Astrazeneneca Five Forces

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A question we must ask ourselves is whether or not the Five Forces alone provide us with an in-depth analysis of the industry? Dunning's (1993) criticism of Porter's was that it was a ‘very ethnocentric US way of looking at the world’ (Narayanan and Fahey, 2005), there is of course room for improvement in the model. Each industry has different factors that are more relevant to that particular industry than others, for example in the pharmaceutical industry we can take Regulation as a sixth force as it’s such a significant element to the industry. Regulatory compliance is vital in a pharmaceutical company, they must comply with strict regulations imposed by the countries government as well as international regulatory bodies. Regulation within…show more content…
I definitely agree with Porters view (1980) that a firm must focus one strategy in order to reach their highest potential and also to refrain from getting ‘stuck in the middle’. AstraZeneca provide us with an excellent example of firm achieving success while focusing on one strategy. AstraZeneca’s customers have specific and sometimes unique requirements and so they must focus on creating differential products, which they are often able to price at a higher cost. Porter (1980) recognises that a company engaging in a differentiation strategy will have various extra costs, in AstraZeneca’s case the extra cost can be seen in the marketing and branding of their products. In 2009 the senior executive team developed a new AstraZeneca Brand position. The new Brand was created through collaboration with key markets and insights from both employees and stakeholders and it was developed with the intension of creating yet another competitive advantage for AstraZeneca by differentiating them from other pharmaceutical companies. (AstraZeneca.com 2015) .In a press release in 2011, AstraZeneca’s VP Strategic Partnering and Business Development, Shaun Grady provides us with details of AstraZeneca’s intensive strategy review in early 2010 (AstraZeneca.com 2015) A major strategic decision in this was that they were to have a firm commitment to become a pureplay Pharma. Unlike the competition AstraZeneca have decided to not go down the diversification route and instead to choose a differentiation strategy and focus on prescription drugs and innovative technologies that have potential to make meaningful differences to patients’ lives. Shaun Grady insured us that AstraZeneca is unique as it is one of the only pharmaceuticals to be a pureplay and to also have a global footprint, with plants in over a 100 countries. They have 1st class sales and marketing capabilities both in established and emerging

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