Melinta Therapeutics is an American publicly traded biopharmaceutical firm. They focus on the design and development of novel broad-spectrum antibiotics and expanding their portfolio where patients are most impacted by acute and life-threatening illnesses.
In 2018 and 2019, the antibiotic industry approached a financial crisis. Several startups focusing on solving antibiotic resistance went out of business and big players like Novartis, AstraZeneca and Allergan abandoned the sector. By December 2019, Melinta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In August 2020, they appointed
new leadership, including CEO Christine Miller, which inspired the beginning of a complete organizational transformation.
The Challenge
Newly appointed CEO Christine Miller was charged with leading Melinta Therapeutics out of bankruptcy during a tumultuous period within the antibiotic industry. In addition to crafting a new focus for the business, Melinta needed to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic while simultaneously addressing the lingering business and cultural issues that had culminated in the restructuring of the company.
Despite these formidable external challenges, Ms. Miller understood that a singular focus on the business would not be enough to take Melinta where it needed to go. As a believer in people, she prioritized the joint creation of an intentional culture that would revitalize the organization, attract top talent, and sustain it for future growth.
The Solution
Melinta brought on Velocity Advisory Group to implement our Intentional Culture Framework™. Each part of the three-phase methodology incrementally builds upon the next to turn insights into alignment and action, drive implementation of culture priorities, create culture champions, advance employee buy-in, and sustain the change with guidance from Velocity at each step of the process.
Velocity and Melinta first targeted the Mission, Vision, and Values (MVV) of the company. Through an organizational survey, interviews, and the development of a Culture Advisory Board, the process of transforming Melinta’s culture was launched.
“Our work with Velocity has been critical to our success as an organization. From the beginning Velocity committed to understanding us at a deep level and have been essential thought partners for the leadership team and our culture as a whole.”
Christine Miller, CEO
The Results
Melinta’s commitment to cultural transformation produced results in year one. A follow-up organizational
survey showed dramatic improvements across nearly every metric of Melinta’s culture:
- Employee turnover dropped from 30% to 8% in one year
- 126% improvement in strategic alignment
- 36% increase in employee satisfaction
- 62% improvement in diversity and inclusion scores
Read the full case study below or click here for a downloadable PDF.
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