Organization development, strategy and change: Sanofi-Aventis

Résumé du document

Sanofi-Aventis was created in August 2004, following the French company Sanofi-Synthélabo's acquisition of Aventis. The new pharmaceutical group,Sanofi-Aventis, is specialized in seven therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, thrombosis, metabolic disorders, oncology, central nervous system, internal medicine and vaccines.

This takeover has been supervised and controlled by the French government, which wanted to create an important pharmaceutical group in France. This guardianship has been very useful because another German group, Novartis, wanted to buy Aventis as well. Nowadays, Sanofi-Aventis is one of the most important pharmaceutical groups on earth. Its story is really fascinating. It is now the leading pharmaceutical group in Europe, and the third in the world, just behind Pfizer and GSK.

What is amazing in this takeover is that Sanofi-Synthélabo, which was smaller than Aventis, was able to take over the control of Aventis. Now, the group employs around 100,000 people worldwide, its turnover is around 25 Billion Euro and its headquarters is in Paris. In this paper, I will analyze this change. I am going to describe the two companies, with description of the activity of Sanofi-Aventis, explain all the changes that the takeover created and how the group faced them. I will conclude by examining if this change has been successful or not.

Extraits

[...] Here are the major drugs of the two groups and their respective annual business million -Sanofi-Synthelabo: Arrovel Plavix Stilnox euros: (1424). -Aventis: Delix Lovenox (1563), Traxotère (1261), Amaryl Copaxone Allegra / Telfast (2030). Sanofi-Synthelabo makes more than half of its turnover through four drugs, one can be sure that this company has a portfolio of products with "cow-milk". In terms of skills, the two companies have complementary inputs: -Technological competencies: Aventis has competitive advantages in the market for vaccines through a partnership with the “Institut Pasteur” French private institute). [...]

[...] Sanofi-Aventis has been created in August 2004, after that the French company Sanofi-Synthélabo acquired the company Aventis. The new pharmaceutical group, Sanofi-Aventis, is specialized in seven therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, thrombosis, metabolic disorders, oncology, central nervous system, internal medicine and vaccines. This takeover has been supervised and controlled by the French government, which really had in mind to create an important pharmaceutical group in France. This guardianship has been very useful because another German group, Novartis, wanted to buy Aventis as well. Nowadays, Sanofi-Aventis is one of the most important pharmaceutical groups on earth. [...]

[...] The advantages are: -Discovering new opportunities -Extension of the life cycle of the product in different markets -Decrease in the cost of supply -Decrease in the cost of production The disadvantages are: -Increased political, economical and financial risks -Increased marketing costs -Difficulty of management and organizational complexity -Obligation to adapt their products and strategies in the various markets The merger is a mean to develop these advantages and thus implement a consistent corporate strategy (diversification and strengthening of the international) with the challenges of the sector: to be competitive and innovative everywhere. f. Many synergies have been created thanks to the takeover bid. We analyzed four different types of synergies. -Distribution synergies: synergies have been created at the staff level. For SanofiAventis, the largest in this area concern France and Germany, which are both countries where both companies employ the most part of their employees, especially the sales force. This new sales force mass could focus on the most famous products. [...]

[...] I am going to describe the two companies, give a description of the activity of Sanofi-Aventis, explain all the changes that the takeover created and how the group faced them. I will conclude to know if this change has been a success or not. I. An overview of the takeover bid. a. Presentation of Sanofi-Synthélabo. The firm Sanofi was created by the Société Nationale des Pétroles d'Aquitaine (which is to become Elf), in 1973, and its CEO was René SAUTIER, helped by the self-made man Jean-François DEHECQ. In 1988, Mr. [...]

[...] When two large companies merge, this is often very difficult to adapt, and more particularly when these two companies were strong rivals. Here, there was a strong willingness to go past these difficulties. Gerard LE FUR wanted to create as fast as possible a unique company, with a common culture. All the changes that we studied here have been made very quickly, even if it was very complicated to do. Now, Sanofi-Aventis is one of the most competitive companies in the world. The success of the company is that it has been created with two complementary companies. [...]