Traditional management slows things down
Bill Anderson CEO Bayer
“ Later, in large and hierarchical organisations, I saw how easily work slows down. People spent hours building PowerPoint slides and sitting in meetings about the next meeting. It made me curious about how organisations really function and how leadership can either unlock progress or get in its way. Since then, my focus has been simple: reduce friction, trust people and make sure work leads to impact – not just activity.” Anderson’ s career as a leader has been defined by this philosophy since, first bringing record-breaking success at Roche, where he helped navigate a transition from legacy oncology to a diversified biotech pipeline and now at Bayer. Joining the business in 2023, he was brought in with a clear mandate: lead a turnaround.“ The company was facing real challenges,” he says.“ What I heard as I got to know the teams was consistent: we have outstanding science, deeply committed people and products that can change lives. But often, we were too slow. Too complicated. There was a shared sense that this company could do much more, so the focus became finding common ground – with customers, employees, employee representatives and investors – and being honest about what was holding us back.” Anderson took the role of CEO at Bayer at a time when the company was under pressure from investors to fix its debt, address litigation and revitalise its existing pharma pipeline – challenges that belied the legacy and capabilities at the foundation of the German business. He believed the underlying science at Bayer was world-class but that the company was slowed by layers of corporate bureaucracy and management that stifled its potential. Dynamic Shared Ownership, or DSO, is a core part of his response to these challenges.
Ownership, not obligation At its core, DSO replaces the approval chains, management layers and accumulated processes of traditional organisational hierarchy with selforganising teams empowered to make decisions closest to the work. What that required at Bayer was structural and significant: six to seven layers of management removed, manager roles cut by nearly two-thirds, and around 14,000 roles reduced since implementation began. The savings from these measures have been significant: € 700m( US $ 825.3m) in 2024 and € 800m( US $ 943.2m) in 2025, against a target of € 2bn( US $ 2.36bn) in sustainable annual savings by the end of 2026. But, as Anderson explains, DSO and its accompanying changes go far beyond any cost programme to be a fundamental shift in how leaders work and teams function.
74 May 2026