A compass direction into the future

How we helped the client

Sweden’s leading pharmaceuticals distributor delivers pharmaceuticals and other healthcare products nation-wide to 900 pharmacies daily. They also deliver to hospitals, health centers and veterinarians.

The company that operates within logistics earlier had one customer only which had the monopoly. With the deregulation of the market the rules of the game changed dramatically with harsh competition and a potentially bigger market. The new situation left the whole operation, i.e. logistics, in urgent need of change to meet new demands.

There were several new players in the picture, e.g. venture capitalists that have high expectations on revenues and profitability. The competitive situation now demands focus on speed, efficiency and flexibility.
Actea’s task 2010 was, together with the customer, to produce a strategy and strategic objectives until 2013.

How we did it

The first of five steps was to analyze which external factors were influencing the company, a so called PEST analysis where political, economical, social and technical factors are included. In order to grasp the competition situation, the barriers for new entrants were analyzed. Also suppliers and customer strengths were analyzed respectively.

Next step was an internal analysis of the company’s status. Actea studied employee surveys and made employee interviews as well as digging into the management system area. A SWOT analysis was made to pinpoint strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the organization, an analysis that included both the internal and external views. From the results, Actea produced a set of two scenarios with different levels of advantage for the company.

Now the business plans – the plans to reach 2013 objectives – had to be realized in the whole company in order to make a strategic change. It was crucial to create a participatory culture in the organization to succeed. The plans were a clear input to the budget work during the fall and once they are anchored it will be time for implementation

What we achieved

The attained effect was an established strategic plan until 2013. The plan was interlinked with continuous follow-up through a ”strategy compass”, i.e. a connection of strategic and operational. The follow-up was made quarterly on department level to be consolidated and analyzed in the management team.