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Essay about Amgen Inc Case Analysis

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Amgen Inc Case Analysis

The biotech firm Amgen Inc. gives much attention and time to the planning process. Because the outcomes for a company like Amgen are often very unsure and many employees are quite sceptical about the use of such a planning, the main issue can be described as follows:

What is the added value of planning for a fast-growing company in an uncertain and dynamic environment?

To address this issue, an analysis will follow based on the following elements:

Responsibility structure
Amgen Inc. is a biotech company. The responsibilities of the Product Development Teams (PDT’s) can be described as “discretionary cost centres”. The output of a PDT is therefore difficult to relate to its input. Based on the long-term …show more content…

The planning determines which actions the company must take to accomplish her targets. Based on the planning the company can take into account required capital, staff needs, patenting, etc.
But researchers are notoriously difficult to manage. A strategic plan cannot force a research breakthrough. Within Amgen therefore 20% of the researchers’ time is free to use as they themselves see fit.

Rewarding Results
Nearly every employee has Amgen stock options next to their base salary (reward based on long-term performance in the market place). The researchers within Amgen however do not seem to be very susceptible to financial rewards. This has much to do with the culture of research. Researchers gain much more satisfaction from the appreciation by colleagues in the field and from publications.
The planning process does not seem to be very focused on creating specific performance goals for managers and accompanying reward structure. Motivating managers does not seem to be a specific part of Amgen’s planning process.

Reason for creating long-term planning for Amgen Inc.
Within the various layers of the company there are different opinions about the added valie of long-term planning.
Top management considers the LTP’s as the backbone of the company and therefore sees the LTP’s as both a prediction of future revenue and as action plan for the coming year. This makes sure that they can anticipate on the required resources (capital, staff, infrastructure).

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