News Stories to Help Illustrate Your Exam Answers:

Strategic re-think at Merck & Co

Faced with a number of key strategic challenges in its business environment, drug giant Merck & Co is responding with a strategic overhaul. It intends to sharpen its focus on product markets in which it has expert leverage (‘not simply where unmet medical need is [but] where we’re positioned to lead’) and on geographical markets with highest potential for growth (‘it’s about prioritising our spend to the greatest opportunities’). It also sees the need to re-align its R & D processes more closely with its marketing and downstream pipelines. And while job-cuts and cost reduction programmes have been a feature of media coverage, this is seen as a ‘more efficient operating structure’ to support strategic re-focusing. There are a number of areas here which will be of interest to students of corporate strategy – and you might like to think about the implications for supply chain strategy (and follow this up in further coverage)…