A different view by Jaime Porta

Welcome to the first post of my new Friday series, a space where I’ll share short stories, reflections, and personal learnings from my career journey. These won’t be deep dives into frameworks or strategies, but rather insights that shaped the way I think and work. A lighter, more personal take on the world of business.

A few years ago, I moved from the fast-paced world of direct sales into the pharmaceutical industry, and let me tell you, the shift was real.

In direct sales, agility isn’t just a buzzword. It’s the daily rhythm. Sales teams live week by week. If they don’t close deals now, the month is already lost. For their managers, it’s all about how the month will end. The real focus? Hitting that monthly target. And at the back office or HQ level, the outlook stretches to quarters or half-years. Long term? That’s the annual report, at best. Everyone’s thinking ahead, but “long term” rarely means the same thing to two people in the room.

That environment shaped my instinct for speed. I was used to Monday meetings where someone would say, “We need to push sales… next week.” And by Friday, we had a working MVP: new landing pages, email flows, CRM campaigns, back-office processes, live and rolling. Sure, things broke. But we fixed them on the go. That was the tradeoff. And everyone accepted it.

Then came pharma.

Suddenly, I was in a world where “fast” had a different meaning. We are still agile, but the stakes were higher. You can’t launch and fix later when you’re dealing with patient safety, compliance, and highly regulated processes. Here, things need to work the first time. Period.

At first, it felt slow. But this is not about pace, it is about precision. Teams here are just as smart, driven, and aligned. They operate like a well-oiled machine: efficient, methodical, and built to deliver with consistency. But like any finely tuned system, they need time to shift direction. When they move, they move as one, but only after every piece is ready.

The lesson?

Every industry has its rhythm. Success doesn’t come from forcing your old tempo into a new context, it comes from tuning into the beat of your current environment. Speed is great. So is caution. The real skill is knowing which one to use, and when.

See you next Friday.