Novo Nordisk A/S - Partnerships

Partnerships

Partnerships are fundamental to the way in which Novo Nordisk runs its business. They help to build trust among our key stakeholders and to reach a better understanding of a variety of important issues. Partnerships also pave the way for more successful solutions to problems, concerns and challenges such as the pandemic of type 2 diabetes that Novo Nordisk is committed to actively addressing together with key partners.

Objectives of partnerships

Novo Nordisk’s main objectives in seeking partnerships are to:

Earn respect as a partner that can work openly with other sectors of society.
Be more attractive as an employer.
Pursue business interests while balancing concerns for the society and local communities of which the company is a part.
Make better business decisions.
Develop successful solutions to problems.

What makes successful partnerships?

In our experience, the success of a partnership comes down to the following ingredients:

Collaboration rather than confrontation; a two-way learning process
Willingness from both sides to take risks and to compromise
Willingness to make the time and commitment
Willingness to share responsibilities
Clear definition of rules and expectations
Identification of mutual goals
Agree to disagree when necessary
Concrete actions, not just talk
Ongoing discussions, not one-off
Recognition of what each party has to contribute
A commitment to change
Trust built over time
Mutual accountability

Examples of partnerships for Novo Nordisk

There are many types of partnership in which Novo Nordisk engages:

Meetings with communities where production sites are located to reduce environmental impacts.
Evaluating suppliers’ social and environmental performance.
Meetings between Novo Nordisk employees and people with diabetes or other healthcare needs that we serve.
Partnerships with NGOs, for example on animal welfare or environmental issues such as global warming.
Membership of business organisations, including organisations that promote sustainable development.
Participation in public debate on issues such as human embryonic stem cell research.
Lobbying with other interested parties to place diabetes higher on the public agenda, for example the Unite for Diabetes campaign.
Working with local or national authorities to try to build national healthcare capacity, for example Novo Nordisk’s National Diabetes Programme initiatives.
Funding international research partnerships such as the partnership with Oxford University and the UK National Health Service that is behind the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM).
Employees’ involvement with schools and other institutions in raising public awareness and funds for diabetes on World Diabetes Day.

The partnerships take many forms, including:
Face-to-face meetings
Participation in committees or round-table discussions
Membership of organisations
Ongoing dialogue and collaborations

Benefits of partnerships

Novo Nordisk benefits through partnerships by:

Exploiting opportunities and sharing risks and opportunities towards common goals
Staying tuned to stakeholders’ concerns
Improving understanding of difficult issues for all parties
Aligning with multiple agendas
Identifying and prioritising issues
Managing business risks and opportunities

We believe that society benefits from these partnerships in the following ways:

Awareness of and solutions to diabetes care
More sustainable solutions to specific problems
Contribution to global sustainable development
Innovative products and services
New but useful partnerships among groups or individuals that may not have worked together before

Partnerships are likely to become even more important in the future since so many of the challenges facing society are broad and complex, requiring many different stakeholders to become engaged. The complexity and breadth of the diabetes pandemic is just one example.

Highlights of partnerships in 2006

Unite for Diabetes. In 2006 Novo Nordisk communicated its changing diabetes messages globally and drove initiatives to improve prevention, treatment and care of diabetes. Novo Nordisk actively supported the International Diabetes Federation-led campaign for a UN Resolution on diabetes. Novo Nordisk intends to take active leadership in the implementation of the Resolution, which was adopted on 20 December.
World Partner Project (WPP). The purpose of WPP is to establish a foundation on which developing countries can build their own healthcare strategies and ultimately improve access to proper care. Activities in 2006 included three workshops in Sub-Saharan Africa with the purpose of training health officials in how to develop national strategies for diabetes. The workshops served as preparation for the launch in December 2006 of the African Declaration on Diabetes at the International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF) congress in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Oxford Health Alliance . This is a global alliance to confront the pandemic of diabetes and other chronic diseases that share risk factors. Members from around the world include leading academics, activists and corporate executives, patients' rights advocates, doctors, nurses, and others. Founded by Novo Nordisk and the University of Oxford, the Oxford Health Alliance facilitates engagement in the development of approaches to controlling risk factors for diabetes and related chronic conditions. The OxHA Annual Summit 2006 was held in Cape Town. The summit was co-hosted with the Medical Research Council of South Africa and the University of Cape Town, and was attended by more than 100 high-level representatives from the worlds of business, academia and public policy as well as veterans of the anti-tobacco campaigns, economists, nurses, urban planners and youth organisations. More than 20 countries from Africa, North and South America, Asia Pacific and Europe were represented. The overall theme of the 2006 summit was ‘Health in transition: working together’.
WWF Climate Savers initiative. As a member of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Climate Savers initiative, Novo Nordisk is one of 10 companies that have agreed to work to achieve an absolute reduction in the company's CO₂ emissions to combat global warming. Climate Savers is the only programme that helps businesses make and achieve voluntary commitments to reduce the impact of their corporate activities on climate change. WWF works with businesses to develop cost-effective energy strategies to demonstrate that increasing efficiency and aggressively reducing greenhouse gas emissions can benefit the environment and the economy in numerous ways.