Today I am happy and proud to share with you our Guerbet Purpose. Our Purpose says what we believe in and how we act in a unique manner.
It all started a year ago, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when our lives changed from one day to the next. At that moment in time, at Guerbet we all got together as a team and instinctively knew what we had to do. We laid out two priorities: (1) ensure our teams were safe and (2) ensure we could continue to get our products to our customers so they could take care of their patients.
It felt like we all were inspired by an invisible driving force at that exact moment, taking care of each other, aligning our priorities and taking appropriate actions.
It was a sort of eye-opener for us. We became completely aware of our full capacity to act. We discovered an unprecedented common strength, an obvious flow in decision making and execution. All of us truly together.
A moment in life so unpredictable, and yet, we found ourselves all so aligned.
This is why we decided to explore what this driving force is, our Purpose or Raison d’Être and to put it into words to give our commitment even more sense and to pronounce loud and clear: “This is what we believe in at Guerbet and how we act in a unique manner".
At Guerbet, we build lasting relationships to enable people to live better.
This is our contribution and our impact to the society, to the world. I am proud and humbled to be a part of an organization where we have been building meaningful and lasting relationships, improving the lives of so many in numerous ways for more than 100 years now.
Since its creation – and even before, since 1901 and the discovery of the first contrast media, Guerbet has actively contributed to the wellbeing of patients benefiting from our products. Beyond that, we care for each human being in our environment and we strive to act consciously to have a positive influence on them. We build bonds through cooperation and since 1926, we have been endeavoring to ensure that these bonds develop, grow and persist.
We do so by caring for people every day, both when providing our products and services to physicians to enable them to diagnose and treat millions of people around the world, when we cooperate with our scientific and technological partners, but also through our commitment to our employees.
We focus on patient outcomes and always strive to do better.
We continuously provide innovative solutions through our collaborations with start-ups, major companies, centers of excellence, academic organizations, hospitals and leading actors within our sector.
We dare to make bold choices. The transformations we have driven in the company for almost a century reflect our ability to meet challenges of all natures and sizes. We dare to dream big and we act accordingly.
We believe that sharing knowledge is the key to moving forward and helping others progress; employees, healthcare professionals and all our partners. To grow together as individuals, a company and a community, we must share what we know and be open to the knowledge of others in return.
Reflecting on our unique experience from last year, the process of identifying our Purpose and putting words on what it means in collaboration with a group of 80 people – employees, the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, our external stakeholders, clients and partners - helped us put into words the singularity and strength of Guerbet and the people who make up the company.
Moving forward, our Purpose will serve as our North star, guiding our motivations, decisions, and actions. It can be a powerful tool, which will help us drive our decision making. Beyond being a “Reason to exist”*, it will become our “Reason to Act” and our compass to ensure our strategic orientation or business choices respond to the contribution and impact we seek to achieve.
*Raison d’Etre in French = Reason to exist.