Why Novartis had to break up its 250-year-old business model
“But then the second thing is you ask, what is a company fundamentally great at?”
When you look at it, the return on capital, of course, varies tremendously between a consumer health business, a generics business, a device business, and a pharmaceuticals business. And we were often forced to say we have to sub optimize the pharmaceutical business to invest in the other businesses, or I'd have to say no Mhmm. To very good decisions for the Sandoz business to support the pharmaceuticals business. So I think there was this strategic misallocation of capital. But then the second thing is you ask, what is a company fundamentally great at? Novartis is, I think, really good at discovering and developing
About this clip
Novartis CEO explains how running multiple business units with different economics forced strategic capital misallocation. He describes the tough trade-offs between optimizing their pharmaceutical business versus investing in generics and devices, ultimately leading to a major corporate restructuring.
Why this clip
Provides a clear framework for understanding when diversified companies should consider splitting up based on conflicting capital allocation needs.
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Vasant Narasimhan
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