Earning Trust and Building Courage

New technologies and scientific breakthroughs promise to change our world fundamentally and for the better – if we realize their potential and put them to use responsibly. It’s a delicate balance, as Merck CEO Belén Garijo and DLD founder Steffi Czerny discuss in their DLD22 session.

“Consistency and credibility are the greatest tools we have to get people to follow us and to trust”, Garijo points out. “I can't impose trust. I have to earn it. With hard work and consistency in the values I propagate.” The third factor she mentions is transparency: “We have to speak, we have to communicate.”

In her inspiring conversation with Steffi Czerny, Garijo also talks about her ambitious goals for Merck. “If you want to move mountains, you have to take risks”, she says.

To mitigate the risk she always looks at the worst case scenario, she explains. What happens if something goes wrong? What are the consequences of failure? “I always try to use a combination: a very fact-bases approach and my stomach. When the facts are going against my stomach, something is not matching – and it has to match”, Garijo says.