Leadership, Culture, and Career Mobility with Johanna Hummer, VP of Global People Success at Opella

Building Culture from the Ground Up: Lessons from Johanna Hummer’s Talent Development Journey at Opella

Andy Storch recently sat down with Johanna Hummer, Vice President of Global People Success at Opella, on the Talent Development Hot Seat podcast. Johanna’s career has spanned two decades in HR, navigating everything from compensation and benefits to global business partnering—all culminating in her leading Opella’s talent, culture, and inclusion strategy through its spinoff from Sanofi. Her story is filled with actionable takeaways on building a new company culture, launching a learning ecosystem, and putting people and purpose at the center of transformation.

Seize the Spin-Off Moment to Build Culture with Intention

Johanna described the Opella spinoff as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to reimagine culture and ways of working from the ground up. Rather than defaulting to legacy practices, her team made culture the heartbeat of the organization anchoring their transformation in four distinct behaviors they call the Challenger Mindset. These include being “all in together,” taking courageous yet thoughtful risks, becoming outcome-obsessed, and embracing radical simplicity. Each was co-created through collaboration: a senior leader sprint, executive committee input, feedback from nearly 500 employees across functions and geographies, and targeted pilots to ensure real-world resonance on manufacturing sites and beyond. The result: a culture built for authenticity, agility, and sustainable impact.

Balance Legacy Strengths with New Ambitions

Opella’s greatest cultural challenge balancing the disciplined, risk-averse strengths of pharmaceutical heritage with the speed and agility of a consumer healthcare disruptor echoes a challenge many maturing organizations face. Johanna’s answer was to “bring people along” by launching an Ambassadors program, fostering peer advocacy, and investing in storytelling. Leaders model behaviors openly, and the organization continuously engages employees at all levels for buy-in and clarity. These efforts ensure the new culture isn't just cascaded from the top, but is lived and reinforced daily especially in places where change might feel most foreign.

Design Learning for Business Outcomes—and Human Simplicity

Instead of defaulting to compliance-driven, box-ticking training, Johanna’s team overhauled Opella’s learning ecosystem. They consolidated more than 800 local platforms into a single one-stop-shop called Elevate, making learning “radically simple” and focused on direct business needs. Opella prioritized four learning pillars: brand mastery, leadership development, onboarding for culture, and critical supply chain/manufacturing capabilities. This approach is collaborative and phased, built in direct partnership with business and digital teams, and centrally coordinated to ensure global consistency with local flexibility.

Upskill for the Future by Going Back to Basics

Rather than chasing every trend, Johanna focuses on the skills that truly matter for Opella’s new context digital fluency (including AI), financial acumen, change leadership, and consumer-centric thinking. Critical roles are identified and prioritized for development, and the organization is rolling out impactful upskilling programs (like the “Strike” series for HR) and the soon-to-launch Leadership Academy. What’s clear: future-readiness means equipping people not just with technical skills, but with the confidence and strategic advisory mindset needed in a fast-changing, entrepreneurial business.

Enable Career Mobility and Personal Growth

A nimble organization is one where employees are empowered to grow. Johanna’s approach is both practical and human: start by surfacing critical value roles, make development plans radically simple (focus on one strength and one development priority), and ensure clarity in pathways and support. Opella is also working to strengthen its employer brand and storytelling, making both the organization and its people visible and attractive internally and externally.

Put Wellbeing and Flexibility at the Center of the Employee Promise

Opella’s People and Culture strategy leads with health—offering robust well-being frameworks that encompass financial, mental, and physical health, as well as flexibility programs and support for serious personal challenges like illness. Leaders don’t just set policies; they actively role-model work-life balance and share stories publicly. This creates a culture of psychological safety, belonging, and trust a foundation for sustainable performance.

Localize Global Strategy: Embrace Diversity Without Compromise

Operating across 40+ countries, Johanna knows a “one size fits all” approach doesn’t work. Instead, Opella provides global guidelines with space for local adaptation, involving local teams in design and roll-out, and building flexible programs that resonate from Vienna to Mexico City to Tokyo. The goal: hold fast to the Challenger Mindset while honoring what makes each market unique.

Champion Inclusion, Female Leadership, and Community

Johanna’s passion for female leadership and inclusion shows up in the data: nearly half of Opella’s senior leaders are women, and the company works harder each year to deepen diversity not just in gender, but in accessibility, ability, and other forms of representation. Outside Opella, Johanna is active in supporting female talent in Austria and the broader healthcare community, fostering greater visibility and advancement.

Key Advice for Talent Leaders: Be Curious, Courageous, and People-Centered

Reflecting on her journey, Johanna’s advice is clear: try new things, embrace the discomfort of the unknown, and trust in your strengths. Listen deeply to employees’ ideas and emotions, be transparent about what you can and can’t control in times of change, build psychological safety, and never lose sight of the “why” serving both employees and consumers.