Merck's Atul Barjatya: The inclusive leader

Atul Barjatya, director, head of channel sales–research solutions at Merck Life Science, a science and technology

Image: Neha Mithbawkar

Atul Barjatya has been in various managerial positions in the pharma industry for 26 years, and if there’s one thing he believes in, it is leveraging motivated teams and enabling them to give their best. “I strongly believe that everyone in the team wants to contribute to the organisation, and the leader’s job is to ensure a suitable atmosphere to facilitate their inclusiveness,” says the 49-year-old Barjatya who started his career as a medical representative in 1992 and is now director, head of channel sales–research solutions at Merck Life Science, a science and technology company based in Bengaluru.

There might have been various personal and professional challenges over the past couple of years of the pandemic, but leading from the front, he managed to increase team engagement and deliver on financial targets, becoming the only team at Merck to have continuously done that since 2017.

“My natural style to manage is to push team members ahead and back them up wherever needed. However, when the pandemic struck, I had to lead from the front, right from fixing the weekly team interactions to setting up meetings with important customers, while continuously tackling various unforeseen challenges,” he says. To lift the morale of his subordinates, Barjatya made sure to celebrate even the smallest of successes, and organised inspirational as well as entertaining workshops for them.

Prachi Naik, a sales associate at Merck Life Science and who has been with the company for 13 years, started working with Barjatya as her manager in 2019. “He thinks from the perspective of his subordinates, and motivates them to do their best. He never emphasises his position to get the work done, but leads in a way that makes people feel inspired,” says Naik, adding that she looks up to him for his leadership and management skills.