The Real Challenge In Pharma: Running 24/7 Operations That Never Stop

In this episode of The High Performance Herd, David Quick sits down with Cheryl Patnick, Chief Administrative Officer of Tris Pharma, to discuss what it takes to preserve organisational culture while scaling a pharmaceutical business through sustained, rapid growth.

Tris Pharma has grown from fewer than 50 employees to more than 600. Cheryl’s leadership approach traces back to an early career in hospitality management, before she progressed into human resources and, eventually, the executive team of a company focused on central nervous system innovation. This trajectory, spanning industries and stages of growth, gives her a grounded view of how culture holds up—or breaks down—as an organisation expands.

As she explains in this conversation, culture is not something that survives scale by default; it must be actively protected through hiring decisions, performance standards, and a willingness to address individuals whose behaviour undermines the wider team, regardless of how capable they appear on paper. Sustainable growth depends on treating culture as a discipline rather than an outcome.

The conversation covers hiring for cultural fit, the mechanics of performance management, and the role of clear core values in guiding decisions at every level. Cheryl and David also discuss succession planning, the communication habits that keep a growing workforce aligned, and how artificial intelligence can support, rather than replace, the human side of the business as Tris Pharma considers international expansion.

For HR leaders, people operations executives, and founders scaling teams through periods of rapid growth, this episode offers a practical view of how culture can be maintained deliberately rather than left to chance. It is a considered account of leadership built on consistency rather than convenience.