Gamida Cell Ltd (fka GMDAQ)

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Values in Action

Published on September 17, 2020

Julian Adams

CEO at Gamida Cell Ltd.

There is a well-known phrase attributed to the influential author and business consultant, Peter Drucker, that has stuck with me for years.

The phrase is “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” which implies that an organization with the clearest objectives and a sound plan for achieving them will not realize its objectives if the team lacks a cohesive organizational culture.

At Gamida Cell, our objective is clear — we are committed to bringing potentially curative cell therapies to patients with serious hematologic malignancies and blood disorders. We are also continuing to build a strong team culture that unites us across the globe. And, we’ve recently taken steps to clearly articulate our culture, make it more visible, and celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of our colleagues.

Our Values in Action

This is an important moment for our company. This is a time when a cohesive team culture will aid in us accomplishing our mission of bringing important new medicines to patients. In the remainder of 2020, we anticipate reaching key milestones for our lead Phase 3 program, omidubicel, an advanced cell therapy in development as a potential life-saving bone marrow transplant graft source for patients with hematologic malignancies. We also intend to make significant progress with GDA-201, a natural killer (NK) cell therapy that has shown encouraging signs of clinical activity in a Phase 1 clinical study of patients with advanced lymphoma.

Our work on these potentially curative therapies is guided by our core values, which we call Values in Action, because it’s our belief that values can only be constructive if the values guide our actions.

Below, I’ve outlined our five Values in Action and explained why they are so important to our team. Our Values in Action are unique and specific to Gamida Cell, and the illustration below includes people from the Gamida Cell community who represent these values.

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The above graphic features people from the Gamida Cell community who represent our Values in Action. It includes Stacey Khoury (Put Patients First), a patient who participated in the Phase 1 clinical study of our investigational therapy, omidubicel; Ira Shneider (Be Respectful), Chief Bookkeeper; Nissim Rika (Drive to Success), Engineering Director; Rosanna Ferrante (Embrace Change), Professional Alliances Director; and Shiran Levi (Be Bold), Quality Assurance Senior Associate.

We Put Patients First because patients are the reason we wake up and go to work each day. Putting patients first means that in our endeavors, we focus on the impact we can have for patients and make decisions to help lead to the success of our medicines.

We must Be Respectful, ethical and kind. At Gamida Cell, we are respectful of everyone, regardless of status, seniority, belief or opinion. We are open and communicate often, clearly and with kindness. And when necessary, for the sake of bettering our practices, we disagree with others respectfully, while offering solutions.

We work hard and play hard as we Drive to Success. We lead by example and believe in what we do. We are fair, honest and excel in our work because there are lives at stake. There also must be moments of celebration, and we celebrate our wins – big and small – as a team.

We Embrace Change because our adaptability advances medicine. Change enables us to innovate, and thoughtful and deliberate change is necessary for success. When we make changes, we articulate to our teams and stakeholders why evolution is critical, and we adjust as a team. We are in a period of exciting growth for Gamida, hiring new team members and building new capabilities that will allow us to bring our innovative new treatments to patients.

And finally, we must Be Bold as we strive for cures. Developing curative cell therapies for patients is no easy task and doing something that has never been done before requires a bold attitude. As a team, we always think of more efficient ways to get the job done and we take risks when the data support it. We also stay curious and creative on all fronts.

Inspired to Cure

Everyone at Gamida Cell is working toward our goal of providing potentially curative therapies to those living with blood cancer and serious blood diseases. If we Put Patients First, Be Respectful, Drive to Success, Embrace Change and Be Bold we will reach our goal, and we will do so with integrity.

This is an extremely exciting time to be at Gamida Cell, and I am proud to be working toward a shared goal with such a dedicated and inspirational team.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/values-action-julian-adams