Lately, I’ve been spending time with my father.

Yesterday, he told me a story from his childhood on a farm that stayed with me.

A duck was given chicken eggs to incubate. She warmed them, protected them, raised them. And when the chicks were born, they followed her everywhere.

One day, she did what any duck mother would do: She led them to the pond. She jumped in. They followed. And they drowned.

Not because they lacked courage. Not because they weren’t trying hard enough. But because they were not built for that environment.

I see this often in our industry.

Senior leaders from big pharma moving into private equity–backed companies.

In big pharma:

·      Decision cycles are long

·      Alignment is essential

·      Stakeholders are many

·      The system is designed to preserve stability

In private equity–owned businesses:

·      Time is compressed

·      Cash has a clock

·      Decisions are direct

·      The system is designed to create velocity

It’s not about intelligence. It’s about conditioning. A leader raised in one ecosystem cannot simply “jump into the water” of another and expect instincts, behaviors, and rhythms to transfer overnight.

One is not superior.

They are just different species.

The lesson:

People rarely fail because they are incapable. They fail because they are placed in a context they were not shaped to swim in.

If you want to change the environment, you must change the instinct, not just the title.