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Bruce Cozadd is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Jazz Pharmaceuticals. The company has approved medicines spanning neuroscience and hematology to oncology. Cozadd worked at ALZA Corporation for around a decade until its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in 2001 where he served as COO before founding Jazz in 2003. Trained as a biochemist at Yale for undergrad, Cozadd earned his MBA at Stanford GSB before starting his career in biotechnology.
1.“I was inspired by his company vision not only from scientific and technical standpoints but also from a business standpoint. I had nothing to do with shaping the culture at ALZA. The company had been around for decades before I joined, but it was powerful, and it was consistent. To this day, almost 15 years after the end of ALZA, people who were there still talk about the ALZA culture.”
Cozadd began his career in biotech at ALZA, which was founded by Alejandro Zaffaroni. The company had a very strong founder-driven culture and this left an imprint on Cozadd and what would become Jazz.
2. “Jazz is a purpose-led organization aiming to innovate to transform the lives of patients. We have always been focused on what good our medicines can do for people that may benefit. We are also looking at how we can make an impact on broader society and how we bring that social impact lens into our company strategy. This is an exciting area for us and one that will be an ongoing part of how we measure our success.”
3.“Being an intact, proven team with collective success, not just a group of individuals with individual successes, gave us the ability to go out and raise capital pretty aggressively.”
Jazz raised a megaround of $250M in 2004. The approach of starting a company with a portfolio of assets rather than focusing on one particular area was unprecedented at the time. Cozadd was able to recruit many former ALZA employees, which was the essential part of Jazz’s founding story. With ALZA, Jazz would likely not exist.
4.“It’s not how you treat the top candidate you can’t wait to hire, but how you treat the candidates you don’t think are a good fit, because they are going to go talk to their friends about their Jazz experience.”
Jazz’s culture is centered around 5 values: integrity, collaboration, passion, pursuit of excellence, and innovation.
5.“Leading Jazz through the 2008–09 financial crisis was quite a roller-coaster ride, but it reinforced for me the incredible power of a strong, positive corporate culture. Employees remained committed to the company’s survival and ultimate success, and many of those employees whose jobs we had to cut during that difficult time came back to the company as ‘boomerangers.’”
6. “Much in the same way companies can spiral down, they can spiral back up again. If people who’ve been involuntarily separated want to come back again, you must be doing something right. Those ‘boomerang-ers,’ as we call them, are a real source of pride for me.”
During the 2008/2009 financial crisis, Jazz had to lay off around half of their employees. A key reason why a lot of these laid off employees came back to Jazz is the company’s culture and focus on strongly conveying that their talent did not change suddenly in the “last 24 hours.”
7.“People want to be involved in meaningful work, to be given a chance to make a difference, to be recognized for what they contribute and to work in an environment where they can bring their whole selves to work — when these things aren’t present, it’s no wonder they’re not happy.
I like to keep in mind that as a leader of an organization, the environment and culture I create has an impact on employees’ health and happiness. For many people, a big source of stress in life comes from their work. I also know that to positively impact patients’ lives, we must first invest in our people.
Creating a great place to work was a key focus of our executive team, who modeled our values from the very beginning. We founded Jazz with the aim to create the best working experience in our employees’ careers.
Today, at Jazz, we strive to understand what new employees are looking for when they join our team. We give them the opportunity to provide feedback during their first 60 days on the job so we can gain an understanding of their thoughts on the company culture and how we can continue to set them up for success as they mature in their role. We also provide all of our employees the opportunity to provide regular feedback on whether we’re staying true to our purpose and living our stated values. We’re transparent with that data — sharing all of it with our employees, along with our plans to remedy any areas where we’re falling short.
Processes around interviewing, onboarding, training, feedback and recognition each play a part in reinforcing a culture through shared organizational experiences. For example, our ‘Jazz Master’ award (the highest honor we bestow on an individual) is a way for us to recognize an employee living the company’s values.”
8. “I am a musician, and I love the metaphors involved in jazz music. Jazz musicians usually are experts on one instrument, a virtuoso on the trumpet or piano. But jazz music is performed as a group. So that combination - a person of individual excellence who works well as part of a team - offers a good metaphor for what I want in my management team.”
Cozadd is a pianist and a huge fan of Jazz. He’s like a biotech maestro - weaving culture with drug development.