Shabbir Dahod, CEO of the life sciences disruptor TraceLink, talks about breaking internal rules, creating a "shared consciousness of purpose," and getting your team to an "Aha" moment.

Shabbir is the President and CEO of TraceLink, which aims to transform life sciences by providing a digital supply network linking people, processes, and information into a collaborative business environment. He is also an advisor and frequent faculty member for the Vanguard Network. Here, he speaks with Irene Silber, Associate Principal of the Network.

How do you define innovation, and what do you do to make it happen?

Innovation has to be a dramatic improvement to someone’s life. It has to be big.

Pursuit of this often means breaking the rules. You can’t accept the norm and all the inertia around the norm.

Innovation requires putting a whole new gene pool in place. As an example, we are building the next generation TraceLink. We are working to leapfrog ourselves, even though we are the leader in our marketplace. It’s much harder to innovate when you are inside an established company.

I’m not talking about optimization. When we laid down key technical directions 10 years ago, the world was very different. Cloud software was just emerging and we had few customers, so few learnings. Today, technology is very different, and we have the set of ingredients, including a tremendous body of lessons learned. This is a meaningful opportunity to innovate. We have to be willing to make that effort.

To do that, we are intentionally breaking the rules inside the company. We will not accept any constraints on our thinking. We put together a “tiger team” for product development and innovation.  We sit in a highly open area, no cubicles, just desks and respond to changes quite rapidly.

What rules do you break?

We made a decision that we will go through any door that we can back out of. We’re using new technologies and new architecture. Instead of multiple approvals, which can take time, it’s now simply the Shabbir review board.

How do you hire or develop people with the right DNA?

Some people are creatures of comfort. They don’t like change. They don’t feel comfortable until they understand all 10 things they need to know. We don’t operate that way. For innovation, you need people who embrace uncertainty, who can thrive in that environment.

How do you get alignment around what matters?

The biggest struggle is to create a shared consciousness of purpose. I had a vision, but it took three weeks to get to the “Aha” moment with my team. Then the team started on the path together. Periodically, you need those “Aha” milestones.

Part of it is making yourself accessible – being highly open and communicative. You will make the most progress if people are comfortable and capable of talking to each other at a rapid rate without politics. They should feel free to go to anyone and share what they think. That drives everyone to be on the same page.

What do you see as your greatest strength as a leader?

I’m stubborn about what we can accomplish. I persevere. There’s no loyalty to any technology or user experiences. I stick to what we can accomplish – whether it’s a particular performance objective or core capability. I don’t let go.

It’s essential to have enormous flexibility about the route that you take to achieving your vision. You can’t be so rigid on that. However: You must be stubborn about the destination, stubborn about the essence.

What's an area where you delegate?

In order to maintain a larger perspective, I can’t get bogged down in the details, even though they are critical. I don’t try to make a contribution to that. Instead, I make sure there are capable people to deal with the details. I will tell you want I want. But I’m the last guy you want to write code.

Was becoming a CEO a matter of natural progression for you, or conscious choice?

I always felt that I had a vision for what I wanted to accomplish. As I progressed from a developer, then an engineer, and then a VP and general manager, I always experienced a level of frustration in effectively pursuing this vision.

In order to be effective, you need to get the whole company integrated around your vision. The only way to accomplish that is to be the CEO.

What's the most important preparation for success?

Having a vision. Steve Jobs talked about how people see the world as it is, while he saw the world as it could be, and that was what he was pursuing. That really struck a chord with me. That’s what keeps me going.

Companies come and go. You have to keep reinventing yourself.

With TraceLink, it’s the pursuit of creating a safer, more cost effective, innovative supply network for patients. Ending counterfeit drugs, diversion, and a lack of information. I see a much better way to operate that could be beneficial to all. That’s what gets you up in the morning. That’s what it’s all about.