Strategy Development and Implementation: Quintiles

Quintiles is a Contract Research Organization (CRO) for the biopharmaceutical industry offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide to help biopharmaceutical companies develop and commercialize products. Based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Quintiles has 25,000 employees and operates in 60 countries. For more information on Quintiles visit www.quintiles.com.

Business Challenge

• Quintiles wanted to develop a sustainability strategy that gave them a competitive advantage and met the growing expectations of their customersThe company was already working on many sustainability initiatives, but lacked a formal program with a strategic direction and organization to work effectively

How We Helped

Strategy Development

• We performed a market assessment of the company’s competitors and customers against GRI categories to show relative transparency, program strengths and weaknesses
• We reviewed existing program documentation and sustainability data to identify opportunities and gaps
• We performed an internal assessment with the company’s key sustainability stakeholders such as operational leads and subject matter experts to determine cultural readiness, data readiness, strategic fit and company priorities
• We facilitated a group strategy session to create mutually agreeable focus areas, goals, positioning and a roadmap
• We helped obtain executive support for the sustainability strategy through development of a white paper and presentation to the executives and board of directors
• We developed a sustainability work plan based on the established goals which included: key lead or team and supporting structure, detailed activities to be performed, priority ranking, current status, five-year timeline and associated budget

Strategy Implementation

• We helped organize the existing sustainability committee into working groups to implement the strategy
• We provided guidance on the development of a supplier code of conduct to establish sustainability expectations for their suppliers
• We are working on addressing transparency through writing the company’s first sustainability report scheduled to be published at the end of 2012

Results

• A sustainability strategy that is relevant to the business which address industry-specific needs
• Executive support for the strategy which resulted in quick implementation of two key areas – a supplier code of conduct and sustainability report
• Tools to track and manage the company’s progress against sustainability goals
• Structured and engaged committee to implement the sustainability strategy

Case Studies