Facilating the implementation of a global performance reporting system from a business perspective : the case of a German pharmaceutical multinational

Abstract

This thesis deals with the development of a global performance reporting system in the context of a German multinational active in the pharmaceutical industry. The objective of the document is to discuss and assess the decisions taken and actions implemented during the course of an eight-month project conducted within the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The project consisted in facilitating the implementation of such a system from a business perspective and taking into account the specific context at stake. Therefore, this paper begins with a brief presentation of the company and the reasons underlying the decision to enable the reporting of local performance at corporate level. After this introduction, the proper analysis is structured around the three dimensions of strategy, namely the context, the content and the process of the project. First, the contextual analysis follows a funnel structure while always being related to the project. It starts from an overall market perspective before dealing with purely internal elements such as the organizational culture and the financial situation of the company. Second, the activities and the outcomes achieved are presented in the section dedicated to the content of the project. It starts with the description of the specific aspects of reporting in the context at stake before presenting the features of the system that are expected to cope with the contextual challenges. Finally, it provides an overview of the remaining steps and potential system extensions. Third, the process of the project is analyzed based on criteria coming from the Translation Theory. Indeed, political games and organizational culture revealed highly influential and were therefore the object of particular interest from a change management perspective. In the end, the organizational context of Boehringer Ingelheim reveals a need for implementing a global performance reporting system. Indeed, despite strong resistance from subsidiaries and internal tension, it appears that the bottom-up business model of the company would benefit from a certain degree of integration, especially given the added value brought by technology-driven aspect of the project