ll lower the temperature and then, you know, input and the rotating valve. I just closed and said, you know, these are the activities they have to do, sort of listing the scope of service. So I ended that, and they looked at me and this one lady said, but you know how to operate a chromatograph? I said, yeah, of course, you know, I’ve been in lab. So again, like with the other machine, I can disassemble it and reassemble it and I know what I need to operate this. It’s, was again, four years of my life. And again there was influence. I said, oh, okay, fine. You know.

Samantha Black:
Yeah. It helps gain …

Luis Portela:
Different level of interaction. You just don’t rub that on people’s faces, but you give them this example, or you just, show it naturally. It’s not, it doesn’t have to be, you know, pulled out of nowhere and out of context. But if you get the opportunity and then, then you show that you know, and they will look at you with different eyes. So it was funny, and I internally, I was laughing and said, yes, of course, I kind of, I wouldn’t mind going back to the lab, that’s for sure. But yes, show them that you know how to do it.

Samantha Black:
Yeah, and I think staying humble about it, I mean that’s just, doesn’t matter if you’re in LabOps or not. That’s just good, good life advice for anybody’s career. So I think, yeah, I think that applies no matter what. And it also what I heard you say is like just to get lots of different types of experience, like just, you know, that all contributes to your career now, even if it’s not directly LabOps, it’s still everything you do contributes to your success later in life. So get lots of different types of experience.

Luis Portela:
Now, you draw, you draw on your experience. I mean, even if your professional career, whether you’re starting or well-advanced, it’s made of chunks. However, these are not watertight chunks, they permeate and you draw and they are there at your disposal. I mean, just, you know, good things and bad things. It’s sort of a platitude, you know, learn with your mistakes, but it’s true, I mean, it’s not again, I’m not proactively looking, you know, where is my last, where was my last experience on this? But as you’re exposed to new situations, I mean, if you remember and if you are doing things consciously, you drag all these experiences behind you and you can say, okay, now I have to open the drawer of this, and then I just go there and pull some. Okay, so this, and actually, you know, I did this last time like 15 years ago, and it was with a person, and people don’t change, you know, technology and equipment change but people don’t, so if there was a certain reaction certain to such an attitude from my side, you know, you can bet that if it was like that 15 years ago, chances are it will be the same today. So, you know, let’s try and modify. And I mean, it’s interesting when you ask me questions and I start thinking about this in a rational way, but I don’t rationalize this as I go by. You know, it’s just instinctively, I said, oh, yeah, okay. And, you know, examples keep popping to the front of my mind and say, okay, right now this is the approach. So let’s see if I, let’s see if it works again, or let’s try and avoid it. So this is how I use the experience I’ve been having. And if, I mean if you have been just one year at the lab, 250 days, not counting the weekends, but people tend to work on weekends at the lab as well. You know, the equipment is only available when, when you cancel. And it’s 200 days that you’ve been exposed to anything. So, you know, it’s already a lot of experience. People don’t think, oh, I’ve just been one year fine, you know, make the most of, out of that, 200-something days.

Kerri Anderson:
A lot can happen in a year.

Luis Portela:
Oh, yeah.

Samantha Black:
Awesome, well, I, yeah, I think that your experience is wonderful and I have really enjoyed hearing about it, because I, even me, I’m not in LabOps, but I’m sitting here and I’m like, yeah, all of that’s true. Like it’s, you know, …

Kerri Anderson:
I am, and I feel the same way.

Samantha Black:
It’s like I can learn so much from that and take it. It’s just such good a reminder to people. People are the focus and if you focus on people and treating people right and understanding how to interact with people, you’re going to be successful no matter what you do or where you go. So I love that. Okay, Luis, the last question I want to ask you is just, if somebody listened to the podcast and just said, oh my gosh, I want to talk to this guy some more, how can they get in touch with you? Where can they find you or how can they stay up to date with what you’re doing?

Luis Portela:
Well, the easiest, the easiest, and the straightforward answer these days, you know, social media. I mean, I’m there, if you ask me. Am I active? Very active. Totally not. I have, I tend to have a sort of a lazy approach to that here and there. I get in touch with people on a need-use basis. I don’t volunteer, probably I’m wrong, but I don’t volunteer so much information. But here and there, you know, we get in touch with people and we organize. So, I mean, you can find me on LinkedIn. You will find me also on the other, you know, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but I’ve got those accounts for very specific reasons, here and there, I needed to open it, and I opened it. I’m barely ever there really. I mean, it’s there, but don’t expect a lot of feedback. On LinkedIn, yes, and here and there I just pop out and exchange a few texts with these people. I tend to use it because, you know, you go to Congresses or to trade shows, and that’s the way to stay in touch with people. And suddenly you have a difficulty or you want to clarify something, and so I talk with these guys, so let’s get back in touch, and so it’s very useful. So yeah, it can be used, a quick exchange of information then, if it’s necessary to, you know, let’s have a one-hour chat or something like that or half an hour, no problem. Then we can connect through there and then, then we find a way to zoom in, no pun intended, and do it. So, yes, it’s possible, no problem.

Samantha Black:
Okay, awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. This has been an awesome conversation. I have learned so much, and just thank you for sharing your journey with us. Really appreciate it.

Luis Portela:
Thank you, I mean, I hope it was useful for those that look after your podcasts. I mean, if it can contribute to them being better professionals or simply better people. I mean, I’m very happy already with that. So it was good talking to you and thank you a lot for having me in this.

Kerri Anderson:
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the LabOps Leadership Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today’s guest.

Samantha Black:
For show notes, resources, and more information about LabOps Unite, please visit us at LabOps.Community/Podcast. This show is powered by Elemental Machines.

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Things You’ll Learn:

  • Hovione exclusively manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients, the part of the medicines that has a therapeutic effect on patients.
  • Hovione has factories around the world: one in the US, two in Europe (Ireland and Portugal), and the fourth one in Macao, China
  • Procurement is an area in LabOperations that many people end up being part of but don’t have a background or experience in.
  • If you can humbly show your team that you’re technically able to execute things as they do, they will accept whichever instructions you give them, as they’ll acknowledge that you are at least equal.
  • Make sure you push people to be organized.
  • The pandemic brought availability conflicts, while today’s environment brings a cost issue. 

Resources:

  • Connect with and follow Luis Portela on LinkedIn.
  • Follow Hovione on LinkedIn.
  • Discover the Hovione Website!
  • Connect with and follow co-host Kerri Anderson on LinkedIn.
Visit US HERE