Strategic Management and Sustainability

STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT AND
SUSTAINABILITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
1. Evaluation of UK and the global pharmaceutical industry......................................................3
2. Evaluation of competitive environment of AstraZeneca.........................................................6
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management provides complete direction with the help of developing policies and
strategies designed in manner to achieve objectives of the firm and then the allotment of
resources according to the implementation of plans and procedures in order to achieve desired
outcome. Basically, strategic management is the activity for the companies in order to gain
competitive advantages over their competitor firms. It is a kind of action taken by managers of
the organizations in order to attain various organizational goals and objectives of the
establishment. It is a way of planning for predictable as well as not viable contingencies. And
also applicable for both small as well as the large organizations in order to face competition by
formulating and implementation of effective and appropriate strategies so that the organizations
are able to attain sustainable competitive advantages (Duane Ireland, R., 2017).
AstraZeneca is a Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company
having it’s headquarter in Cambridge, England. Company offers various products which offer
services for various diseases in different areas but perhaps known and famous for its involvement
in development of Covid-19 vaccines.
This report will illustrate the industry and pharmaceutical sector with the help of
appropriate frameworks in UK as well as globally. Apart from this, the study will also highlight
the concept of competitive environment that has been faced by the company AstraZeneca
MAIN BODY
1. Evaluation of UK and the global pharmaceutical industry
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the important and primary industries among the
various other industries and has been existed from past many centuries. The industry has seen
major progress in only few last decades. This is because of the improvement of the science along
with many other factors that hinder the growth of this particular industry. For the proper
evaluation of UK and the globally situated companies that are comes under the pharmaceutical
industry sector has been done in appropriate manner with the help of PESTLE analysis in order
to identify different factors and its effects on the industry. Initially, the fields that have been
evaluated in this phase are the political, social, environmental, technological, economical as well
as political factors (Reuer, J.J., 2017). With the involvement of these into the analysis, clear and
exact understanding has been identified.

 Political Factor: In order to analyse the political factor that has been faced by the
overall pharmaceutical companies and thus the UK companies as well are the frame
work set by the government regarding the pharmaceutical industry. The measures
include certifications, safety standards, medicine or drug related laws and
regulations that need to be fulfilled by the firms in exact manner. On the other
hand, it has been analysed that in not so developed countries the rules and
regulations are not that much serious and strict and thus in return could not allow
the pharmaceutical firms to grow or progress effectively. Many developed
countries along with UK have set laws that place strict control over the pricing of
medicines (Gardner, E.A., 2019). However, this has set a limitation between the
growths of the industry within the market space. Moreover, it has been evaluated
that in lower classes of society, the demand of cheaper drugs has become popular
and thus create losses for other well named firms. Thus in order to get out from
such situations and losses, the firms are forced to lower down the prices of
medicines /provided by them to customers. This particular industry has consists of
different huge corporations and the global level of the distribution of the drugs with
regulatory frameworks makes it difficult for new entrants to enter within the market
space or sustain their position for longer duration of time. Thus this activity shows
strict competition within the market and thus enhances competition due to
monopoly of firms.
 Economic Factor: From the economic factor it has been evaluated that with the
enhancement of the life style of the people within the society, the spending of the
households also increased and thus the people spend a large part of it towards the
pharmaceutical industry. Purchase of medicines is the primary and most common
requirements for the persons and they generally prefer more of expensive drugs
rather than cheaper ones for their usage. With the enhancement of the technology, it
has been evaluated that with the help of new and innovative research and
development procedure, new drugs has been introduced into the market space.
Thus, people are more easily able to purchase the medicines according to their
requirements and also providing growth to the industry. And thanks to the new
technology through which each and everyone will expect release of more drugs in