“In every single case, when I was offered a new opportunity, I took it.” Why lateral moves were key to GSK CEO Emma Walmsley’s success.

The Path is a video series where I chat with some of the most influential leaders in the world exploring the successes, missteps, and key pivotal moments that shaped their professional paths. It’s through these authentic stories that we can learn how to navigate our own career journeys.

My next guest is GSK CEO and Microsoft board member Emma Walmsley . 

Emma Walmsley’s path to CEO of pharma giant GSK was anything but planned and far from linear. 

Growing up a military kid in the U.K. she did not have any sort of exposure to the business world. “I just wanted to have lots of adventures,” Emma told me. “I also wasn’t afraid to work hard.” 

Also foundational to her development was attending an all-girls boarding school from a very early age. Emma said because of that experience, it never occurred to her that gender could be limiting. 

After earning an MA in Classics and Modern Languages from Oxford, Emma’s path took a turn towards consulting. For Emma, it was simply a matter of “doing something that looked interesting, that piqued my curiosity, that could be an adventure and that would teach me something.”

As a consultant Emma got to see business operations from the outside and quickly realized, “rather than being an advisor, I wanted to be a doer and probably a leader.”

Her language background proved helpful in landing her next gig with French cosmetics giant L’Oréal. In her 17 years at L’Oréal, Emma held a number of jobs all over the world, starting at entry-level in product management and ending up running the entire Chinese consumer products business. 

Lateral moves were key to Emma’s development and something she’d advise to anyone. “I would definitely say that standing in different shoes in the matrix is one of the best learning experiences you can possibly get.”

The next twist in her path came out of a networking lunch with then GSK CEO Andrew Witty, where a general conversation spiraled into a job offer to be GSK’s President of Europe Consumer Health. Emma hadn’t been looking to leave L’Oréal but couldn’t resist moving into such a purpose-driven industry. 

Showing a knack for building consumer brands and spotting top talent, Emma was promoted to President of Consumer Health. Executing on her vision to build brand loyalty for over-the-counter drugs, their sales went through the roof, eventually making up a quarter of the company’s revenues. 

Emma’s success soon made her an obvious candidate for a much bigger role. In 2017, she was named CEO of the entire company – and became the first woman to run a major pharmaceutical firm. 

GSK continues to grow and innovate in the pharma space. Among Emma’s successes: A groundbreaking demerger to spin off the consumer healthcare brand. The move has given GSK more budget to develop new drugs, particularly in infectious diseases, stamping its position as a cutting-edge company.

If Emma has one piece of advice for someone trying to figure out their career path, it’s this: “There is no one pathway… Where you are hungry to learn and discover and super curious and excited about what it can bring. Then it will never feel like work… In the end, focus on what motivates you, worry a bit less about career planning, and connect with as many that will teach you as you possibly can.”

Here are my takeaways:

Don’t worry about having a master career plan: As Emma says, “Worry a lot about loving the job you're in and doing the very best you can at it. Because that engagement, that commitment, that openness to growth is what will frankly unlock the next opportunity.”

Lateral moves are important: Emma took every opportunity that was offered to her at L’Oréal, regardless of whether it was a lateral or structurally lower position. As a result, she gained an incredible knowledge base about the whole company and opened her path to more opportunities. 

When in doubt, let curiosity be your compass: Emma went from studying classics, to consulting, to cosmetics, to running a giant pharma company by letting a mindset for discovery guide her choices.