Speaker 1:

From the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, welcome Inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange is your go-to for the latest on markets, leadership, vision, and business. For over 230 years, the NYSE has been the beating heart of global growth. Each week we bring you inspiring stories of innovators, job creators, and the movers and shakers of capitalism here at the NYSE and ices exchanges around the world. Now let's go Inside the ICE House. Here's your host Lance Glinn.

Lance Glinn:

Welcome into another episode of the Inside the ICE House Podcast. Our guest today, Brent Saunders is chairman and CEO of Bausch + Lomb. That's NYC ticker symbol BLCO. Beginning his second tenure as CEO in 2023 after first serving in the position from 2010 to 2013, Brent has focused on refreshing the company's culture and revamping its pipeline. We welcome him to the New York Stock Exchange to detail the transformation since his return and how he's positioned the nearly two-century-old brand for success in the years to come. Brent, thanks so much for joining us Inside the ICE House. Really appreciate you being here.

Brent Saunders:

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to do this.

Lance Glinn:

So I want to kick things off with what feels like a comeback story. My podcasting career began in sports and in sports you often see coaches return to programs they once led, driven by a sense of unfinished business, redemption of sorts, a belief that the work wasn't quite done. You were CEO of Bausch + Lomb from 2010 to 2013, then stepped away for a decade before returning in 2023. Was it about unfinished business, redemption, something else entirely? What brought you back to the company you left 10 years before?

Brent Saunders:

Great question. I think there were multiple factors. There were probably two most important. One was a sense of unfinished business and the second was a real passion for eye health. And so when I left 2013, I went on to create what became Allergan, which was also significant eye care company, a lot of other things, but also in eye care. So I'd remained in the eye health field, but the opportunity to come back to a company that is 172 years old now that is exclusively and broadly focused on eye health and a company where I felt like my time was cut short because of the private equity ownership structure we had. And then it got lost in a bigger value in Bausch Health to bring it back as a focused eye care company and really bring innovation back into the field was just too amazing an opportunity to pass up.

Lance Glinn:

And so you mentioned your time at Allergan starting that company and your decade hiatus saw a few different stops along the way. When you stepped back into the role though of CEO of Bausch + Lomb in 2023, did you feel like a different leader than you were in 2013? How did your experiences from the end of, I'll call it 1.0 to the beginning of 2.0 change over time?

Brent Saunders:

Oh, significantly. When I became CEO of Bausch + Lomb in 2010, it was my first CEO job and it was my first time in eye care, so I had a steep learning curve. So I was learning on the job in 2010, come back in 2023 and-

Lance Glinn:

You're an expert.

Brent Saunders:

Well, I'm not an expert, but I have much more confidence. I have a much greater knowledge of the role of the CEO. I have a lot greater knowledge of the eye health field and the ecosystem and the players and the technologies. And so probably the best word is I came back with a lot more confidence, but also the humility of knowing I didn't have all the answers either and I didn't have a great team around me.

Lance Glinn:

And so 10 years is a long time. And coming back to Bausch + Lomb must've felt like stepping into a familiar place, but obviously one, and no pun intended here, but with a new lens of sorts too. When you returned, what were some of the first things you noticed that really made you think, okay, this company needs to evolve in these areas? What were some of those initial priorities that you really pinpointed?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. So I, said this before, I felt like I came back and they had those time capsules, I felt like I came back and I had one of these opportunities to open a time capsule. The company had been put in this capsule for 10 years and I got to unlock it and open back up and it was exactly in many regards as I had left it. So a lot of the things that were being worked on were programs and projects and ideas that I had started in 2012 or '13 that quite hadn't finished. And so for me, it was very familiar and a lot of the people were the same. So it was very familiar ground. That being said, it was very clear to me what had to happen at least in those first couple of years to get the company out of neutral and back into drive. It was a company that was not doing poorly, but not doing great. It was just stuck. It was in a static position. And I wanted us to regain some momentum and get the company pushing forward at an accelerated path. And that really was what I focused on for first couple of years.

Lance Glinn:

Was it like a hit the ground running approach, obviously having had experience or was it more of like a, okay, I had experience, it's been 10 years, let me listen, let me observe, let me figure things out first and then really get going?

Brent Saunders:

So that would be the normal path I would take. I didn't do that here. I came in saying to myself, let's get a running start and in parallel listen and learn. As an example ... I don't know round numbers. I had about 10 or 11 direct reports. I replaced nine of them within the first several weeks of being on the job. And combination of bringing some people in from outside and also promoting people internally. But the point being is ... And my board actually said to me, maybe you're moving too fast. And I said, "Look, I don't want to take a year to evaluate the team. I need A players in all the right seats from the get-go because we have a lot of transformation work to do, and I don't have time to waste." And I still feel that way. I'm like, I don't want to waste time. I want to get this thing moving.

Lance Glinn:

And so you mentioned that the company was in neutral when you came back in 2023. I think every company, especially one with as long a legacy as Bausch + Lomb can fall into a rhythm. A rhythm that just same thing after the other because it works. It essentially falls into the status quo. How do you, especially again with a company with this long of a legacy, how do you break away from the status quo? How do you make sure that you come back, you get off to running start and you're able to innovate right away and change things up and make sure that sure what has been happening in the last 170 plus years has worked, but let's make it better. How do you break away from that status quo?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. So really hard problem to solve. I think the answer is pretty straightforward. Time will tell if I'm right or not, but I think it's really talent and culture. So if you think about what makes great companies, it starts with talent and culture and then that leads to great products and great outcomes. And from my perspective, as an investment, the only investment you can make as a CEO that has unlimited compounding potential is talent. And so I can invest in a R&D program, but it has an infinite life of its intellectual property. We can invest in a new IT system, but it has an infinite life where it becomes obsolete. The only thing that compounds without limit is talent. And so I really focused initially on ... Why I said one of the first things I did was redo my direct reports because A players attract A players. Culture is a slow moving process of change, but changing culture really does change how you perform.

And so those are the areas I really focused. And one area in particular that was critical was R&D talent. It was elevating some great scientists and talent inside the R&D organization, but recruiting best-in-class scientists to join the existing team. And the reason that's important is innovation is the lifeblood of a company and it's a long cycle. And so things that we started three years ago are things now that are becoming at the forefront of clinical programs or the next product evolution or innovation for patients. And so you really don't have time to wait And plod and be bureaucratic round. You got to get to talent and culture right away.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. And like you said, you hit the ground running. You started to run as soon as you got back in the CEO seat at Bausch + Lomb. So you mentioned innovation, you mentioned culture and values. We're going to talk about those in just a little bit, but before we do, so it's been two years. We obviously know Bausch + Lomb, a leader in eye care, see products of it on our shelves. A mission of helping people see better, to live better. But peeling away from those upfront messages as we sit towards the end of 2025, we look ahead to 2026, who is Bausch + Lomb right now?

Brent Saunders:

So our goal is to not be the biggest but the best eye health company. And I think there are potentially a few dimensions that are really important or KPIs to say how do you achieve best? And so the three that I'm probably most focused on is have the most meaningful innovation, solve for unmet medical need or raise the standard of care for patients is one. And those you can measure by success of approvals and new product introductions. I think the second is really what we've been talking about, talent and culture. And you can evaluate that through performance reviews and surveys and other things like that. And then the third is financial performance because we ultimately run the company for shareholders and patients and patients get the innovation, shareholders get the return. And so those are the three dimensions I think that are really critical to that never ending goal of trying to aspire to be the best. It's like in sports, you can measure if you're the best team by whether or not you win the Super Bowl. And so you have to create your own KPIs around-

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. Your own goal to try to achieve your own Super Bowl, for example.

Brent Saunders:

That's right.

Lance Glinn:

What is Bausch + Lomb's Super Bowl?

Brent Saunders:

For me personally, it's raising the standard of care for eye health for patients that really every time we launch a new medicine or a new product that makes people see better to live better, that's our Super Bowl.

Lance Glinn:

So I want to focus more on those cultures and behaviors and values and talent. In October, excuse me, the company unveiled its new values and behaviors in Mexico City, helping Bausch + Lomb build on its culture and putting the company really into a new phase of growth. In the release you mentioned three important points for this new culture. Keeping the value statement short to the point, no corporate jargon and gaining input from all employees. How did you bring these three principles to life and why was it so important, I think to really bring simplicity to this new values and behaviors?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. I think a lot of companies spend a lot of time engineering words that fit on a poster or a slide. Some value statement that they refer to in corporate speeches or annual reports or customer events or things like that. For me, culture really isn't about that. In fact, I don't even ... sure I care about those types of things. I think culture should be something that every colleague understands, and ultimately you put your money where your mouth is. And what I mean by that is every performance review is done in the context of your culture. So it's not just about getting results, it's how you got those results that matter. And so keeping ours quite simple, it's about gritty ownership and customer focus. And so everyone in the company understands that. We've done a lot of work around what that means, and it's really quite simple. And now in '26, it will be part of your performance evaluation and bonus of how you achieved the results you did matter just as much as the results you got.

Lance Glinn:

And so cultural reset, this doesn't happen overnight. It's not like you woke up on October 1st and we're like, "We need to make changes." There's obviously something deeper driven. You need to go through and have a process in creating this even if it's bringing simplicity into it still is a process to obviously get this thing going and figure out exactly what it needs to be. What was the catalyst for this shift? Was there a moment, a realization that made you feel that Bausch + Lomb needed to redefine itself in a way?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. So I believe that on my first day back at the company, but I also recognize that you can't ... To dispute what you just said, there is no one moment. And so what I thought of was there will be a point where we need to change our culture and articulate that change, but we need to lay a groundwork or a framework for doing that. And the best way to do that is get leaders to lead by example first. So it starts with me and then it's my direct reports, then it's their direct reports. And so for the last two or three years we've been talking about what it means to be an owner. We had Angela Duckworth, the author of the book, Grit, come and talk to all of us. I sent the book out to everyone for summer reading. We've had workshops around the concept of grit, and we've been doing that for years.

So then we say, okay, let's redefine the words on the page. So we go out and we spend a lot of time, we talk to 700 colleagues, we hold workshops and they recite back grit. So it wasn't that I said, okay, this is our new culture. We spent a couple of years planting seeds and seeing how they sprouted and how people reacted to it. And then when we asked them to help us define what we want as a culture, they regurgitated back their version of how they've internalized a lot of the things we've been talking about. And it becomes much more powerful if you do it that way. But it can't be a project that lasts a week. This was like three years in the making.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. Like I said, it didn't just happen overnight. You didn't just wake up on October 1st and say, we're going to make this change. It's a process behind it. And so you talk about that principle of bringing in the company, bringing in employees from all corners of Bausch + Lomb to provide input into the company's culture moving forward. I think one of the most important things a company can do is to create a culture that truly supports those whom really make the company what it is, not just in their roles, but in their growth too. How are you making sure that the insights that they've shared their wants, their needs are translating into real opportunities for employees to thrive, develop and feel empowered?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. So one of the things that's most important to me, and it's a battle I fight every day, is to eliminate bureaucracy. And so that's a buzzword. And people always say, all right, yeah, bureaucracy is bad, and so on and so forth. But the reality is when you grow to a certain size or scale, you create process and process could become bureaucracy very quickly. It morphs, it just grows into that. And so I'm on this never-ending quest to eliminate it. So it's like a constant battle. I remember, I think in the first few months here, I sent out an email to all employees, and the subject line was, I hate meetings because I have this firm belief that work doesn't get done in meetings. Bureaucracy grows in committees and committee decision-making. If you have a committee that makes a decision and it meets once a quarter, you wait a quarter to make a decision because you wait for the committee meeting. That's insanity to me.

And so I wanted to create more empowerment or ownership, eliminate committee decision-making, eliminate meetings, reduce meetings. Simple stuff like you reset the Microsoft Outlook calendars instead of 30 and 60 minutes to 20 and 40 minutes. Just reduce the default of time and meetings, and we track it. So we see the metrics of meeting time dropping dramatically. We see people eliminating all sorts of committees and creating individual accountability and ownership. And guess what? People like it better because they're empowered to do what they want to do. I think it's just human nature. Anybody who works anywhere wants to be able to have an impact.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely.

Brent Saunders:

If you go to work and you're just going through the motions and you're just a cog in the wheel, how do you get excited to go to work every day? And no matter what your role is, you got a really important job at Bausch + Lomb that you can make a difference in. And so it's this constant communication. I was even saying at our Mexico town hall that we broadcast from Mexico ... We didn't roll it out of Mexico. We broadcast to the globe from Mexico. But I was saying everyone ... We're 172-year-old company. There are reasons why we do the things the way we do. And it could be because 30 years ago somebody decided this is the process. Well, that person 30 years ago is no smarter than you are today, and they have no idea of the circumstances in which we operate today. So everyone has the right to challenge and change for the better the way we work.

And to think that we're just stuck doing it. I am sure everybody comes to work saying, gosh, if the guys in headquarters just understood that this is so inefficient the way we do this, well, guess what? I'm not going to know that. I can't see everything that's going on. But 13,500 people all making a little bit of a change for the better has dramatic impact. It compounds as well. I've been using that word a lot, but it compounds in an unprecedented way.

Lance Glinn:

And so you said, just because something was done 30 years ago, that person who did it 30 years ago isn't any smarter than you. They don't know what the circumstances are, and they don't know that 30 years later from when they first started something, AI is going to now be in our world.

Brent Saunders:

A hundred percent.

Lance Glinn:

I want to pivot the conversation real quickly to that. I've spoken to a lot of CEOs, a lot of leaders of companies, and I've gotten varied answers. I've gotten answers from as far as it's completely revolutionizing what we do, what our sector is, how we work. I've gotten answers from, oh, it helps in the back office. It helps speed things up, it helps efficiency, so on and so forth. We use copilot, we ChatGPT, whatever it may be. And that's fine. And there's some in the middle that it's a little bit of both. Where does Bausch + Lomb fit in that? How are you implementing AI?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. So I actually think it's both can be true at the same time. So I think the promise of the technology is revolutionary. I don't want to date myself, but I remember when things like even cable TV came in, cell phones, the internet, the web, and I don't think there's a technology in my lifetime that will have the impact as profound as AI. That being said, where we're using it today is in a variety of different isolated projects, whether that be in drug discovery or manufacturing efficiency or how our sales force works or how we create ads for our consumer products or applied digital marketing or customer service. We have a lot of discrete programs utilizing AI. But the thing I'm most excited about with AI is what we're rolling out now, which is really important for two reasons.

We are going to train all of our colleagues on AI technology, and that's important for one ... First reason is we have an obligation, I think, to upskill and train and invest in our colleagues. I think colleagues today that don't have a working knowledge of this technology are going to get left behind in the future. And so we want to invest in them and their capabilities. But second, I think to truly get the efficiency and profound outcome of what's coming in AI, everyone needs to understand it to contribute to implementing better solutions. And so when you don't understand something you're fearful or you're not willing to accept it, when you understand it, you're better to apply it to create better solutions and create efficacy or efficiency inside the enterprise. So for the next several months, we're rolling out training all of next year people will be required by different job type to take certain courses or go deeper into the learning journey. And it's going to be ... You're either going to be AI native or you're going to have to change the culture to support it. And the foundation of that is level setting people's knowledge and training around the technology.

Lance Glinn:

And how do you see it impacting just the sector broadly? Because there are, over the last three or four years ... I know AI has been around longer than three or four years, but we've seen millions of use cases pop up. And I think one of the exciting things is that with the technology's constant development, there are millions of use cases that may not even have been discovered yet that could obviously impact the way things are done five, 10, 15, 20 years down the line. But with eye care, how is AI specifically, or how have you seen it move the sector or move the industry?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. We're using it like everybody else. As I said, customer service, sales, manufacturing. We have a very highly automated robotic manufacturing lines getting more efficiency out of it. The thing I'm most excited about, and I think where it's going to have the biggest impact on eye health is in how we develop new products or new medicines. And the reason is twofold. First, by having AI drug discovery or AI enabled drug discovery, we can accelerate our ability to find new targets that lead to new medicines. The second is because that's a high risk, expensive investment we make, we can increase the probability of success that the target or medicine that we're investing in will work. And so the combination of those two makes R&D more efficient from an investment perspective or higher ROI and faster to market. And that's great for patients, that's great for the industry. And so we're doing some really interesting AI drug development around diseases that cause blindness or vision impairment that really, if they work, could have significant impact on people's quality of life.

Lance Glinn:

And so I want to take some time to talk about just the R&D pipeline innovation too. To that point, I'm sure that was one of your big areas of focus upon returning in 2020, revamping Bausch + Lomb products. Obviously no small task, especially in a company with such a long legacy in eye care and eye health. What did you see in the pipeline that needed change, and how did you go about reimagining it to better align with today's demands?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah, so it was almost a complete redo. So when I got there, the pipeline was pretty sparse. And the things that we were looking at or investing in were what I call iterative innovation. So slightly better products than things on the market today. And so we stopped it all. We either sold it, outlicensed it, returned it, whatever we got out of all that stuff. And we really focused on innovation that would change the standard of care regardless if it's in contact lenses, in pharmaceutical medicines, in surgical equipment or implants or consumer products. And so today, when I look at particularly our late stage pipeline things that are actually in clinical trials, everything that we're working on is a significant step higher on the standard of care if successful. And so that really is a complete redo, and it's something I'm probably at this moment among the most proud of what we've accomplished as an organization.

Lance Glinn:

And I think today's demands differing from demands, let's use it 30 years ago, for example. Obviously speed is at the top of the list, right? Patients and providers want and expect solutions faster. We obviously talked about AI and the impact that that could have in speeding things up. But how do you build agility into the product development process while obviously maintaining safety and the high quality that people expect from Bausch + Lomb?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. I always say there's no shortcuts with regulators, particularly the FDA, which is the gold standard for the world. So you're not going to accelerate the regulatory framework. Hopefully the government will use AI and prove that on their own, and they are working on that. That being said, for us, the best way we could accelerate is through talent. Getting the best scientists, the best regulatory affairs people. Getting people who really know what they're doing. Improve our odds of success. All R&D is high risk, but really give us the best opportunities to elevate that standard of care or change the game for our customer or patient depending on what business you're looking at.

Lance Glinn:

And I think in a competitive industry like healthcare and vision care more specifically, there's always obviously pressure to be first, right, to launch the next big thing, the next big medicine before anyone else. But there also obviously is a risk of rushing something that may not be quite ready. And of course, there are regulations and approvals that everything needs to go through. But how do you approach that balance out Bausch + Lomb? Is it more important to be first or to be the best? And then how do you decide which way to prioritize?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. Look, I think being the first is part of being the best. And so if your goal is to raise the standard of care, by definition, you're almost always going to be first. Because what we had before I arrived were incremental improvements on existing therapies. So second, third, or fourth to market with a slight improvement. I don't want to do that anymore. I don't think payers want to pay for it, and I don't think investing our money to make a small difference to a patient is worth the time and investment. I think our obligation is to be first, to create new pathways, to treat disease, to create new products that change the game for customers if you're talking about a contact lens wearer or a consumer or even for a patient going into eye surgery, to have the best technology with that surgeon to provide the best outcome.

Lance Glinn:

So Brent, as we begin to wrap up our conversation, the healthcare landscape and eye care in general is changing, whether it's through regulation, technology, consumer expectations. How are you preparing Bausch + Lomb to stay resilient in the face of those shifts? What do you think will really be the biggest challenges and opportunities ahead, and how are you preparing for them?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. So I've been in this industry close to 30 years, and we've always been under some pressure or change, whether it's advancements in science or changes in regulation or reimbursement pressure. And ultimately, I think that the way to stay ahead of this is to add value to the system. And that's why being first or being fast with meaningful innovation, there's always an opportunity to create value for us, for our customers, for our shareholders, by doing it. And that's why I think that strategy is really the right strategy for us and for many other companies in the innovative side of healthcare. And so it's a high-risk, high-reward scenario, but when you have great talent and great teams, you feel much more confident on making those investments.

Lance Glinn:

And so you've led Bausch + Lomb in two different generations. I referred to it earlier, 1.0 tenure now in 2.0 tenure. And now you have a refreshed culture and a revamped product pipeline behind you. The company really does seem poised for this next chapter. As you personally just forecast the next five, 10 years. Look ahead. If we're talking in 2030 or 2035, what is your long-term vision for Bausch + Lomb? Not just in terms of growth, but in terms of how it serves patients and really leaves the industry ahead?

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. So I've never been more excited in my almost 30 years about the opportunity ahead as I am now. I think we have so much opportunity to make a difference. Not everything's going to work, but I think we have enough shots on goal that we can make a meaningful difference. So I think if you could go in a time machine and get to 2030 something, my hope is patients and customers view Bausch + Lomb as the most innovative value add to their life. When you lose vision or your vision is impaired, it has such a meaningful consequence on the quality of your life. Whether it's your ability to drive, to drive at night, to drive at all, to see the TV programs or read the books you want to read, it is so impactful to your life. So if we can play a small role of helping more people live a higher quality of life through better vision, what could be better than that? That's the goal. And so if that could be universally recognized because of so many great innovations we've launched between now and the 2030s, well, I'd feel really good about where we were. Yeah.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. Well, Brent, I appreciate all that Bausch + Lomb is doing to help with eye care and to help people, as you say, live better lives. Thank you so much for joining us Inside the ICE House.

Brent Saunders:

Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen and follow us on X at Ice House Podcast. From the New York Stock Exchange we'll talk to you again next week Inside the ICE House. Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither Ice nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties, express or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, and do not sponsor, approve or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.