AstraZeneca Strategic Management Report: Company Analysis and Review

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of AstraZeneca, a leading international pharmaceutical company. It begins with an introduction to strategic management and sustainability within the pharmaceutical industry, followed by a detailed company overview including its vision, mission, values, key strategies, and revenue. The main body of the report delves into stakeholder mapping, PESTLE analysis (political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors), Porter's Five Forces analysis (threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, and competitive rivalry), SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and an examination of the industry life cycle. The report concludes with key findings and a final evaluation of AstraZeneca's strategic position, offering insights into its market dynamics and future prospects. References are included to support the analysis.

AstraZeneca

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Company Overview................................................................................................................1
Stakeholder Mapping..............................................................................................................3
PESTLE Analysis...................................................................................................................4
Porter's Five Forces................................................................................................................7
SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................9
Industry Life Cycle...............................................................................................................11
Key Findings........................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
References:.....................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management can be defined as the proactive administration in an organization
in which strategies plays an important role in formulating the policies, rules, regulations, norms,
goals and objectives. Every function is performed strategically such as human resource
management, marketing management, operations management and many more (Sullivan,
Thomas and Rosano, 2018). Sustainability can be defined as the efficient use of the resources
with minimal wastages of the time, energy and cost. Environment sustainability is for the safety
of environment from various different hazards such as pollution, gas emissions and many more
that are caused because of industries operating nationally or internationally. Pharmaceutical
industry deals with the chemicals and medicines to supply in hospitals or to the doctors so that
they can generate and prescribe it to the patients or the person who require it. Organization
chosen here is the AstraZeneca, it is one of the leading international pharmaceutical company
based in UK in 1999. It offers products and services such as chemicals and medicines specially
for the diseases like oncology, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience,
respiratory and inflammation areas. The following discussion is based on the company overview
of AstraZeneca, stakeholder mapping analysis, pestle analysis, porter's five forces analysis, swot
analysis, industry life cycle analysis and key findings with proper evaluation and conclusion.
MAIN BODY
Company Overview
Vision
AstraZeneca’s vision statement is to make commitment for purposeful variation to
patient's health which is discovered on advanced science. In a quickly dynamic world, their
vision is to transform the way and where their business to grab most of the opportunities that
new sciences and engineering bring up for new medication.
Mission
AstraZeneca’s mission is to generate a significant difference in the lives of the people
they serve and the employees who work under them.
Values
Their values examine how they work collectively and the behaviours that are
constitutional to their thrust for succession in accomplishment of the goals. Their values lead
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decision making, determine their impression and surrogate a powerful AstraZeneca culture
(Willigers, 2020).
Key Strategies
AstraZeneca are impelled by advanced science and their enterprising culture, they are
centred on the bringing of life-changing medication that are accelerating development and
contributively worth to patients and society. At the same instance, the world around them is ever-
changing and the load of illness is increasing. AstraZeneca’s key strategies are to answer by
fostering their direction on growth and development through invention - being more patient-
centric, performing more with practical application, digital and information and progressing
more cutting-edge scientific discipline by grabbing the opportunity in Covid-19 pandemic to
develop vaccine for the same.
Offering
They target on forward-looking science and leading activity in their three primary
medical care areas: Oncology, Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism and Respiratory diseases.
Revenues
18.67 billion pounds in 2020: The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant reported product
sales totalling 18.60 billion pounds for 2020. Total revenue came in at 18.18 billion pounds for
the year, and 5.34 billion pounds for the fourth quarter. Last year's performance marked as
significant step forward for AstraZeneca.
Location
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom.
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Stakeholder Mapping
Anticipate and meet needs
First element of stakeholder mapping, this situation occurs when there is a high influence
of stakeholders but low interest of stakeholders. AstraZeneca engage and consults on interest
areas of stakeholders which tries to increase the level of interest and they aim to move into right
hand box.
Manage most thoroughly
Second element of stakeholder mapping, this situation occurs when there is a high
influence of stakeholder as well as high interest of stakeholders. AstraZeneca focus on the efforts
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of this group by involving in governance and decision making bodies and they engage and
consults regularly.
Regular minimal contact
Third element of stakeholder mapping, this situation occurs when there is a low influence
of stakeholders as well as low interest of stakeholders. AstraZeneca informs through general
communications via newsletters, websites and mail shots and moreover, they aim to move into
right hand box (Tsolakis and Srai, 2018).
Keep completely informed
Fourth element of stakeholder mapping, this situation occurs when there is a low
influence of stakeholders and high interest of stakeholders. AstraZeneca makes interest through
involvement in low risk areas, keep informed and consult on interest areas and potential
supporter and goodwill ambassador.
PESTLE Analysis
It is defined as the scanning of the external environment of the business to better know the
opportunities and threats available for the business in business environment. It stands for
political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental factors.
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Political factor
This is one of the factor of pestle analysis that is the political factor which consist the
government's role in an industry in terms of political stability, health of the government, level of
corruption, trade policies, fiscal policies and many more. In context of AstraZeneca, there is a
both positivity and negativity because of some reasons such as they face the uncertain issues due
to the Brexit incident in UK and moreover, due to Covid-19 pandemic, there is an increased
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spending on health care products and services by governments by rendering health care
programmes like Obama care and Modi care.
Economical factor
This is an another factor of pestle analysis that is the economical factor which consist the
employment and unemployment rates, inflation and deflation rates, demand and supply, national
and gross income, gross domestic product and many more. In context of AstraZeneca, there is a
positivity for the company in above mentioned factors because of some reasons such as there are
various steps taken by the government due to Covid-19 pandemic to lower drug prices and
moreover deteriorating returns on the research and development department investment in the
pharmaceutical industry (Shtal, Buriak, Ukubassova and Tlegen, 2018).
Social factor
This is also the one of the factor of pestle analysis that is the social factor which consist
taste and preferences of the society, recent fashion, current trends, income of the family, health
and safety, birth rates, population and many more. In context of AstraZeneca, there is a positivity
in above mentioned factors because of some reasons such as ageing population will lead to
greater growth and opportunities, this results in significant growth in the number of patients that
are suffering from illness which are majorly caused by the urban life style and moreover due to
the rise in income levels of the families as well.
Technological factor
This is also an another factor of pestle analysis that is the technological factor which
consist artificial intelligence, automation, hardware and software requirements, technical and
specialised people, applications, compatibility, platforms, internet, networking, connections and
many more. In context of AstraZeneca, there is positivity in above mentioned factors because of
some reasons such as there is a good investment in building innovation centre to promote and
boost quality manufacturing in an industry and moreover, there is a good use of artificial
intelligence and tracking systems to aid in drug evolution or discovery by tackling counterfeits.
Legal factor
This is the factor of pestle analysis that is the legal factor which consist different laws,
regulations, norms and policies such as zoning laws, consumer protection laws, health and safety
laws, privacy and data protection laws, antitrust laws, civil rights laws, employment laws,
banking laws, intellectual property laws, tax laws and many more. In context of AstraZeneca,
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there is a negativity in above mentioned factors because of some reasons such as there is a
decline in drug approval from the regulatory bodies, frequent changes made on the tax rates of
the nation and moreover, there is an adverse impact of General Data Protection Regulatory
(GDPR) on operation and development of drugs (Hans, 2018).
Environmental factor
This is an another factor of pestle analysis that is the environmental factor which consist
those elements which harms or does not harms the environment in any way which defines the
sustainability factor for an industry. In context of AstraZeneca, there is a positivity in above
mentioned factors because of some reasons such as they have taken the step to tackle the global
climate change by adopting the strategic leadership styles and roles performed in an organization
so handle out such situation in an effective, efficient and potential manner.
Porter's Five Forces
It is defined as the analysing of the external environment of the business to know about
their level of treats associated with the business by examining the threat of new entrants, threat
of substitutes, bargaining of suppliers, bargaining power of customer and competitive rivalries.
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Threat of new entrants
There is a low threat of new entrants for AstraZeneca because the pharmaceutical
industry is an expensive one which initially requires the high cost infrastructure, raw materials
and human resources with specialised capability. The one who can invest high amount of capital
in initiating their business in pharmaceutical industry can only survive in the market place.
Threat of substitutes
There is a high threat of substitutes for AstraZeneca because the pharmaceutical industry
consists so many companies such as Sanofi, GSK and many more which produces and offers the
customer similar quality, similar pricing and similar quantity of goods and services by small
scale industries and large scale industries as well. So people and retailers can easily switch from
one company to another if they find any better offer from another organization (Bruijl, 2018).
Bargaining power of suppliers
There is a low bargaining power of suppliers for AstraZeneca because the AstraZeneca is
one of the branded, leading and most trusted organization which deals with chemicals, medicines
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and drugs for the welfare of the people which operates at international level. Therefore, suppliers
don't want to lose the dealings with AstraZeneca as they purchase in bulk for high production
with the prices offered to them
Bargaining power of buyers
There is a moderate level of bargaining power of buyers for AstraZeneca because the
company is associated with both the factors, one is that it is branded and good image in the
market place and second is competition in the market, so there can be low as well as high
bargaining power of the buyers as per the situations (Pervan, Curak and Pavic Kramaric, 2018).
Competitive rivalry
There is a high level of competitive rivalries for AstraZeneca because the pharmaceutical
industry consists large number of companies which gives the tough competition to the
AstraZeneca such as Decipher labs, Daiichi Sankyo, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, Novartis,
GSK, Amgen and Bayer.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis can be defined as the internal scanning of the business environment which
analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company to take proper
measures for future considerations (SWOT Analysis, 2021).
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Strengths
This element is considered as the merit for the organization through which they can gain
stability in the market place. Strengths of AstraZeneca are that they have rapid decision making
process and streamlined processing, they have good commercial and research and development
existence in the rising market, they are operating in over 100 countries with 60,000 employees
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