How Novo Nordisk harnessed agile to meet demand surges, reaching $500bn market value
In this series of articles we explore how global businesses have adopted Agile Manufacturing to embrace an Industry 4.0 world. In this article we look at Novo Nordisk and explore how an agile transformation helped meet demand surges in a rapidly shifting pharma industry, to reach a market value of $500bn.
In our first article The Power of Agile Manufacturing in an Industry 4.0 world we explore the fundamentals value of agile manufacturing. In this article we provide a real world example of the power of agile adoption in manufacturing.
Novo Nordisk needed to shift their approach to business operations to tackle some of their greatest business challenges including:
Scaling operations
Effectively moving into new therapeutic areas
Enabling free-flowing data across their value chain
Firstly, they implemented a digital transformation to put the right technology in place. This helped enable Novo Nordisk to tackle part of these challenges.
In 2018, the Agile-Leads founder worked for technology consultancy Monstarlab, their Danish office was brought in to implement an agile transformation alongside the digital transformation. Part of their focus was to cross train and up-skill teams to shift them into a more skilled, innovation driven workforce who work in ‘IT manufacturing’, not simply ‘manufacturing’.
Part of their transformation journey to an agile manufacturing operation involved building their internal agile capabilities. The focus was on becoming an end-to-end agile organisation, bringing in change management roles to impact processes, support team structures and ways of working across more than 1,200 employees across the global organisation.
Flash forward to 2023 and Novo Nordisk has one of the fastest growing stocks on the market.
With agile manufacturing already embedded in the business, Novo Norrdisk had operations in place to cope with demand surges. In the last 2 years there has been a massive surge, created by the almost overnight popularity of their diabetes drugs - Wegovy and Ozempic - as the fastest growing weight loss drugs across the world. Novo Nordisk’s market value topped $500bn in 2023.
“Novo Nordisk shares hit a record high after the Danish company reported soaring sales of its obesity and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, pushing its market value past $500bn and cementing its position as Europe’s most valuable company.”
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Novo Nordisk's journey exemplifies the transformative power of Agile Manufacturing in navigating the complexities of an Industry 4.0 landscape. By embracing agile principles alongside digital transformation, Novo Nordisk effectively addressed challenges in scaling operations, entering new therapeutic areas, and fostering seamless data flow across their value chain. Through a concerted effort to upskill their workforce and embed agile methodologies throughout their organisation, Novo Nordisk emerged as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, achieving a remarkable market value of $500 billion. Their success underscores the vital role of agile practices in driving innovation, adaptability, and sustained growth in today's rapidly evolving business environment.
References:
The Guardian article ‘Obesity drug boom pushes Novo Nordisk shares to record high‘ Julia Kollewe, Wed 31 Jan 2024
‘Case Study: Coaching Through Transformation at Novo Nordisk’ by Petra Wille