Leading with care and courage: Takeda’s people-first approach in Asia Pacific

When employees in Asia Pacific healthcare organisations talk about what drives them, two themes often emerge: the pressure to perform and the need to feel cared for.

The industry is expanding rapidly, with evolving regulations, digital transformation, and growing patient demands placing leaders under intense scrutiny.

For Takeda, one of the world’s oldest biopharmaceutical companies, this balance is a lived reality.

With operations spanning multiple countries, the company must deliver medical innovation while ensuring its people remain motivated, supported, and trusted.

At the same time, employees are questioning whether corporate values align with their day-to-day experiences.

In many Asia Pacific workplaces, hierarchy still shapes decision-making, but younger talent increasingly expects openness, inclusivity, and psychological safety.

These shifting expectations place HR and business leaders under pressure to model both courage and care.

Drawing on his experience leading across diverse markets, Dr. Mahender Nayak, senior vice president - Asia Pacific countries at Takeda, believes that trust, purpose, and resilience must be at the heart of that balance.

With almost a decade and a half of experience at the company and a medical career preceding it, he has seen how ambition and care can reinforce one another when leaders prioritise authenticity and well-being alongside results.

Fourteen years, but never the same journey

Reflecting on his tenure, Nayak says longevity at Takeda has been defined by reinvention rather than routine.

“While 14 years may sound like a long tenure, my journey at Takeda has been one of constant renewal. What has kept it invigorating is not only the company’s 244-year heritage, but also its ability to evolve and remain rooted in values while continuously reimagining how we support our people and serve patients.”

His leadership is grounded in the "trust pyramid," comprising authenticity, empathy, and logic.

“For me, this philosophy comes to life through caring leadership: creating environments of psychological safety, fostering radical candour, and encouraging colleagues to take thoughtful risks and grow through accountability.”

He stresses that empathy and accountability must go hand in hand.

“It's about pairing high standards with the support and trust needed to achieve them.”

For HR leaders, this means designing structures that stretch employees but also give them the confidence to experiment, make mistakes, and learn — without fear of reprisal.

Ambition and well-being: not opposites but allies

Across APAC, companies often struggle to balance growth targets with employee care.

Nayak challenges the assumption that leaders must make a choice. “Organisational ambition and employee wellbeing are not trade-offs... They are two sides of the same coin. When our people thrive, Takeda thrives.”

He points to Takeda’s decision-making framework, PTRB — Patients, Trust, Reputation, Business — as a compass.

“This is more than a philosophy... It is the discipline that ensures we never sacrifice what matters most. It allows us to balance high performance with a culture of support.”

For example, when facing tough calls about speed to market or resourcing, PTRB reminds leaders to prioritise patients and trust over short-term wins.

This daily discipline ensures consistent decisions across markets and leaders.

“Ambition and well-being are not in tension when guided by trust, growth mindset, accountability, and psychological safety,” Nayak adds.

“Instead, they reinforce one another.”

This philosophy reflects a wider HR reality: in healthcare and beyond, embedding wellbeing safeguards sustains both employee health and organisational resilience.

Reconnecting purpose with resilience

Healthcare workers carry an extraordinary sense of mission, but sustained stress can erode even the most deeply rooted purpose.

Nayak sees it as a leader’s responsibility to reconnect teams with meaning.

“Sustained stress can dull even the strongest sense of purpose. I encourage leaders to pause, reflect, and acknowledge both the challenges and the successes.”

Small, intentional practices help. “Connecting teams with the patients they serve, celebrating wins regardless [of whether] it is big or small, learning from mistakes, recognition of effort or creating moments for candid conversation; help people see the meaning in what they do and feel connected again.”

For HR, this highlights the value of linking performance discussions back to organisational purpose, ensuring staff see how their contributions matter to patients and society.

Leading across diverse markets

Recently stepping into a broader APAC mandate, Nayak recognises the need to balance regional strategy with local context.

“Stepping into this expanded APAC role requires a deliberate shift from leading individual markets to orchestrating across a region with diverse cultures, regulatory environments, and healthcare needs.”

He emphasises proximity to people as the foundation of that shift.

“Staying close to people on the ground means combining presence with listening. I plan to spend time in each market, engage directly with teams, and create forums for open dialogue to understand challenges and opportunities firsthand.”

Technology supports regional alignment, but Nayak cautions that digital efficiency cannot replace empathy. “It’s the human touch... Authentic conversations, understanding local context, and celebrating successes... That ensures we remain aligned, empathetic, and effective across the region.”

Breaking hierarchy, building safety

In many Asian workplaces, a culture of deference to authority can limit innovation. Nayak says Takeda takes the opposite stance.

“While hierarchy has been a default in many APAC workplaces for decades, we believe it is also the number one factor that stifles business innovation and positive change.”

Instead, leaders must role-model openness.

“Promoting horizontal decision-making and open communication starts with modelling caring leadership. Leaders must demonstrate empathy, actively listen, and make it safe for people to share ideas or challenge assumptions.”

This requires cultural reinforcement.

“We embed the 'trust pyramid' into decision-making, making trust a tangible part of how we work. We reinforce these behaviours through recognition, storytelling, and forums for candid dialogue, ensuring that everyone experiences the value of speaking up.”

For HR leaders in Singapore and neighbouring markets, this is especially relevant where hierarchical norms remain strong.

Creating safe forums for junior staff to speak up can be the difference between innovation and stagnation.

Lessons from fatherhood

Parenting has also shaped Nayak’s leadership lens.

“Being a father has taught me that children are refreshingly honest and completely true to their emotions... You always know where you stand with them. That’s a powerful lesson for leadership.”

He applies the lesson of individuality.

“No two children are alike, just as no two team members are alike. Each person has their own personality, motivations, and communication style, and if you want to guide them effectively, you have to adapt your approach.”

This adaptability, he explains, is now central to his leadership philosophy.

“Parenting has made me more attuned, more patient, and more intentional in finding the style that resonates with each individual, so they feel understood and supported even in challenging moments.”

Recognising burnout before it spreads

Even well-intentioned leaders can reinforce stress. Nayak admits he has seen it himself.

“One common, yet unintentional action… is to prescribe actions or advice based on our perceptions and previous experience, which may no longer be adaptable to the current workplace environment or business landscape.”

He also warns against silence as a warning sign.

“From my experience, silence is the biggest cue [in] any work environment. If our people hold back on their opinions or they become reluctant to voice out their concerns or fears, we will often check in with them.”

For HR, this highlights the importance of tracking not just survey scores but also whether teams feel safe enough to voice disagreement.

In cultures where silence can mask disengagement, psychological safety is both a cultural and strategic priority.

The hard truth about leadership in APAC

Asked for one piece of uncomfortable advice, Nayak is direct.

“The future of leadership is about building influence, trust, and resilience; not relying on authority or hierarchy.”

“The hard truth is that organisations that cling to traditional top-down models risk slowing innovation, disengaging talent, and undermining their ability to respond to rapidly changing markets,” he adds.

The leaders who will succeed, he says, are those who embrace uncertainty.

“Leaders must balance ambition with care, performance with purpose, and accountability with psychological safety. Leaders must be comfortable leaning into uncertainty, listening more than directing, and embedding trust at every level.”

Care as a competitive advantage

For Nayak, the most sustainable growth comes when people feel safe, trusted, and inspired to perform.

“Our goal is not simply to achieve results, but to do so in a way that is meaningful, sustainable, and human.”

In Asia Pacific, where healthcare challenges are vast and diverse, this approach may be a decisive differentiator.

Takeda’s example shows that caring leadership, grounded in trust and authenticity, is not only compatible with high performance. It's what makes it possible.