Hannes Sommer has held operations and supply chain management positions in the healthcare market as an executive search consultant from Hamburg for more than 15 years. Crucial here is not only experience with production or logistics, but the ability to manage delivery capability, quality, regulation and profitability as a coherent system.
Introduction: When supply decides on the supply chain
In many industries, a delivery delay is an economic problem. In the healthcare market, it can affect the care of patients. Production planning, procurement, quality, approval, inventory and distribution are therefore not only operational individual functions. They form a system whose robustness determines market access and availability.
The past few years have revealed weaknesses: high dependence on individual manufacturing sites, scarce active ingredients and components, long regulatory change paths and a data base that often only makes risks visible when the bottleneck has already occurred. Good operations leadership must recognize earlier where efficiency turns into fragility.
1. From cost optimization to resilient supply
The European Commission proposed the Critical Medicines Act in March 2025. Among other things, the aim is to strengthen production capacities in the EU, make procurement more resilient and reduce dependencies on individual or few suppliers. [1]
Patients in the EU should have access to the medicines they need, when they need them.
The sentence specifies the benchmark for operations in the healthcare market: not maximum utilization, but reliable availability under defined quality requirements. This also changes the command indicators. Unit costs and working capital remain relevant but are not sufficient. In addition, for example:
- Zeit bis zur Wiederherstellung nach einem Ausfall,
- transparency of Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers;
- Single-Source-Risiken bei Wirkstoffen oder Komponenten,
- release and deviation times,
- regulatorische Umsetzbarkeit alternativer Bezugsquellen,
- Quality and timeliness of stock and demand data.
Resilience does not mean compensating for every uncertainty through existence. It means knowing critical dependencies and preparing for them robust options for action.
2. Regulation makes change slower – and preparation more important
In pharmaceuticals and medical technology, a supplier, production site or material often cannot be exchanged at short notice. Validation, quality agreements, technical documentation and, where applicable, changes to the authorisation shall be taken into account. This makes operational preparedness a strategic task.
Since February 2025, the use of the European Shortages Monitoring Platform has been mandatory for relevant notifications from marketing authorisation holders and national authorities.[2] The platform collects information on supply, demand and availability in order to identify bottlenecks earlier and coordinate actions across Europe. [3]
This creates more transparency, but at the same time increases the requirements for internal data and responsibilities. An organisation can only report reliably externally if product master data, inventories, capacities and risk assessments are internally consistent. Supply chain thus also becomes a data and governance function.
3. Die COO-Rolle verbindet vier Betriebssysteme
A modern operation management in the healthcare market leads to at least four closely coupled systems:
Production and capacity
It must decide which capacities are built up internally, through contract manufacturers or through strategic partners. Scalability and technology transfer count as well as costs.
Quality and compliance
Deviations, CAPA processes, audits and clearances must not be understood as downstream control. Quality must be built into process design, investment decision and supplier management.
Planning and supply network
Demand, procurement, inventory and distribution require a common planning logic. Particularly critical is the translation of uncertain forecasts into decisions that have regulatoryly or technically long leads.
People and capacity for change
No S&OP process works if sales, production, quality and finance defend different truths. Leadership creates a common decision-making model and makes conflicts of goals visible before they escalate.
4. What distinguishes a resilient operation leadership
A compelling resume often cites lean, S&OP, ERP transformation, location building or cost programs. What is crucial for the selection is what lies behind these terms:
- Was the person responsible for regulated production himself?
- Did she have to decide between delivery capability and quality risk?
- Did she actually qualify a second source of supply or just recommend it?
- Can she work on an equal footing with Quality, Regulatory, Commercial and Finance?
- Did it manage a crisis transparently without generating actionism?
- Does it understand which decisions need to be made locally and which globally?
The strongest operational personalities are neither pure process optimizers nor permanent crisis managers. They build systems that make problems visible earlier and decisions reproducible.
5. Hannes’ DNA: Marktkenntnis plus situatives Urteil
Hannes Sommer first translates the operational situation into a precise mandate. The profile workshop clarifies whether the company needs stabilization, scaling, restructuring, internationalization or professionalization. Only then is it determined which experience is really comparable.
Market mapping combines the personal network with structured, AI-supported research. The technology broadens the view of the market; it does not make the selection decision. Hannes leads the qualification himself and examines on the basis of concrete situations how candidates have decided under regulatory and operational pressure.
Operations do not become strategic when it rises in the organization chart. It is strategic once delivery capability decides on trust and company value.
A maximum of three parallel mandates and a biweekly reporting ensure that search strategy and market feedback can be continuously calibrated. Instead of a black box, a comprehensible process is created.
6. Five questions before starting an operation search
- Is the primary task stabilization, scaling or transformation?
- Which regulatory and qualitative risks does the role carry personally?
- What are the most critical dependencies in the supply network today?
- Which decision-making authority has the role vis-à-vis commercial, quality and finance?
- What measurable improvements must be visible after 12 months?
The answers help distinguish between an experienced administrator of the existing system and a leader for the next phase.
Conclusion
Operations and supply chain in the healthcare market do not only serve efficiency. They ensure supply, quality and ability to act. The right leadership recognizes dependencies early on, combines data with operational experience and creates decisions that remain resilient even under pressure. Exactly this effect must make an executive search process visible.
Personally. Precise. Discreet.
Hamburg · across Germany
Related links
Primary sources
- [1] European Commission: Commission proposes new rules to ensure stable supply of critical medicines
- [2] European Medicines Agency: European Shortages Monitoring Platform fully operational
- [3] European Medicines Agency: European Shortages Monitoring Platform
- [4] European Medicines Agency: Medicine shortage communications
- [5] European Medicines Agency: Medicine shortages – Annual Report 2025
FAQ
- Which operations and supply chain positions does Hannes Sommer hold?
- Typical mandates are COO, head or director operations, supply chain management, production management and cross-functional key roles with responsibility for planning, quality, procurement or location networks.
- Does a candidate have to come from the same product category?
- Not mandatory. The decisive factor is which regulatory depth, production logic and change phase are transferable. Switching between sub-segments can be useful if the critical operational experience is comparable.
- How is crisis experience checked?
- About specific decision situations and references: starting point, available data, alternatives, personal responsibility, communication and measurable result. General statements on “crisis resistance” are not enough.
- Wann liegen erste Profile vor?
- After Hannes Sommer’s own process experience, usually after about two weeks. At this time, the profiles are already personally qualified and adapted to the specific operation task.