Business design
As a focused healthcare company, Novo Nordisk has adopted a relatively simple organisational structure. Activities are clearly divided – from research and development through production to sales and marketing - into two business areas: diabetes care and biopharmaceuticals.
Executive Management consists of the president and CEO and four executive vice presidents, responsible for Operations, Finance, Research and Development, and Corporate Relations, respectively. See more about the company’s management here.
This structure reflects the value chain that applies to the pharmaceutical industry, and while this business model is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future it is being challenged from many sides.
Novo Nordisk finds that looking merely at the value chain from drug discovery to drug distribution is too simplistic. After all, the pharmaceutical industry is just one player in the healthcare system, increasingly interdependent and complex. So rather than calling for radical changes to the industry of today, it is rewarding to take a broader perspective and look at the entire healthcare system.
A more sustainable business design for the pharmaceutical industry would look at the context of a global society in which current healthcare is unsustainable – with health expenditures in the Western world skyrocketing and unprecedented expectations of what health systems should deliver, while in the developing world a proper infrastructure is yet to be built.
Novo Nordisk’s business approach priorities evolve around stakeholder needs and stakeholder success, with programmes in place addressing patients as individuals, programmes at national levels and global initiatives.
As a consequence, products are not in themselves at the centre of the customer relationship. Through enhanced relationships, partnerships and collaboration, the aim is to achieve stakeholder success. In the case of people with diabetes, this implies achieving a near-normal life via effective therapeutic treatment, self-management and a system of care that evolves around patient needs.
An example of successful diabetes care in a public healthcare system can be found in the Netherlands. It builds upon innovations in the diabetes care structure, proactive stakeholder dialogues and a long-term opportunities-driven perspective. Novo Nordisk’s Dutch affiliate has been instrumental in this set-up, which also involves the national patient organisation, universities and medical associations.
This page has been assessed by PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of its assessment of Novo Nordisk’s statement that it reports ‘in accordance’ with GRI. Please refer to Audit and assurance for a full description of the nature of assurance offered.
