employee magazine

# 4 2008

‘‘ The
foundation
for our future
is in place,
the strategy
is ready
and now
we are
moving
forward.

‘‘
Droplet
october 2008 I Droplet 3
 contents

Editorial team
Climbing Alpe d’Huez 3
Rolf Ehrnström, CVP of R&D, on pharma partnerships
and the acquisition of InstrumeC.

Some drugs need a buddy 4

Learn more about companion diagnostics.

Sofie Kjærsgaard Hansen
sofie.kjaersgaard@dako.com
Dako Strategy:
Leading the Way into the workflow era 6
Corporate Management on the enhancement of the Dako strategy.
Dako Academy demos and trainings 8
Do you know what Dako Academy offers? If not, you can learn much more here.

Change of pace in Sales 10

Dako’s sales managers are on Iceland to learn more about dreams, role models,
positive attitude, morals, building relations, leadership and…

An American in Glostrup 14
Is he American or Danish? It seems that he is unsure himself. Meet Benel Tønners
Alexandre, an American or Danish researcher at R&D, Glostrup.

Maia Fredtoft Søchting

What makes you tick! 16
maia.sochting@dako.com Droplet has asked expert John Storm Pedersen to spill on value-based Manage-
ment and explain what’s in it for us at Dako.

In brief 18
Dako’s new CVP of RA/QA & HSE, Acquisition of InstrumeC, PharmDx™ Collabo-
ration, Operations Strategy Workshop, Dako DuoCISH™ praised and Web Traffic.

Do we care? 20
Three employees on the Dako value We care.

Portrait of Jørgen Andersen, Dako’s new HR chief 22

“There is nothing special about me,” claims Jørgen Andersen, Dako’s new
Lillian Lykke Andersen CVP of HR. You decide, if he is right.
lillian.andersen@dako.com

Dako Denmark A/S Produktionsvej 42, DK-2600 Glostrup, +45 4485 9500
Reporter: Morten Andersen and Jack Jackson Graphic design & Production: Quote Grafik Translation &
proofreading: Lingtech A/S Printer: Litotryk København Photo: Ulrik Jantzen and Morten Jerichau
Illustration: Nygårds Maria Front page: Ulrik Jantzen
The deadline for contributions to the next issue of Droplet is December 15th 2008.
 Climbing
Alpe
d’Huez
We are writing about pharma partnerships in this
edition of Droplet. Why are they of interest to Dako?
“The pharma world is currently experiencing a very
interesting development, where one sees advantages
in coupling an assay with a specific type of medicine.
All medicines do not act effectively on all patients, and,
consequently, coupling with an assay is important. Talk
about personalized medicine started in the 90’s, but it
is first now that we are starting to witness a slightly
greater momentum. For several years, Dako has been
a leader in the development of assays within this field,
where HercepTest™ is the most successful example.
This is one explanation of why the medical industry is
interested in partnering with us. Previously, many
medical companies had a limited knowledge of diagno-
stics, but this has changed. Work is currently done in
the early phases within many pharma companies,
however, they acknowledge that they don’t have all
knowledge and resources necessary to develop and
commercialize an assay or a system. Therefore, the
time is ripe for partnerships.”
How are things in R&D?
”Our workflow strategy has meant that we’ve had a lot
to do in R&D. We’re creating new infrastructure with
new laboratories, buying new equipment, and introdu-
cing a series of new processes to handle system de-
velopment activities. Simultaneously, we also have to
deliver new products – this has been a challenge, and
we’ve been busy!”
“We’ve used a lot of effort establishing system develop-
ment capabilities in Glostrup with many new people –
we have a whole new Instrument Development Depart-
ment and a new Software Development Department.
These departments work in close collaboration with the
System Integrations departments within R&D, but also
in an intense way with all the other functions within
Dako. The size and the complexity of some projects
are larger than we previously were used to. Also the
teamwork with Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain
and other functions has in particular grown much
stronger. We now work more as a team throughout
the entire company. It’s very positive.”
What are you facing right now?
”We’re in the process of developing Next Gen, and, in
addition, we’ve just bought InstrumeC in Norway. This
means that we will take delivery of new instruments for
H&E staining and cover slipping, but also that we will
be integrating a new company into Dako. This is a very
exciting task for us.”
What can the H&E stainer contribute to?
”For a pathology laboratory to be successful, it needs
to do things in a more effective manner, with high quality
and at a favorable price. Dako offers IHC, ISH, special
stains and image analysis, which all are part of a
pathology lab’s workflow process. However, H&E
staining is one of the more important parts of the total
workflow, and at present Dako doesn’t offer such a
solution. It’s a technique that the pathologist uses every
day in order to provide a diagnosis. In 80% of cases,
the pathologist doesn’t need anything other than the
H&E staining to provide the diagnosis. With the acquisi-
tion of InstrumeC, Dako now has the possibility of also
providing this product. Our market analysis suggests
that InstrumeC’s solution will be a highly competitive
product, and, at the same time, it complements
our workflow solutions offer in a good way.
In conjunction with our price-per-slide
model, this constitutes a new valuable
business possibility for Dako.”
What other advantages are there
in connection with the acquisition
of InstrumeC?
”We didn’t intend to develop an H&E
instrument from scratch in the
near future, so when the right
opportunity turned up, we
struck. With InstrumeC, not
only have we acquired H&E
staining and cover slipping,
but also a new platform, which we
can utilize in the development
of our Next Gen. Now we
have a framework to
work from, which
minimizes our
risk.”
“It’s going to be a
tough ride, but we
will get to the top!”
october 2008 I Droplet 3
Some drugs need
a buddy
Companion diagnostics: As the volume of genetic information increases,
ever more often will it be desirable to link a given drug to a diagnostic test,
which reveals whether or not the patient is likely to benefit from treatment.
BY MORTEN ANDERSEN, JOURNALIST
“So far we have managed never to
fail.” On behalf of Dako, Sibylle Lenz,
Director for Business Development,
displays absolute confidence when it
comes to developing diagnostic kits for
specific genes and proteins. Given this
ability, it is an obvious path to develop-
ing kits in the growing number of cases
where the efficacy of a drug is linked to
a specific genetic profile. This is done
in partnership with pharmaceutical
companies.
Take for example breast cancer. While
viewed by laymen as one disease, health
care professionals know that women
with different genetic profiles will suffer
from different types of breast cancer.
A drug potent in treating one kind of
breast cancer may prove ineffective
against another type.
Triple win situation
Linking a drug with a diagnostic test
is generally known as companion
diagnostics or pharmDx™. One could
call it a triple win situation.
4 Droplet I october 2008
Most importantly, the patient should
win. Instead of trial-and-error medi-
cation, wasting valuable months, and
imposing severe strain on the body
while adding to medical costs, the
patient can receive relevant therapy
from the start.
The second winner is the drug manu-
facturer. If a pharmaceutical company
is developing a potent drug that is
only efficacious within a specific sub-
group of patients, it is important only
to investigate the drug within this
subgroup. Otherwise, the result of
the clinical trial and subsequent inter-
pretation of the drugs usability will be
inaccurate and potentially bring to a
halt the development of the drug.
Thirdly, Dako itself will continue to
expand the business areas for the
company’s cancer diagnostic tests.
In principle, Dako might target any
given gene or protein known to be
linked to a specific cancer indication.
However, that’s not the way it works
explains Sibylle Lenz, “The idea is to
form partnerships with pharmaceutical
companies while their drugs are still in
clinical development. Under regulatory
approval, the drug and diagnostic test
should be marketed jointly to ensure
correct and appropriate use.”
New partnership formed
A new partnership has recently been
formed between Bristol-Myers Squibb
(BMS) and Dako. The purpose of this
cooperation is to develop companion
diagnostics for BMS’ oncology drugs,
which currently are being developed
for cancer indications with an unmet
medical need.
It is important for Dako, in these kinds
of partnerships, to have Dako’s re-
search and development (R&D)
experts on board from an early stage.
“It is difficult to give a standard devel-
opment time for a new diagnostic
test. The amount of time needed will

depend a lot on what is known already
in the biology and the relation of the
biomarker to the drug target,” explains
Vice President of R&D at Dako North
America, Rosanne Welcher.
“The selection of the best biomarker
to predict patient response is usually
determined in pre-clinical or early
clinical trials by the pharmaceutical
company. Dako has the challenge of
finding or developing the most sen-
sitive and specific biomarker to meet
this need. This is the core of what Dako
does best and why we are the partner
of choice to pharma,” says Rosanne
Welcher.
“Through our pharma partner we are
able to have our biomarker validated
in clinical trials”, she continues, while
elaborating on the practical benefits
from the partnership.
Understanding the biology
Dako’s director of business develop-
ment is confident that several agree-
ments similar to the BMS partnership
will be signed in the coming years:
“Keep in mind that Dako pioneered the
field of companion diagnostics over 10
years ago by being the first company
ever to develop and market a cancer
companion diagnostic, HercepTest™.
Companion
diagnostics
Patients seemingly suffering
from the same disease may
in fact need different treatment
depending on their genetic
profile. Such individual treat-
ment is generally known as
personalized medicine. In
order to practise personalized
medicine, you need to be able
to establish whether the patient
has the genetic profile relevant
to the specific drug. This is
known as companion diagno-
stics. An example is Dako’s
product HercepTest™. A posi-
tive test result will recommend
for a breast cancer patient to
be treated with Herceptin.
Ever since, we have built on this ex-
pertise and today we are one of the
leading companies in the field. As the
number of drug candidates aimed for
treatment of specific subgroups of
cancer patients increases, our skills
and technology platform will become
ever more attractive to the pharmaceu-
tical companies,” says Sibylle Lenz.
Many believe that the sky is the limit
to personalized medicine, but Sibylle
Lenz likes to keep her feet on the
ground.
“If you look at traditional cancer therapy,
companion diagnostics will never be
relevant. In these therapies you aim at
killing cancer cells – and typically kill a
large number of non-cancer cells as
well – but you do not have a specific
genetic or protein target within the
cell. Companion diagnostics are only
relevant in the event that we under-
stand the biology behind the disease,”
she explains.
NNeeds a successful drug
WWhile a period of 2-4 years is realistic
ffor developing a companion diagnos-
ttic test, Sibylle Lenz will not give
aan estimate as to when Dako’s next
ppharmDx™ test, resulting from a
ppharma partnership, will be available:
“As much as I would like to, I just can’t
answer. We do know that we have a
100% rate of success when it comes
to developing antibodies for specific
genes and taking them into a reliable
diagnostic test. However, we are
depending on the fate of the drug
candidate which our product is to
companion. We generally enter the
collaborations with the pharmaceutical
partners in phase II of the clinical trials.
In this phase, the drug candidate has
a fair chance of becoming a drug,
but still it may well fail due to reasons
nobody could foresee. In that case,
our product is out of business too.”
“Companion diagnostics offer great
benefits to cancer patients and open
up a whole range of new business
opportunities to Dako. I am confident
that we will succeed, but we have
to accept that the time frame is less
predictable compared to other pro-
jects,” sums up the director of busi-
ness development.
october 2008 I Droplet 5
Dako Strategy:
Leading the Way
into the
workflow era
With the addition of Annika Berg, CVP of RQ/QA & HSE, and Jørgen Andersen,
CVP of HR, Dako’s management team is now in place. Read more about how Cor-
porate Management is going to bring the new strategy to life and what their main
priorities are. BY SOFIE KJÆRSGAARD HANSEN
We maintain the workflow focus in our
strategy for 2008-2011. The strategy in
short:
Turn-around time
• Initiate correct therapy sooner
Quality improvements
• Safety (correct patient identification
throughout the process)
• Consistent, reliable results
• Reduced inter-observer variation
Cost and productivity
• Reduced turn-around time
• Less total cost per test
• Increased automation, reducing
burden on the laboratory
6 Droplet I october 2008
Patrik: “The foundation for our
future is in place and that makes it
possible for us to move forward in a
new pace. Our full focus is now on
workflow and this together with the
launch of significant new products,
regaining customer confidence and
taking back leadership will enable
us to become the no. 1 expert in
pathology workflow and the best
and most competitive developer
and supplier of solutions for cancer
diagnostics. Our main priority for
the coming years is to implement
and execute on this new strategy.”
Jorge: ”Having the company strategy
as a solid foundation, Operations has
developed a full program for the
planning period focusing on four
strategic imperatives:
• Establish a cost-effective
supply chain
• Drive efficient and reliable
production
• Promote organizational
development
• Develop supporting
infrastructure and processes
The plan covers all aspects in which
Operations needs to excel to enable
the company’s success in delivering
the strategy.”

Rolf: ”R&D’s most important task is
to bring this strategy to life by develop-
ing new cutting-edge products. This
requires a full understanding of the
challenges our customer’s face, full
focus on what we do best at Dako
and close relationships with partners
that have complementing skills. The
strategy also requires an expansion
and refinement of system develop-
ment competencies and creating an
infrastructure and improving processes
that support our workflow strategy. We
are also in the middle of developing
our new instrument platform; Next Gen.
That’s our main focus in R&D.”
Annika: ”Quality is all about meeting
customer expectations. Compliance
is crucial to the company in order to
sustain the proven high quality in all
of Dako’s products and services. Our
goal is to make sure that we meet the
requirements of the diagnostic market
and fulfill Dako’s own high standards
for managing quality. In the nearest
future, we in RA/QA will focus on how
we can drive product quality and how
to implement a proactive and effective
way of meeting the rapidly changing
external regulatory environment.”
Mats: “With continued launches of signi-
ficant new products, we are on the way to
becoming the first choice in the pathology
labs world wide. The focus in Marketing
is to drive a flow of constantly improving
solutions for IHC, special stains, True
Positive ID, pharmDx™ etc through life
cycle management but also to generate
professional material, sales support tools
and other marketing efforts highlighting
the advantages of Dako’s workflow offering.
The Dako solutions will help pathology
customers to radically improve their quality,
turn-around time and productivity through
Dako partnership and solution deployment.
In the upcoming years, we should add
professional services to complete our work-
flow offering that combine our excellent
customer and technical support, instru-
ment service and training possibilities with
additional areas of services needed to
connect fully with the customers as a true
partner in pathology.”
Jørgen: “Our People & Organization
strategy is fully aligned with the work-
flow strategy and is in general intends
to ensure to ensure we have the right
people with the right skills at the right
time. In the nearest future we will
finalize Dako’s transition into the new
performance management system,
create a more motivating incentives
system (starting with Sales globally),
develop Dako’s succession planning
and talent management program and,
finally, improve HR data flow and quality.”
Per S.: ”Every day our sales team meet
with our customers face to face showing
them the benefits and competitiveness
of Dako’s products and introducing the
new line of workflow tools. Our goal is
to convert even more customers to
our workflow solutions. Dako’s new
strategy involves a change of mind
set both by our customers and by
ourselves internally in Dako.”
Per T.: ”To make our strategy work its
best and manage our business the
best possible way, we need the proper
internal systems and procedures to
ensure transparency throughout the
business. Transparency in our sales
and customer follow up, transparency
in our cost base and transparency in
our cash flow management. Business
intelligence tools and proactive con-
trolling will be instrumental initiatives
for improving transparency. We can
contribute to the value creation in
Dako by measuring and challenging
the anchoring and execution of the
strategy. We will take active part in
establishing a clear link between the
strategy and our day to day manage-
ment. By being business integrated
and by providing the right tools, our
functions support the company by
sketching a clear picture of where we
are and how fast we are moving, and
thereby, we can measure how well our
strategy is working.”
october 2008 I Droplet 7
 Dako
Academy
demos and trainings
Dako Academy in Glostrup, Denmark, is one of two training centers within Dako.
The lab is fully equipped and designed to offer demos and trainings for European
and APEx customers within workflow solutions, True Positive ID, AutostainerLink,
ACIS III, Artisan, molecular pathology, PharmDx™ and manual IHC.
BY SOFIE KJÆRSGAARD HANSEN

In conjunction with sales of Dako systems, Dako Academy offer
customer application trainings. The goal is to ensure that our
customers acquire the knowledge they need, and feel confident
in using Dako products once they return to their confident.
Dako Academy also perform customer demos and VIP visits on
request. Hence, Dako Academy has hosted a demo for approx.
70 guests within the past year.
Training of Dako staff
As new products are being launched, Dako Academy offers
application trainings for European Application Specialists so the
countries are able to support their customers once the products
have been launched.
Dako Academy also offers recurrent trainings for Application
Specialists, both for newly hired and experienced staff. In this
way, new personnel will apidly obtain a certain familiarity with
our most important products, and the experienced employees
will be up-to-date with new features.
Training for new sales people is also one of the recurrent events.
This three-day will involves an run-through of the most important
products.
All trainings vary between presentations, demos, hands-on ses-
sions and practice reviews, all focusing on the pathology work-
flow.
From September 2007 to September 2008 about 380 guests
visited the lab in the Dako Academy.

8 Droplet I october 2008

october 2008 I Droplet 9
Change of pace
in Sales
It’s like being at a sports ground,
where the training aimed at achieving
qualification for the upcoming world
championship has only just started.
The players are ready. The atmosphere
is optimistic. The coaches are in posi-
tion. The team’s external coach is on
the ball. New match and attack strate-
gies must be learned. Among other
things, it’s all about sweeping the
opposition off the playing field.
But first and foremost, the players have
to deliver exceptionally good results,
which live up to the “spectators’”
(read: customers’) expectations and
satisfy their needs for goal-oriented
investments, for saving time, money
and creating value in the pathology
laboratories – all this with the express
purpose of delivering rapid, precise
and correct cancer diagnoses.
The room reverberates with words such
as: ”Number one, change of pace,
winning teams, role models, leadership
etc.”
10 Droplet I october 2008
On Iceland, it bubbles and steams
Well now, we’re not at an exotic training
camp with the soccer team’s potential
medal boys, rather we’re located some
few miles outside Iceland’s capital city,
Reykjavik. The sky is covered by
heavy, grey clouds and it’s windy, yes,
almost stormy. The temperature is
around 46 degrees Fahrenheit outside,
although we’re still in August. The
program is comprehensive, and the
hotel’s conference room filled with
sales and country managers. On
account of Dako’s Sales Manager
Meeting, the room has been transfor-
med into a strategy and training room.
Only a single evening excursion to the
hot spring resort, The Blue Lagoon,
reminds us that we’re located on a
bubbling, steaming and active volcanic
island.
Per Sjöberg, CVP of Sales, bids
welcome to the working session in
Reykjavik, and states that he has
ascertained that Dako’s new strategy
works, and that feedback from the
Dako’s sales managers are on Iceland. Beneath them, the volcanic island’s
interior is sizzling, bubbling and steaming. The geysers spout a gush of hot
water and steam. The sales work at Dako is rapidly moving into a whole
new era.
BY LILLIAN LYKKE ANDERSEN
market is positive. The challenges in
the immediate future will involve build-
ing up a professional sales force
comprising winning teams, which
are capable of identifying customers’
unfulfilled needs and addressing
relevant solutions.
”In Sales we want people who love
asking questions. And we want ma-
nagers capable of exercising leader-
ship, which ensures that the sales
people change their behavior. And
then we want to reward outstanding
performance,” says Per Sjöberg.
Leadership in sport and in Dako
Sven Jensen, from Sweden, a profes-
sional coach for 35 years, is invited to
draw on his experiences as a sports
coach in both Sweden and the US. He
is to present several new words such
as dreams, role models, positive atti-
tude, morals, building relations/teams
and leadership. He has been asked to
pass on some of his coaching tools
from the world of sports to Dako’s sales
managers and inspire them in their
day-to-day leadership of both them-
selves and their employees.
And why so? Well, because good
leadership is about getting people
to grow with the challenges.
”Don’t see people as who they are,
but as what they can become.” Sven
Jensen starts off by saying that,
”coaching is about getting people to
reach further than they thought they
could,” and continues, “You cannot win
all the fights, but you can move forward
if you can imagine what you want.”
He calls examples to attention that
indicate that it often improves the
results list on turning negative thoughts
into positive energies, which is a good
starting point for the next success. Sven
Jensen urges the participants to get
rid of possible inner critical voices, like,
for example ”You just cannot do it!”
or ”Who do you think you are?”, and
recommends managers to focus on
possibilities instead of limitations. As
a coaching manager, one can inspire
employees to move beyond their
comfort zones and risk their own
skin a little more.
“Good leaders are responsible for
creating teams. Among other things,
it’s about building relations, creating a
secure environment, allowing people
to take new chances and risks. The
fundamental values in processes such
as these are trust, respect, responsibi-
lity, and acceptance of one another.
You cannot skip any of them,” Sven
Jensen underlines.
Sven Jensen concludes his generous
initiative with a good piece of advice
to sales managers. He states that
good leaders make sure that their
employees are on the team. The
employees should ”do something”,
not ”have something to do.” “As coach,
you cannot motivate, but you can
inspire.”
›
october 2008 I Droplet 11
And why so? Well, because
good leadership is about
getting people to grow with
the challenges. ...
Number one
Patrik Dahlén, CEO at Dako, has also
made the trip to Iceland. He starts his
welcome speech by taking stock of the
first half of 2008, and saying that he is
pleased with Sales’s performance in
the first half, and adds that “we are
moving in the right direction, however
we need to change pace and increase
our growth rates to reach our goal for
2008.” “We want to be number one,”
he says “and to be number one we
need to grow faster in the future.”
”We want to convert our customers to
our workflow solutions and we want
to do the conversions early.” ”He also
points out that, ”we have to get better
at selling new products, so we can
improve our growth rates. In the long
12 Droplet I october 2008
run, we need to focus on how we want
to improve the service to our custo-
mers.” He adds that it is important that
the growth targets are fulfilled and
emphasizes that we must improve
our way of running the Dako business,
by using analyses, statistics and data.
Patrik Dahlén concludes his welcome
speech to the sales managers by
saying; ”I want you to really impress
me.”
Ask, ask, ask . . .
Brian Naidoo, VP Sales Europe, pre-
sents what he calls a prequalification
tool for completing accounts. The
purpose of the tool is to highlight
customer issues and costs that have
not been thought of, and that measures
the account across all stakeholders in
the hospitals. He says that, “it is
important that we behave professio-
nally and with determination in regard
to our sales activity, and that we, in
every single instance, prepare a
business case“.
”Don’t just try to sell products – identify
the customer’s pains. This can be
accomplished if we adopt an inquisi-
tive and scrutinizing attitude towards
our work as sales people. We must
collaborate with customers in another
way than what we traditionally have
done at Dako. We have to learn an
entirely new inquiry technique. We
must be able to ask open questions,
disclose, identify, and ask further
questions at a deeper level, for only
in this way do we become reliable
collaborators, and address relevant
product and workflow solutions to the
customers,” says Brian Naidoo.
“Speeding up conversion of competi-
tive accounts, we have to learn from
our experiences,” Ferran Prat, VP Sales,
North America, says. “If we have had
no sale that day, it hasn’t been a good
day,” he states. “We have to score the
winning goal!” During that session
many of the attending managers
contributed to solving the problem.
The Devil is in the detail
It is a high spirited Jacob Thaysen,
newly appointed VP of Global Sales
Operation (GSO), who introduces the
global organization. It must support
the entire sales organization with con-
tinuously improved transparency,
structured processes and an analyti-
cal approach to the decision-making
process. Among other things, the
GSO organization must contribute to
ensuring a more well-orchestrated
go-to-market strategy and an improved
implementation of new products within
the local nation- wide organizations.
GSO comprises a sales strategy group,
a sales implementation group, and a
sales analysis group.
The importance of the new GSO or-
ganization is emphasized by Per Sjö-
berg’s, CVP of Sales, closing remark
to the GSO presentation. “The devil is
in the detail. We as managers need
to be more informed. We have to get
the reporting level up and to provide
day-to-day sales data to account
managers, regional managers and
country managers. It is not a question
of a back office problem, but one of
managerial responsibility.”
Openness and commitment
Three very intense and effective days
are over. A large portion of sales sup-
port tools have been marketed. Among
others, People & Organization present
a Sales Development Tool kit, a Solu-
tion Selling Training Portal and a pro-
posal to The Dako Way Behaviors.
Product Marketing also contributes with
input, which should make life easier for
Dako’s sales people. The work within
the many workshops has been marked
by openness, earnestness, and sincere
intentions to discuss the future’s sales
challenges.
october 2008 I Droplet 13
An
American
in
Glostrup
BY SOFIE KJÆRSGAARD HANSEN

14 Droplet I october 2008

 ”The Danes are not good at receiving foreigners
– unless of course you’re a princess. At any rate,
things have gone very well for me, but then at Dako,
we’re also pretty ethnic.” The words come from Benel
Tønners Alexandre, a researcher at R&D.
With an American background, a stay in Israel of
longer duration, and a potential Danish citizen-
ship, it’s a bit of a cosmopolite sitting opposite
me. Benel Tønners Alexandre has a degree in
Biochemistry from University of Copenhagen, so
the road to Dako was no surprise, even though
the Biochemist was somewhat surprised to
discover that Dako was not exclusively a
producer of antibodies.
A motor
”It was really great to discover that Dako makes
entire workflow solutions, because this is exactly
the type of work I find exciting. After all, R&D is
the motor in a business like this one, as it is the
products and solutions developed at R&D that
drive Dako forward. It’s great to be a part of this.”
Benel has barely one year behind him under
the aegis of Dako, where he has worked as a
Benel researcher at System Development, or, as he
Tønners says himself:
Alexandre,
Researcher ”I’m more of a product developer than a typical
in R&D. researcher. Up until now, I’ve worked in Helle
Grann Wendelboe’s team and have primarily
developed and validated one instrument at the
time, but soon I’ll be moving over to Workflow
Application, which is Dave Stanforth’s depart-
ment, and there we’ll be validating complete
solutions. It’s going to be incredibly exciting
and also very challenging. I think there are
many possibilities for personal development in
Dave’s department,” Benel Tønners explains.
The daily grind
Everyday life at Dako consists of teamwork,
independent work and a lot of work in the
laboratory. “I am one of the few academics,
who’s actually working in a laboratory on a daily
basis. Teamwork is important to me – of course,
depending on whom I get to work with,” says
Benel with a smile, and continues, “Recently, I
was in Sheffield, UK in order to test the beta
version of True Positive ID together with a Danish
colleague, and the collaboration was good, the
visit worthwhile; we got some good pointers
about TPID to take back home,” explains the
American or the Dane. Confused? We ask:
Do you consider yourself to be Danish or
American?
”I have lived in Denmark for 11 years, so I have
long felt myself as very Danish, but after having
started at Dako, I suddenly feel very American
again. It’s actually a bit strange!”
Beautiful diversity
We have to hear more about this: “It’s probably
something cultural. I didn’t know that there was
such a big difference between being American
and Danish, however, it dawned on me after
starting here. It’s hard to explain, but in Den-
mark, for example, there is a great gap between
work and leisure time. I’ve been out with collea-
gues many times; only on one occasion did
Danes join us. For me, the fact that there is such
a great diversity in peoples’ nationality at Dako
is clearly a plus. I enjoy working with Finns,
Swedes, Americans, Tunisians – you name it.
It allows one to get a better insight into things.
For instance, if one looks at Danish commer-
cials, then everything is the same, because
the advertising industry only consists of Danes.
Diversity contributes to creating inspiration and
motivation at Dako.
What otherwise motivates you in your work?
”It’s fun to be out in the field, but until now I
have only been there once. I like meeting our
customers, sales people, and not least our
application specialists. It creates a good feeling
of purpose.”
And speaking of purpose, are there one or
more of Dako’s values that you identify with?
“Quality, that’s our trade. It’s what keeps our
customers satisfied and, at the same time, also
contributes to taking us a step ahead. We care!
– Of course we do. We’d like to save the world!”
october 2008 I Droplet 15
 What

16 Droplet I october 2008

”Values are no good, before one discovers what they mean in practice for
the employee and the managers.” It is straight talk coming from the expert,
John Storm Pedersen, about value-based management.
BY SOFIE KJÆRSGAARD HANSEN
makes you tick!
About half a year ago, The Dako Way was
introduced, whereby Dako embodied mission,
vision and values. That was the starting point
for value-based management. Droplet has
contacted John Storm Pedersen, who is
Associate Professor in Management and
Organization at Roskilde University, to hear
more about the subject. And to learn in what
way it can contribute to giving satisfaction to
employees and managers. John Storm gets
straight to the point:
”Value-based management is a kind of buzz-
word. In my opinion, one cannot speak of
value-based management and non-value-
based management. All businesses have
values, one just calls it something else, for
example, culture or spirit in the company.
However, one can say that when a company
has made a conscious decision that a series
of selected values will be governing for
behavior and decisions, then one has a
value-based management.”
OK, we know something about that, but if all
businesses have values, then what’s the point?
“The point is finding the right values, which
truly make a difference for people, since
this can create great satisfaction within the
company. One can also, for example, have
bad values in a business that are centered on
feathering one’s own nest, or not helping one
another,” the professor explains and continues;
“There are three things that are of crucial
importance when it comes to values. First,
they must make the employees and manage-
ment take responsibility. Second, the values
must be comprehensible, and finally, they
mustn’t be too broad in scope. Studies show
that it is particularly ordinary virtues such as
loyalty, sincerity, being a good human being
and having a positive outlook that employees
identify as their values. The scope can quickly
become very broad, so the task lies in con-
cretizing them, so that they are understanda-
ble and applicable.”
With values such as: We move, we care, we
deliver and we are passionate about quality,
we can also nod in recognition of the broad
values. How do we concretize them?
”Recently, I have introduced a new set of
values within Aalborg Township. Here, we
used a long time just identifying the values.
That was the first step. The next thing was to
test the values on management and the
employees.”
Testing?
”Yes, we set up cafés, where managers, mid-
dle managers and employees could meet to
discuss values, and then we drew up ques-
tionnaires in order to ascertain whether the
managers had adopted the values; because
one cannot talk about values in a business if
the managers don’t live them. When one has
values that have been approved at the top
level, one way or the other, they have to be
disseminated to the entire business. It works
both ways.”
John Storm Pedersen continues: ”One has
to work at making everyone speak about the
same thing. If one looks at your value: We
are passionate about quality, then I’m pretty
sure that it will be perceived differently by
a sales manager and by a laboratory assistant
in R&D. The manager will construe a good
sale as quality, whereas a laboratory assistant
interprets quality as a good staining.”
“The task lies in making everyone speak the
same language. Moreover, it is of course a
debate that never must cease; a fire that must
never be extinguished, so to speak. Because,
with the passage of time, values will always
change, and this is something the business
has to reflect to keep the employees content.”
october 2008 I Droplet 17
In brief
Welcome to Dako’s new Global Operations
CVP for RA/QA & HSE Management Strategy
Annika Berg is Dako’s new Corporate Workshop
Vice President for Global Regulatory
Affairs, Quality Assurance and Health, We have already taken the first step to
Safety & Environment. Annika Berg, a roll out the strategy in the Operations
Swedish citizen, comes from a position organization. On September 2 and 3,
as Head of RA/QA at GE Healthcare all Operations Managers, under the
Life Sciences. Read more about Annika theme ”Think, Strategize, Execute”,
Berg in the upcoming issue of Droplet participated in the first Global Opera-
– January 2009. (mfs) tions Management Strategy Workshop,
held at Marienlyst, Denmark.

The purpose of the strategy workshop

was threefold:
Acquisition of InstrumeC finalized
1. Provide all Operations managers
Dako’s acquisition of the Norwegian company InstrumeC was announced in a with a general insight into the
global press release published in August. InstrumeC, a company of five Corporate and Operations strategy
employees and an extensive external network, has more than 15 years' plans
experience in the innovation, design and production of cover slippers and H&E 2. Allow the team to perform an
stainers. The acquisition means that Dako can now integrate H&E staining in in-depth analysis of Operations’
Dako’s overall workflow solution. All tests done in pathology laboratories must strategic focus areas and provide
go through H&E staining, also known as "routine staining", before any cancer valuable input to be used for
diagnosis can be made. (mfs) refining the plan and moving it into
the implementation phase
3. Create engagement and ownership
of the strategy

As a result of excellent group sessions,

PharmDx™ Collaboration with
well-crafted analyses per focus area
Bristol-Myers Squibb were presented, which now will be
used for further refinement of the plan.
Dako has entered into collaboration with the pharmaceutical company We are now ready to move on to the
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) to develop pharmacodiagnostic tests execution phase. (skh)
intended to identify patients more likely to benefit from treatment with
certain investigational cancer drug candidates under development by
Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dako’s tests will be developed as companion
products to BMS’ investigational therapeutics. Pharmacodiagnostics are
increasing in demand with the recognition that personalized medicine
may provide a way to improve patient care and manage healthcare
costs by targeting treatments to individuals who are more likely to
benefit from specific therapies. (mfs)

18 Droplet I october 2008

 Web Traffic:
This Is How Popular
We Are During Summer
As expected, the decline in visitors to Dako’s websites during
the summer holidays in Europe was quite significant. Compared
to an average Tuesday in mid-June with 850 unique visitors,
Dako only had 612 on Tuesday during the last week of July. This
was the second least visited week in 2008 in Europe (Easter
Week in Europe being the least visited). With August visits down
by 3% compared to July, September is the month when visits are
expected to pick up again.

Totals (Worldwide) for the month of August

• Unique Visitors: 30,499.
• Visits: 38,510.
• Page Views: 281,094.

In other words: 30,499 different people came to visit 38,510

times and looked at more than 281,094 pages during August.
Dako DuoCISH™ praised in
(MarCom Newsletter)
Award Winning Poster
The laboratory technicians, Marianne Pedersen
(Dept. of Pathology, Roskilde Hospital, Denmark)
and Birgitte Bruun Rasmussen (Dept. of
Pathology, Hilleroed Hospital, Denmark), won a
convincing first prize at the 28th World Congress
of Biomedical Laboratory Science in New Delhi,
India, this August.
The two laboratory technicians presented their
work, comparing the FISH pharmDx™ method to
the DuoCISH method for detection of the human
HER2 gene. Their poster concludes an almost
perfect agreement (99 %) between the FDA
approved HER2 FISH pharmDx™ method and
dual color CISH method when assessment of
HER2 gene status (amplified/not amplified) was
performed.
The poster states that the CISH method with its
benefits, such as morphological features, bright
field microscopy, and stable chromogen signals,
seems to be a good alternative to the FISH
method. (mfs)
Dako Creates Global Commercial
Operations Function
New Senior Vice President of Global Commercial
Operations Appointed.
A Global Commercial Operations function (GCO) is being
established. The GCO will be dedicated to driving and
supporting growth and commercial performance across
Dako. The GCO will work closely together with other
functions in Dako, especially Global Sales and Marketing.
To lead the new GCO function, Jacob Schambye will join
Dako as Senior Vice President of Global Commercial
Operations, reporting to Patrik Dahlén, CEO. Jacob
Schambye brings ex- tensive experience in sales and
marketing management, in shaping and driving aggres-
sive growth strategies, as well as in leading major change
programs. Most recently, he was head of Global Sales in
GN Netcom, a 2.5bn DKK high tech com-munications
company. Jacob is Danish, 38 years old, married, and
has two children. (skh)

october 2008 I Droplet 19

Three employees answer the question:
What does ‘We care’ mean to you?

Do we care?

20 Droplet I october 2008

BY LILLIAN LYKKE ANDERSEN
A short word with
tremendous meaning
“’We care’, a short word that carries
huge meaning. In my native language,
it is almost impossible to translate it
in one single expression. It’s hard to
say what it means, you have to feel it
and live it, and since I joined Dako 8
months ago, I’ve been feeling and
living it daily.
When customers have strange issues,
when they are obsessed with what we
consider as less relevant issues, it
would be easier to let go, to take time
and hope that they would forget the
question. But this is not the Dako
Way, because we care. We try to put
ourselves in the customer’s shoes
and to find the right answer every day.
Dako cares for patients and we demon-
strate this by providing the appropriate
solutions which shorten the time to
diagnosis and influence the accuracy
of the diagnosis itself. All the effort that
has gone into the RTU’s project was
aimed to ensure that there are no false
positive or false negative results, and
involves a very immediate means of use.
Dako cares for its employees as well.
As I said before, I’ve been working for
Dako for a short time. For a new
employee, the main expectation is
to obtain the right tools in order to be
able to work in the best possible way
and learn in the shortest possible time.
I came from a completely different
sector and therefore, it was even more
important to me to be trained quickly
and efficiently. I got what I needed and
I’ve felt CARED for!
We are not a perfect company yet,
we still have to improve certain things.
Sometimes, I feel that communication
takes a complex route, and that a few
details may be lost along the way. We,
as application specialists, need all the
possible details about our products,
our instruments, our solutions in order
to be able to care for customers and
patients thoroughly.”
Carlotta Dell'Agnello,
Application Specialist Pathology,
Italy
We impact people’s lives
“The phrase we care means that
when anyone comes to us or to me
personally, with a concern or an idea,
they automatically and respectfully
deserve a thoughtful response that
directly addresses their immediate
need. Caring for sick patients embo-
dies this idea in that if you do not give
the appropriate and direct response,
in most cases the patient will not get
well. Caring is directly connected to
healing in mind. Taking care of each
other is probably the most important
thing we can do.
I manage training, technical support
and applications specialist depart-
ments, which comprises Customer
Care in the US. I try to get the point
across that the information that comes
from Dako will affect someone’s life
either directly or indirectly. Imagine that
one’s family is on the receiving end of
our recommendations.
There are so many things outside our
control, playing a crucial part in getting
the diagnosis correct or identifying the
right disease model with our testing
systems, we can never discount the
integrity of the answers we give to
ourselves and to external customers.
Living this value is a continous process.
Being extremely mindful of what your
contribution will be down the line from
your actions can help keep Dako on
the appropriate course of living this
value.”
Gale Pace, Manager,
Training and Technical Support,
Carpinteria, USA
It’s a Dako trade
”The choice of ”We Care” as one of
Dako’s fundamental values is a very
strong one. We send a signal that our
customers are not just some people
we earn money on and live off. No, it
actually means a lot to us to get close
to our customers, to understand them
and their needs. Yes, we would gladly
get right out to the patients and contri-
bute to influencing their quality of life
by ensuring them a safe and quick
diagnosis, and thereby increasing the
possibility for correct treatment in time.
For me, it’s just as important that ”We
care” also gains a great significance
for our way of working internally. A
workplace, where the individual em-
ployee is concerned about both the
business and colleagues is a really
good starting point for a good working
environment. We must be concerned
about each other and take one another
seriously. In a changing organization
with great demands, it makes a dif-
ference if one surrounds oneself with
colleagues that care about one, and
feel like taking the time for a personal
chat when the need arises.
If we as employees really adopt ”We
care” as a central value in our way of
working with each other, I believe that
we as a company will be in a much
stronger position. Our customers will
be able to sense this.”
Malene Gundestrup,
Director, Supply Chain
Glostrup, Denmark
october 2008 I Droplet 21
22 Droplet I october 2008
 Portrait of Jørgen Andersen
Dako’s new
Human Resources
chief Jørgen Andersen learned
one of his most important
lessons in leadership and
human resources from
the battlefield. He’s Dako’s
new CVP for People &
Organization. Many years
ago, he worked for the
Danish Air Force.

BY JACK JACKSON, JOURNALIST

The leadership stuff

“It was at a time when Denmark began sending soldiers to
war zones,” says Jørgen. He trained personnel in leadership
development. “When some of our colleagues came back from
a mission, we asked them, ‘What about all this leadership
stuff? Does it hold water when the bullets are flying?’ They
said that whenever it was obvious that their platoon comman-
der didn’t know what to do, it created anxiety. They didn’t
care whether it was riskier going one way or another. They
just wanted to go. Just standing there, not going anywhere,
was also a risk.

“That was quite a lesson for me,” he explains. “As long as

managers make a decision – even though it might be a wrong
decision – I can live with that. It’s much more frustrating if
managers just stand around, doing a lot of thinking but doing ›

october 2008 I Droplet 23

nothing. Of course,” he adds, “You
must make a reasonable decision and
naturally, you will use your team to
assist in this, but at the end of the day,
you must act.”
Being ready
Jørgen Andersen is ready to act. Re-
laxed, dressed casually in a lime green
golf shirt, he points to one of the few
things he has hanging in his nearly
empty office, a poster of the Dako
strategy 2008-2011.
“This is the journey we’re setting out on
over the next three years,” he says. “We
can do it. And our people are the most
important thing we have. They are the
ones realizing this vision. If HR doesn’t
care about people, then it’s hopeless.”
In his previous job at Dong Energy,
an integrated energy/utility company
based in Denmark, Jørgen was hired
to help merge Dong Energy from six
companies into one that covered the
whole energy value chain.
One Dako team
“That was a cultural challenge,” he
said. “Each company was unique,
they had their own culture, but we
needed to become one company,
and at the same time maintain the
uniqueness of each individual com-
pany. We needed to understand and
respect each company, all the way
down to each individual person. We
all had to see the benefit of working
together in order to be able to pull off
larger scale projects than we could
have previously handled alone.
“It’s the same challenge here,” he says.
“To become a united Dako team. We’re
in different countries, and we also have
our different cultures, say, in R&D, and
Production and Sales. We therefore
really need – even more so – to see
the benefits of working together cross-
border, cross-site and cross-depart-
ment. This way, we’ll gain even more
respect for each other and manifest
even more passion for our mission to
fight cancer.”
Bring it on
In addition to focusing on bringing
together Dako, to work as one team,
Jørgen initially plans to finalize Dako’s
transition into the new performance
management system, create a more
motivating incentives system (starting
with sales globally), develop Dako’s
succession planning and talent
management program and, finally,
improve HR data flow and quality.
Despite all this, Jørgen describes
himself as focusing much more on
people than on processes in his HR
work.
“I’m all for clear and open communica-
tion. I’m quite simple. What you see is
what you get,” he says, while swinging
boxing movements. “That’s the way it is.”
Who is Jørgen Andersen?
D
“There is nothing special about me,” claims Jørgen Andersen, 44, who comes
from Copenhagen, Denmark. After 12 years “trying more or less everything possible”
in the Danish Air Force, he began working at FLSmidth, a global cement and
mineral industries producer. He spent seven years in human resources, starting
an Internal Leadership Academy and establishing HR functions in India and the
US, only to mention some of his achievements. He moved on to become Director,
Training and Development in Dong Energy in 2005. “And now I’m here,” he says
with a smile.
On the home front, he has been married for 23 years – to the same woman, he
points out. “Yeah, yeah, that’s amazing, isn’t it?” They have three kids, all teen-
agers. In his spare time, he plays badminton or fixes up the family’s home from 1950.
“It seems like something is always falling apart on it,” he says.