Ernst Coppens loves dynamics -- anything unexpected and exciting.
Sometimes he finds it in jazz. It could be old-school music such as Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World, which comforts the listener, or it could be spontaneous and experimental street jazz that challenges and excites.
His fascination with change also fits well with his position with Bayer AG as senior representative and chief financial officer for Asean, given its different developmental stages and dynamic markets.
Originally from the Netherlands, Mr Coppens has been with Bayer for nearly 30 years, during which he has observed its business reinvention and continuous changes that have led to the vision statement "Health for All, Hunger for None".
In an age of gig work and job-hopping, some people belittle the "company man" culture as a throwback to another era. But Mr Coppens proud of his record and that of his employer.
"Thirty years ago, Bayer was a conglomerate. There were a lot of business units, and it ended up where we are now, as an integrated life science company focusing on three divisions -- pharmaceuticals, crop science and consumer health," he says.
"Bayer is not the same company it was 30 years ago. It's not the same company it was five years ago. So as a matter of fact, I've not worked for the same company for 30 years.
"I've worked in seven to eight countries and seven to eight companies in different roles, in different countries and cultures in different setups. For me, it's super exciting to see a company and its success over such a long period."
Germany-based Bayer is a leading global life sciences company that provides multiple products from prescription medicines, including women's health products, to agricultural solutions from seeds to crop protection products, to day-to-day consumer health products such as nutritional supplements.
As a senior finance executive, Mr Coppens has served in various countries including China, Switzerland, and now Singapore, where he oversees the 10 markets of Southeast Asia.
MAXIMUM FLEXIBILITY
The ability to be flexible and adaptive to various markets while setting future-oriented goals is the key to his own success as well as that of the company, in his view.
"What motivates me most, both professionally and personally, is that I am in a market and in an environment where people are eager for change and development," he points out.
His family members are also travellers. He first visited China with his parents in 1985 and observed how the once-struggling country was starting to transform itself into the world's fastest-growing economy. He found a similar story in Southeast Asia.
"The first time I was in Thailand was 28 years ago. It is a different place today," he says. "It's still Thai. But its growth and development, also the ups and downs with the financial crisis [such as the one] in the late 1990s, showed me the [country's] ability to change quickly and dynamically.
"I'm observing that in all the markets here. That is true for Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and also Vietnam."
His enchantment with the region spans the cultural, economic and political aspects. From the Philippines and the influence of Christian faith, to Islamic countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, to Thai Buddhism, Vietnam's state-led economy and liberal and wealthy Singapore.
"I like the diversity. For me, it is encouraging and motivating to find solutions. It forces us to think and to come up with a variety of solutions and products in each different market," he notes.
In the pharmaceutical division, Bayer provides prescription drugs in various fields including cardiovascular treatment, ophthalmology, oncology and women's health. In the consumer field, it provides reliable and globally recognised brands such as Berocca and Redoxon, available in most countries of the region, as well as local favourites in response to consumer preferences, like Vapex and Zam-buk.
In crop science, the market in each country is different because of numerous factors, including culture, weather, and natural disaster risks.
"Last year, farmers in Indonesia and Philippines experienced poor weather with little rain," notes Mr Coppens. "They couldn't grow crops. But the weather this year is favourable for them, while farmers in Thailand are struggling because of the drought.
"From that point of view, we need to be very flexible in each and every market to find solutions that our customers and the farmers need."
CONSTANTLY ADAPTING
Bayer has evolved over 160 years from a dyestuff manufacturer to a world-leading life sciences company. The recipe for the company's success, Mr Coppens has learned, is the ability to consistently adapt to new challenges and technologies.
"When I started working here, I was still sending fax and telex messages. We got mobile phones around 20 years ago, then smartphones. Technology is advancing," he recalls.
"We all know and see [the changing technology], and then we can deal with what is happening in the business world, particularly in an area of biotechnology."
With the onset of the biotechnology revolution, Bayer has established cell and gene therapy platforms in pharmaceuticals and adopted innovative gene-editing tools such as Crispr, which will transform healthcare and agriculture in the near future.
The company's development portfolio includes human cell and gene therapies and plant DNA modification that will make plants more weather- or disease-resistant and thus help improve farmers' yields.
Mr Coppens says that for him, it's mind-boggling to think about how far biotechnological advances have come, and also how quickly Bayer has adapted to grasp the arising opportunities.
Milestones in biotechnology include Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell in 1996, and the Human Genome Project completed on 2003. The latter, involving human genome sequencing by computer, cost around US$1 billion and took 13 years. Nowadays, DNA can be sequenced with in less than a day for below $1,000.
The biotechnology revolution was recognised last year when Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their breakthrough research on Crispr technology.
"Technologies are great. I know they can raise a lot of questions and can even be scary. But I can promise you: without technology, nobody would have been able to come up with Covid-19 vaccines in such a short time," says Mr Coppens.
"Many opportunities and solutions can arise out of biotechnology. We at Bayer are very well positioned to work in this area."
ALL ABOUT SCIENCE
The way Bayer views its mission is something that continues to evolve, says Mr Coppens.
"When I joined the company in 1987, Bayer had a different purpose: 'Science for a Better Tomorrow'," he says. "Today, our purpose is 'Science for a Better Life'.
"In more than 30 years, you can see the company has been very consistent. It's always science-based and future-oriented. It's always making sure that we are creating an impact on sustainability."
To focus on making the future better, he says, the company approaches business through stakeholder engagement, reaching out to communities and deciding what the company and its staff can contribute, besides selling its products.
That has been seen in initiatives launched by Bayer in recent years, focusing on creating a future with "Health for All, Hunger for None".
"Our strategy on sustainability is embedded in the company's top levels from our global board of management, our CEO and the group leadership. They also focus on making sure that this is not only an initiative in one country," he says.
"This is a consistent strategy and embedded in each and every decision-making [unit] at all levels of our organisation. Because we believe that economic growth and sustainability must go hand in hand. You cannot do one without the other, particularly not when you are a company that is nearly 160 years old."
The initiatives vary in terms of ambitions and targets. One that Mr Coppens can relate to involves empowering 100 million smallholder farmers in developing countries by 2030.
In 2020, Bayer extended support to 630,000 smallholder farmers in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam to help them cope with the impact of Covid-19. Through the "Better Farms, Better Lives" initiative, it has provided seeds, crop protection inputs and technical training as well as assistance for health and safety needs.
"In a lot of countries, being a farmer is very much romanticised. But I think, here in Asia, being a farmer is not always fun, and it's hard," says Mr Coppens, who feels a closeness to those who produce the food on his table.
Many farmers, he says, lack access to good solutions for overcoming challenges such as climate change, crop diseases and uncertain markets.
"Giving them access to our innovations, knowledge and partnerships will enable them to have reliable lives and to be able to prosper beyond their subsistence lifestyle," he explains.
"We have also reached out to 25,000 women farmers and smallholder farmers' wives to provide women's health information in Indonesia. We also provide access to oral contraceptive pills, basically for them to decide how they want to plan their families."
The company aims to provide 100 million women in low- and middle-income countries with access to modern contraception and to better day-to-day care, such as vitamin supplements.
In January, Bayer launched the global Nutrient Gap Initiative, which expands access to vitamins and minerals for underserved communities to help combat malnutrition. Interventions have started in countries including Indonesia and Vietnam and will be rolled out to other countries in subsequent years.
The company is also committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.
Mr Coppens is happy to see the commitments that have come from the company's global leaders. "Because it doesn't work without the global commitment. If we only do that [initiatives] here [in Southeast Asia], then it is a local show, and it has limited impact," he says. "If we do it globally, with full global backing, then I'm sure it will be a success.
"It's not that we like to make initiatives. We want to be true to our vision. What do you do when you're talking about 'Health for All, Hunger for None'? You need to go to the people that require support."
OVERCOMING CHALLENGES
While Bayer, like nearly every other company on the planet, has been affected by the Covid pandemic and its impact on manufacturing and logistics, it still managed to maintain robust operational performance last year. Group sales totalled €41.4 billion, an increase of 0.6% from the year before.
As the pandemic continues to create uncertainty throughout the region and the world, Bayer is adapting accordingly.
"What we've done is to set up an Asean crisis management team," says Mr Coppens. It includes representatives from product supply and relevant functions in all countries and divisions, including a medical director who is an epidemiologist.
"We've been able to come up with very clear guidance to the organisation. Every country has a different situation, so we need to consider the local situations."
The team has established three principles to deal with the pandemic: employees must be safe, business must continued, and the company must comply with various countries' measures.
"In most countries our company is considered an essential business because we are providing solutions to people who are sick and need our products," he notes.
"We are also in essential industries like the food producing industry. We see that as our responsibility to be able to continue delivering our products to our consumers and customers."
As someone who has devoted so much of his time to the company, Mr Coppens looks forward to travelling to meet and interact with his colleagues in Southeast Asia and globally again.
Meeting his family and friends is something else he cannot wait for.
"I would like to catch up with my family and loved ones at the other end of the world and in Europe. That's really important for me."
