{"id":10144,"date":"2026-10-19T13:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/?p=10144"},"modified":"2026-10-19T13:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:54:17","slug":"message-from-dr-rasha-kelej-ceo-of-merck-foundation-on-when-excellence-is-not-the-finish-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/?p=10144","title":{"rendered":"Message from Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation on When Excellence Is Not the Finish Line"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-31-1024x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10145\" style=\"width:1200px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-31-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-31-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-31-300x300-1.png 300w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-31-50x50.png 50w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-31-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-31-600x600.png 600w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-31-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-31.png 1456w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Why I Continue to Fine-Tune, Even When Things Are Working and Excellence Has Been Achieved<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout my leadership journey, I have learned something that I believe is fundamental to sustainable success:<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Improving something does not necessarily mean there was something wrong with it before.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes, improvement simply means that the context and narratives around you are evolving.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also means that you have more experience today than you had yesterday.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the years, I have continuously reviewed, refined, and fine-tuned the way I work\u2014my strategies, guidelines, processes, partnerships, communication, and even my own leadership style.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not because they were failing.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not because someone else was doing them better.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And certainly not because I had lost confidence in what we had built.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I changed them because the narratives around us keep evolving.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And\/or I changed them simply because <strong>I had learned more.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Experience Should Change the Way You Work<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even if the narratives stayed the same, experience has little value if it does not influence the way you think and operate.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every country I work in, every partnership I build, every challenge I encounter, every success I celebrate, and even every mistake I observe gives me new information.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And new information should lead to better decisions.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What worked extremely well five years ago may still work today. But the question I ask myself is not only:<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Does it still work?<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I also ask:<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Can I make it work even better?<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That distinction is important.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many people wait for something to go wrong before they change it.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I prefer to improve things while they are still going right.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Fine-Tuning Is Not Correction<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is an important difference between correcting failure and refining excellence.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I update a guideline, strengthen a process, introduce another layer of quality control, or change the way something is implemented, it does not automatically mean that the previous approach was wrong.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It may simply mean that my experience has evolved.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I know more today.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have observed more.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have encountered situations I had not encountered before.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I understand my stakeholders better.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I understand both my supporters and my competitors better.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And therefore, naturally, I should make better decisions.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For me, this is what experience is supposed to do.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>If I lead exactly the same way after twenty years of experience as I did after five years, then what happened to the other fifteen years of learning?<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Success Can Become a Dangerous Comfort Zone<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly, I believe continuous improvement becomes even more important when you are successful.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When something is failing, everyone understands the need for change.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But when you are successful, there is a temptation to say:<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Why change anything? We have already achieved excellence.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is where complacency can quietly begin.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Success and excellence can convince you that the formula you have today will remain the formula you need tomorrow.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I do not believe that.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The higher your standards become, the more carefully you should examine them.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stronger your reputation becomes, the more responsibility you have to protect it.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the more trust your stakeholders place in you, the more seriously you should take the responsibility of continuously improving what you offer them.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Continuous Improvement Should Build Trust, Not Reduce It<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes people worry that changing or strengthening guidelines may make stakeholders question the previous approach.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I see it differently.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I believe it should increase their confidence.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I want the people and institutions I work with to know that I will never become complacent simply because something is successful or seems perfect.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will continue searching and asking questions.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will continue observing.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will continue learning.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And when experience teaches me that something can be done better, I will improve it.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To me, that is part of being trustworthy.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trust is not built by pretending or assuming that your systems no longer need improvement or that your impact has reached its final level of excellence.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trust is built by demonstrating that you care enough about quality to keep examining, protecting, and improving it.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>When You Are Number One, You Still Need Someone to Compete With<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Competition can be useful. It can push organizations and leaders forward.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I have never believed that leadership should become an endless exercise in watching what everybody else is doing.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There comes a point when your most meaningful benchmark has to become your own previous performance.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I create greater impact than I created before?<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I be more creative?<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I make this partnership stronger?<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I make this process more effective?<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I improve my guidelines to further protect our excellent impact as our visibility increases?<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I raise the quality another level?<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I learn something from this experience that changes how I approach the next one?<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This is the competition that interests me most.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My greatest competitor is not necessarily the person or organization beside me.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>It is the standard I set for myself yesterday.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Excellence Is a Moving Target<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps this is why I do not see excellence as a destination.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The moment you believe you have finally arrived, you may stop observing, questioning, learning, and improving\u2014and eventually, you may lose relevance.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I would rather think of excellence as something that keeps moving as I move.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My standards today should be higher than my standards ten years ago because I have ten additional years of experience behind them.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And hopefully, my standards ten years from now will be higher than they are today\u2014and <strong>my future self will thank me for that.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That does not diminish what I achieved before.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>It honors it.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because every stage becomes the foundation for the next.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I will continue to review.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will continue to fine-tune.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will continue to raise my standards\u2014even when things are working beautifully.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not because yesterday was wrong.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Because tomorrow can be better.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And ultimately, I believe this is one of the most important disciplines of leadership:<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Do not wait for failure to force you to improve.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Improve because excellence itself demands evolution.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you reach a level where competing with others is no longer what drives you, there is still one competitor who will always be there:<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Yourself.<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that is the competition that never ends.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>To read all the&nbsp;articles and access the platform, please visit:<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rashakelej.substack.com\/p\/when-excellence-is-not-the-finish\">https:\/\/rashakelej.substack.com\/p\/when-excellence-is-not-the-finish<\/a><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kind Regards,<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej (Ret.),<\/strong><br><strong>CEO of Merck Foundation<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why I Continue to Fine-Tune, Even When Things Are Working and Excellence Has Been Achieved Throughout my leadership journey, I have learned something that I believe is fundamental to sustainable success: Improving something does not necessarily mean there was something wrong with it before. Sometimes, improvement simply means that the context and narratives around you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-message"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Message from Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation on When Excellence Is Not the Finish Line | Rasha Kelej<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/?p=10144\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Message from Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation on When Excellence Is Not the Finish Line | Rasha Kelej\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why I Continue to Fine-Tune, Even When Things Are Working and Excellence Has Been Achieved Throughout my leadership journey, I have learned something that I believe is fundamental to sustainable success: Improving something does not necessarily mean there was something wrong with it before. 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