Sanofi Aventis, corporate strategy

Résumé du document

Sanofi Aventis is a company operating in the pharmaceutical industry. Created in 2004 from the merger of two European companies, Sanofi Aventis is today the leader in Europe, and is part of the top 5 global companies in its sector.

Sanofi Aventis's self-given mission in the pharmaceutical industry consists in providing a wide portfolio of medicines, in accordance with new pathologies and the behaviors of occidental populations by (increasing age, risky behaviors such as obesity…)
-Developing innovative medicines and answering to changing human needs
-Producing and retailing those medicines.
Sanofi Aventis's product portfolio is based on 7 main therapeutic areas, and several other activities such as generic medicines.


Key information
Key-figures
In term of sales, this French company represented a 27.6 billion € turnover in 2008, and hired nearly 100.000 employees.

b.Products positioning
The activities of company are divided into 7 Strategic activities, and the firm has a strong R&D culture (Research represented more than 17% of turnover of Sanofi Aventis 2008 Budget).
•Central nervous System
•Thrombosis
•Cardio-vascular diseases
•Internal Medicine
•Oncology
•Metabolic diseases
•Vaccination
In term of positioning, Sanofi Aventis retails high added-value products. The new R&D objectives are to progress, on the one hand, for new developed countries diseases (obesity, diabetes, etc.), and on the other hand for new demographic diseases in emerging countries (malaria, Yellow Flu, etc.)

Beyond those traditional activities, the company is currently entering new markets. For example, this year, the company bought Zentiva , a Czech generic producer, with the double objective of producing its own medicine as generics, and targeting new developing countries.

2009 was also the year when Sanofi Aventis began its development on new markets: OTC “over-the-counter” markets, and animal medicines.

c.A short view of Sanofi's corporate culture
Originally, Sanofi Aventis was composed of two main cultures: French and German. However, the company also shares worldwide cultures as the company is present in more than 100 countries all over the world. Anglo-Saxon culture also remains very present in the group, as the American mentality dominates the majority of companies in this domain.

The corporate values of Sanofi Aventis are based on Human relationships, solidarity, progression of humanity, and Ethics. Generally, the staff of Sanofi Aventis is aware of that, and most of the time, it shares those values.

To conclude, the corporate culture of the firm is to offer its employees the possibilities to realize themselves within their work, and the company appears to be a leading company in term of quality of work and motivation in France.

Extraits

[...] Governments take an important part of the negotiation. As an example, during Sanofi-Aventis merger, French government encouraged the acquisition of Aventis, while German government was trying to protect the german-based Aventis interests. Another example is the parallel between production localization and retailing areas. Most of the time, local countries demand the installation of local industries or infrastructures in exchange of the authorization for the company to retail its products. But where States generally play an important role is in legal environment: in western countries, health institutions are most of the time directed by states. [...]

[...] Flexibility of the company is subject to its structure. Even if Sanofi Aventis' structure appears to be particularly useful as it bring plenty of economies of scales, this structure is particularly dependant of Sanofi Aventis' success to keep a minimum quantity of activity. While company continues to have sufficient product portfolio to develop and retail, there is no problem. However, in the future, it is possible that Sanofi Aventis have to face a critical reduction of its traditional market, due to high uncertainty. [...]

[...] Part three sanofi aventis internal analysis Matrix-oriented approach a. A SWOT Analysis n. A BCG matrix: Analyzing Sanofi-Aventis Product Portfolio Before 2003, Sanofi Aventis was counting on the very profitable and very growing activity of traditional R&D-oriented medicines. At this time, this strategic activity was interesting and R&D provided sufficient innovation. Now, R&D activity is showing a big deceleration: R&D department are not able to provide sufficient medicine in order to equilibrate companies' portfolio. Conscious of this weakness, Sanofi Aventis reacted by launching 3 other activities : the OTC market, which is less dependent to institutions; the generic market, as Sanofi knows that generic will strongly compete with R&D product very soon (here, generic are in dilemmas, as this strategic activity could cannibalize traditional markets), and animal medicines. [...]

[...] Sanofi Aventis, corporate strategy Summary INTRODUCTION PART ONE COMPANY OVERVIEW 1. Presentation of the company 2. Key information 3. The 2004 merging PART TWO ENVIRONNEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY 1. Pharmaceutical industry : globally a market under over pressures 2. Characteristics of market environments in general 3. Characteristics of changing market environment 4. A PORTER Analysis PART THREE SANOFI AVENTIS INTERNAL ANALYSIS 1. Matrix-oriented approach a. A SWOT Analysis b. A BCG matrix : Analyzing Sanofi-Aventis Product Portfolio 2. Specific analysis a. [...]

[...] Globally, those environmental factors were traditionally very optimistic (i.e. good relation between companies and States) but on the other hand, quantities of new pressures are hugely jeopardizing this market. Characteristics of changing market environment a. Market segment is changing States are going to reduce drastically their health expenses. People are more and more aware of health products Standards of living are changing and some pathology may make new segments: obesity, diabetes People are more and more interested by OTC products and healthy food. [...]