Global pharmaceutical company: One north star after a major pharma merger

1 min read

Strategic Mandates

Following one of the largest mergers in its industry, a pharmaceutical company had a leadership team drawn from three different company cultures and no shared direction. We helped the leaders co-create a single guiding purpose and mobilize the wider organization behind it, launching eight cross-functional initiatives with more than 150 people taking part.

Outcome 1: Eight cross-functional strategic initiatives launched, each led by the business itself
Outcome 2: More than 150 employees contributing voluntarily to the change
Outcome 3: One shared innovation process created and embedded across the whole organization, in a digital tool open to all staff

The challenge

After one of the largest mergers in the pharmaceutical industry, a newly combined company brought together a leadership team from three separate company cultures. On paper the strategy existed. In practice there was no shared direction and no single identity to work from, and the general manager could see that old loyalties would hold the new company back unless something changed.

Left alone, the leadership team would keep working along the old cultural fault lines, each protecting its own legacy. Important initiatives would stall, and staff across the three former organizations would stay disengaged and pulled in different directions rather than committed to one future.

The approach

Working alongside the leadership team, we co-created a shared purpose, set of ambitions and guiding beliefs to act as the company’s single guiding direction. With a coalition of twenty cross-functional leaders we built the plan and chose eight priority initiatives, run by dedicated teams. More than 150 people volunteered to take part, and a dedicated team drove company-wide involvement through peer-to-peer sessions.

The impact

The eight priority teams launched with over 150 contributors. A single innovation process was built and embedded across the company in a digital tool open to everyone, and an innovation contest led to three ideas being put into practice. A company-wide event drew 600 registrations across 75 sessions, presenting twelve products and four business-unit pipelines. The change became self-sustaining.