Why Has Biocon been so successful?

Bioconis a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company located in Bangalore, India thatis focused
on biopharmaceuticals, custom research and clinicalresearch.
i
They have fivesubsidiary companies that include Syngene, Clinigene, Biocon Biopharmaceuticals,
AxiCorp,and NeoBiocon.
ii
Biocon,Syngene and Clinigene together employee nearly 3600 biologists,chemists, medical practitioners,
engineers, and general administrators.
iii
Biocon delivers productsand solutions to partners and customers in over 50 countries.They are
the largest biotechnologycompany in India.As of 2008, Biocon was ranked as the 7
th
l a r g e s t b i o t e c h c o m p a n y i n t h e w o r l d b a s e d o n t h e n u m b e r o f e m p l o y e e s . Biocon was
founded in 1978 as a joint venture betweenBioconBiochemicals Ltd. (BBL) of Ireland and an Indian
entrepreneur, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.
iv
When Mazumdar-Shaw sawBBL being acquired by Unilever plc and ICI Ltd., she held onto her stock and
formed BioconIndia.Since its inception, Biocon has evolved from an enzyme manufacturing
company to afully integrated biopharmaceuticalenterprise.
v
Theyhave received numerous accolades through the years for such achievements as the first
biotechnology company to receive ISO 90001certification in India, first Indian company to manufacture
and export enzymes to the US andEurope, first Indian company to receive US funding for proprietary
technologies, and only thesecond Indian company to cross a market capitalization of $1 billion on the first
day of listing.Mazumdar-Shaw, the co-founder of Biocon,remains the chairman and managing directoro f
Biocon.Sheand herhusband John Shaw own over 60 percent
of the company’s stock. Not
only hasMazumdar-Shaw accepted numerous awards through the yearsforthe success
of Biocon, she has received numerous awardshighlighting her own successes(to
includereceiving
one of India’s highest civilian
honors,alifetime achievement award, business leader of the
yeari n B i o t e c h n o l o g y , a n d B e s t E n t r e p r e n e u r ) .
Biocon’s success began at its inception with Mazumdar
-
Shaw’s sequential growth
strategy for the company.Each business she addedto the company addedto the mission
of Bioconby providinga steppingstone toward making Biocona biotechnology powerhouse.
These “stepping stones” included consolidatingBiocon’s core skills in enzymes, establishing afootprint in
biopharmaceuticals, and partnering with global firms. Biocon’s successes in these
areas, led Mazumdar-Shaw to pursue an even riskier adventure into the world of drug
discovery.T h e b u l k o f B i
ocon’s revenue
in their early yearscame from their success in generic drug manufacturing. Generic
drugs typically cost 20 to 80 percent less to manufacturebecause theproductsarenot burdened with
legacy expenses of research, development, clinical trials
andmarketing (as theoriginalpharmaceutical productswould be).Biocon, like many other dr
ugcompanies, used a large portion of their generic revenue to finance their breakthrough into
drugdiscovery. However, increased competition in the biopharmaceutical market, led Biocon to
therealization that their success in generics alone, would not allow them to reach their global
4
aspirations. Additionally, changes in the regulatoryenvironment prohibited
themfrommanufacturing and marketing generic versions of patented drugs (one of the main ways
Indiancompanies were prospering).For nearly two decades, Biocon expandedand diversifiedinto
various fieldsbeyond itsspecialization in enzymes. These
fieldsincludedbiopharmaceuticals, custom research, andclinicalresearch.In 2004, their
success led them to issue an initial public offering (IPO), valuingthe company at $1.1
billion. In 2005, theyearnedrevenue of US $167 million.
The importance of Biocon’s manufacturing of enzymes was the basis for their
competitive advantage of fermentation.
Biocon’s fermenting capacity gave it the ability to scale
up an industrial process and the platform to pursue discovery-led growth.Bioconwasable
todifferentiate itself from competitors in the
making ofActivePharmaceuticalIngredients(APIs)by deployingtheir core skills in
fermentation while the globalmarket for statins ( a class of drugused to lowerplasma
cholesterol level)was shrinkingin valueas statins lost patent protection,thoughthe market
wasgrowing in volume. Biocon was also successful because they went beyond making APIs to
supplying formulations to innovator companies.
Biocon’s
ability to maintain molecular biology as their core competence has been one of the most
instrumental reasons for their success. Most companies come into the drug discoveryworld
onlyhavingskills in synthetic chemistry. Biocon is equally involved in
syntheticc h e m i s t r y a n d m o l e c u l a r
b i o l o g y. Bioconalso demonstratedsophisticatedbusiness practices byallowing their clinical
trialsto be handled by their subsidiary, Clinigene. Thissubsidiaryleveraged
India’s large population
and low cost medical and scientific professionals to provide clinical research services at lowprices and to
facilitate rapid establishment of trial groups. By the year 2008, it was estimatedthat30 percentof global
clinical trials would take place outside of the US andthatEurope and India would be their
preferred destination (due to speed of patient enrollments and shorter timelines).Additionally, the clinical
trial market was estimated to grow by 20 percent each year,
whichwould likelybenefit Bioconeven more.As Mazumdar-
Shaw began to envision her goal to generate a “six
-
fold increase” in
revenue within the next decade by building a strong discovery orientation biotechnologyenterprise, it was
apparentthat Biocon was already leading the way in several areas. In theresearch stage of drug
discoveryBiocon had already launched a biodiversity program to collect,catalogue and conserve rare and
diverse species of indigenous bacteria, yeast, and fungi.Thiswas a valuable tool in discovering
new biotech products. In the development phase of drugdiscovery, Biocon relied on its partnerships with
global biotech firms to share developmentcosts, which wasa powerful toolthat helpedto de-risk
Biocon’s own investments
.Biocon appears to be achievingitssuccess throughmany channels. Their intellectualasset
creation,state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities, international benchmarks for the

5
quality of their regulatory systemsand their disease-specific clinical researchhave all
beeninvaluable.
vi
They followprecisemanufacturing, laboratory and documentation practices that e n s u r e
consistent h i g h q u a l i t y r e s u l t s . Wi t h M a z u m d a r - S h a w a s their leader
t h e y d e v e l o p c r o s s functional teams to encourage empowerment, communicates clearly and truthfully
to help shapeorganizational values, and consistently pursues biotechnology commercialization
opportunitiesthat are exciting but very risky.
vii
Explorearguments in favor of success in the future.
Based on Biocon’s success record to date and the powerful leadership of Mazumdar
-Shaw, there are many areas we can examine in favor of success for the future of this company.To begin,
their sequential growthstrategy since inception has proved to be priceless in theiraspirations to become
a biotechnology powerhouse. Their consolidated core skills in enzymes,established footprint in
biopharmaceuticalsand partnershipswith global firms is leading to a farm o r e
rewardingrealmfor them i n d r u g d i s c o v e r y. B y partnering with global
c o m p a n i e s t h e y c a n manage their risk better and lower costs in drug discovery. Drugs
based on biologyarealsoestimated toreplace 70 percent of conventionaltherapies by
2025,which isanother one of
Biocon’s
competitive advantages.Bioconhas a good source of revenue to move into drug discovery since they are a
majormanufacturer of generics. They are one of 74 manufacturing facilities inIndia certified by
theU S F o o d and Drug Administration (FDA)that soldgenericsin both
the USand Europe.In2006, there were$82billioninglobal blockbusterdrugsfacing
p a t e n t e x p i r y, w h i c h w o u l d m e a n the generic market would only grow.
India’s share of global generic market was expected to
increase to about 33 percent in 2007, from 4 percent in 2004.Major drug companies
werealsointerested in driving down costs, sothey werelooking for partner specialist firms
in India andChina as sources of input for research and clinical development.
viii
By focusing on uniquet e c h n o l o g y and patents in the US, Bioconhas
b e e n g i v e n e x c l u s i v e g l o b a l r i g h t s f o r m a n y products.Another argument for success revolves
around
Biocon’s
focus on diversification in theirearly years. Their manufacturing of enzymes was 15percentof
their revenueand wasexpectedto grow 6.5 percenta year.Enzymes were a springboard for
fermentation,which was a core skillin laterstagesof the value chain of
biopharmaceuticals.Biopharmaceuticals
represented 80% of Biocon’s turnover
and the global generics marketw a s s e t t o g r o w e v e n m o r e a s d o z e n s o f d r u g s
c a m e o f f p a t e n t . G o v e r n m e n t s , i n s u r e r s a n d health care organizationswereturning to
generics to reduce costs. Additionally,more of theglobaldrug companies were
exportingparts of the value chain to low cost producerslikeIndia. Biocon was also
manufacturing via fermentation. This was important becausemolecular biologyproduces a product that is
less likely to fail in the end product. As a biologic process, molecular

6
biologyis less intrusive when embedded in a biological systemthan a synthetic drug, and
lesslikely to fail in a clinical trial.Biocon was successful in forming Syngene to capture the business
of researchprocessoutsourcing (RPO). This type of outsourcing was being done by many global drug
companieswho wanted to reduce their R&D costs and shorten productvaluation times. Biocon
positioneditself to provide synthetic chemistry in partnership with established pharmaceutical
companiesand molecular biology in partnership with biotechnology companieswhile many
of theircompetitors had a specialty focus.To be successful in the future in drug discovery, Biocon needed
to excel in three areas of drug discovery: research, development and commercialization. In research,
Syngene andClinigene were leading the way for Biocon by providing a solid platform to move into
drugdiscovery. Biocon has had an in-house R & D team and a biodiversity programthat
washelpingi n t h e d i s c o v e r y o f
new biotech products. Biocon’s partnerships with biotech startups were also
seen as a key element as they further helped Biocon to integrate backward into
discoveryresearch.Building on capabilities in clinical trials, Biocon hadalreadytaken
tentative steps towardinvolvement in the development state of drug discovery. They
limitedtheiractivities to knowntargetsand known molecules and relied on partnerships with
global biotech companies to sharedevelopment costs.Partnering with India was seen asa fast
track way to climb the valuation c h a i n b y m a n y f o r e i g n c o m p a n i e s . T h r o u g h
p a r t n e r i n g , B i o c o n t a k e s o n m o l e c u l e s f o r development that were built by partners
who invested in the drug research andmoves the
drugdevelopment process forward. They saveon thecosts on research
while theirforeignpartnerssave on drug
development.T h e l a s t s t a g e o f d r u g d i s c o v e r y i s c o m m e r c i a l i z a t i o n , w h i c h i s w h e r e B i
oconhas theleastexpertiseand they weremakinginvestmentsto create the
m a n u f a c t u r i n g c a p a c i t y f o r industrial scale-upto meet commercial demand.Biocon
would also need to comply with manufacturing standards and deploy a sales force with expertise in
marketing and promotions.Through fine tuning of their commercialization skills and strengthening of
some of their corecapabilities,Mazumdar-
Shaw’s vision to turn Biocon into a top
-10 biotechnology firm with salesexceeding $1 billion by 2015 appears to be an achievable goalbased on
the success andperformance of this company to date.
Explore reasons for concern.
The primary reason of concern for Biocon’s success is the riskiness associated with drug
discovery. Only 1 in 5,000 molecules reach the clinical trial stage, only 1 in 500 undergoingclinical trials
reach the commercial stage. Biocon has 9 molecules at various stages of

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development. The odds are against Mazumdar-
Shaw’s expectations that all 9 molecules will
reach commercialization by the end of the decade. Additionally, the low availability of venturecapital
inIndia requires Biocon to fund/take ona large portionof the risk.Drug discovery
in thewords of Mazumdar-
Shaw is managing “infinite risk”
,thatwas not in the mindset at Bioconbuthad tobe learned.Drug discovery is
different from
Biocon’s traditional revenue
s o u r c e , o f generic drugs, which do not involve a unique discoverybut differ only in
price.Drug discovery
also doesn’
t provide the instant cashgratification that generics provide.The regulatory environment that had
made generics soattractive,andwas a critical part
of Biocon’s income
was another reason for concern. India had introduced a full-fledged patentregime in compliance
withtheWorld Trade Organization (WTO)agreement on Intellectual Property. Previously
Indian companies that had beenable to manufacture generic versions of drugs patented in other countries
would no longer be able to do so. This would severely impactthese companies,including Biocon,as
it wouldcut their income of manufacturing and marketing of patented drugs andlimit their funds
for drug discovery. Generics would no longer be alloweduntil the patent expired.This
circumstancewas creating an impetus to change their business model and integrate it with their
evolving strategy around drug discovery moving forward.
Another reason for concern was whether or not Biocon’s four broad areas of
specialization: enzymes, biopharmaceuticals, custom research and clinical research woulddistract it from
moving into drug discovery. Enzymes provided
a springboard for Biocon’s
competitive advantage, offering leverage in stagethreeof the value chain of
pharmaceuticals.However, Biocon had less than a one percent share of world market in
enzymes, andwasupagainst two large European players with 70 percent of the market
share.Bioconcompetesdirectly against niche players such asmanyChinese firmsare. The
low cost Chinese firms couldpotentiallydrive Biocon out of the sector on price.In addition,
theEuropean players may pushBiocon out of themarket if they increased market
share.Biocon makes 45 percent of their revenue fromingredients
(API’s)
for statins. AlthoughM a z u m d a r - S h a w i s c o n f i d e n t t h a t a s t h e b r a n d n a m e s t a t i n s l o s e
patentsthe marketfor
Biocon’s
ingredientswill shrink in valuebutthevolume of product sold will
i n c r e a s e . H o w e v e r, t h e r e i s no guarantee that Biocon will gain any ofthisincreased
volume.In addition, if other
competitors move in with lower priced API’s
andtake
away Biocon’s volume
theresultingreductionin cashflow will present amajor problem fortheirplans to
e x p a n d i n t o d r u g discovery.
There is also reason for concern with two of Biocon’s subsidiaries
in relationship to drugd i s c o v e r y r e s e a r c h i n t h e f i r s t s t a g e o f d r u g d i s c o v e r y. C l i n i g e n e
m a k e s u p a n e x t r e m e l y s m a l l part of the rapidly growing clinical trial business, and has yet to
build up its capabilities as aclinical research organization. Syngeneis operating in a competitive space
against everyonefrom full-service global drug development companies to teaching
hospitals.While a growing

8
area, the extent of competition could prove formidable to Bioconas they change their focus todrug
development and away from their core businesses.Biocon is also outsourcing some of the
stages associated with drug discovery research because they don’t have the skills in this area.
This may prevent them fromdeveloping the skills that are crucial to drug discovery.
With regards to drug discovery development, Biocon is only taking “tentative steps” in
this stage by buildingon its capabilities in clinical trials, which are very limited based onrevenue.The
company has limited its activities to known targets and known moleculesandisalso relying
on partnerships with global biotech companies to share development costs.Its current
activities utilized existing antibodies and molecules
created by the firm’s partners
,i n s t e a d o f d e m o n s t r a t i n g t h e a b i l i t y f o r B i o c o n t o d e v e l o p t h e i r o w n n e w
d r u g s , w h i c h i s i t s stated goal.Biocon hasverylittle experience in commercialization, the
final stage of drug discoveryand development. While the firm was investing in manufacturing
capacity, the critical areas of deployment of a sales force and development of expertise in promotions
aimed at physicians andend-customersarebeing neglected. This leads us to wonder if there is
validity indiscoveringand developing a drug if
they’re
not ready to sell it. This is especially true in a lucrative markets u c h a s t h e U S , w h i c h i s h e a v i l y
d e p e n d e n t o n m a r k e t i n g . Biocon may be spreading its resources toothinasit moves into
drug discovery and facesincreased competition in generics,
API’s
for statins, and the substantially higher costs in
drugd i s c o v e r y. M o v i n g a w a y f r o m t h e i r t r a d i t i o n a l area of commodities and
b u s i n e s s t o d r u g discovery and development alsorequiresdeveloping several new
competencies such asbuildinga drug pipeline,project management, regulatory compliance,
manufacturing and marketing.These will all
place great financial strain on the company’s resources.
Mazumdar-Shaw needs to
determine if it’s worth it to take financial risk to expand her vision of achieving ann
ual revenuesof $1 billion.
The final reason of concern for Biocon’s future success relates to the i
mplementation of the WTO patent law (combined with a repeal of restrictions on foreign investments
under WTO).This means thatmultinationalcorporationswill begin invading the Indian market
in forceandgive Biocon more competition. Not only will theybe competing in the local market against
localplayers, butthey will also be competingin the local marketagainst Merck and Bristol-
MeyersSquibb. In addition,multinational generic manufactures, such as Teva PharmaceuticalIndustries,
willbe competing against Biocon in its home market.The approximately 10,000
small companies in India’s domestic market
currentlyproducing copycat patents for local usewill all be competing for the generic
market or attemptingdrug development to avoidgoingout of business.
ix
Based on the prospective competitionit may not be the proper time forBiocon to expand their
business to drug development.

9
Assume the role of Mazumdar-Shaw's top management team and develop an action planthat will
enable the company to meet its aggressive goals. Be as specific as possible indeveloping your action
plan.
In assuming the role of Mazumdar-
Shaw’s top management team
t o d e v e l o p a n a c t i o n plan that will enable Biocon to meet its aggressive goalwe first composed the
goal into a single,coherent
and quantifiable statement, which is noted below. We thensplitthestatementintocomponent
parts that could be reasonably managed withinthecorporate skillsof Biocon. Theintent of
this approach was to break-up the effort sothat riskscould bemore carefully managed and
rewards or consequences could
be more closely measured. As identified by Michael Porter’sframework in “The CompetitiveAdvantage
of Nations”
,
x
Biocon’s corporate strategy provides
leverage internally and externally to establish a competitiveadvantagein achieving the
goal.
Biocon Ltd goal for 2015:
Biocon Ltd’s goal is to become a top
-10 biotechnology firmby reaching annual sales of $ 1 b i l l i o n b y 2 0 1 5 .
As of March 2005, Biocon was positioned at number 14 in global rankingsbased on
salesa c c o r d i n g t o e x h i b i t o n e i n t h e c a s e .
xi
As of July 2008, they werepositioned at number 20in theg l o b a l r a n k i n g s b a s e d o n s a l e s .
xii
Despite a slip inoverallranking,Biocon h a s s u c c e s s f u l l y grown their drug
discovery revenue as planned. However,in comparison to other globalcompetitors,they have
moved down in relative ranking. Biocon’s
overallsuccess was madeevident by a press release onSeptember 24, 2009, when Biocon announced
that they weremarked as one of only 20 Indian companies on
Forbes ‘Best under a Billion List’ selected from
over 12,000 publicly-listed firms with sales of less than$1 billion in the Asia-Pacific region.
“
Only 20 Indian companies have been featured in the listthis year, which is dominated byc o m p a n i e s
from China.Allother companieshaveboth increased sales andprofits over the
p a s t 12 months or are forecastedto do so inupcoming quarters.
‘
Apparel, media, technology andhealth care led the way,
’
said Forbes. This year's list is dominated by companies that havewithstood challenges that threatened
their survival and those that have demonstrated exemplaryen
trepreneurship.”
xiii
It is also worth noting a recent revenue statement madeby Mazumdar-
Shaw herself that “All segments of our businesses have demonstrated robust growth.”
Mazumdar-Shaw said the company was confident of sustaining the growth momentum by using
its “differentiated profile” through its global partnerships. She said the partnerships would enablethe
company to reach out to “lucrative opportunities in emerging and developed markets.”
xiv
Observations ofBioconmake it evidentthat the company isfocused on
accomplishing itsg o a l . I n t h e b o o k , T h e I n d i a n Wa y, t h e
author’s
statethatMazumdar-Shaw
“had built risk
-taking into her
company’s
culture through her own modeling
 —
consistently pursuingbiotechnology commercialization opportunities that looked exciting but also very
risky.
”
xv
Thisfocus is alsoevident by comments from Mazumdar-Shaw in an interview of over 100
IndianExecutives where she states,"Wehave transformed ourselves into an integrated bio-
pharmaceutical business.Our key areas of focus are diabetes and oncology.We are
developing

10
oral insulinandantibodies for specific cancers."
xvi
The figure below is a graph of
Biocon’s
Discovery Pipeline. Italso offers a visual of the diverse segmentation balance between genericsand
discovery drugs as well as the focus areas noted by Mazumdar-Shaw.
xvii
The action plan below is proposed as a means to achieving the goalof reaching annualsales of $1billionby
2015, and depending on the relative rankings of other firms in the sector[NAICS 325412, SIC 2834,5] to
become a top-10 global biotechnology firm. Acting asMazumdar-
Shaw’s manage
ment team for Biocon,we identified two major steps to accomplishthe goal with sub-activities and two
major barriers to overcome as part the actionplan. These areo u t l i n e d b e l o w.
Steps to accomplish:
1) Build a highly effective project management teamto accomplish step two below;
comply withregulations; control manufacturing; andcreate the marketing necessary for achieving the
salesgoal.2) Build a portfolio of strong candidate drugs to mature as efficiently as possible according to
amarket driven scheduleof at least one-per year for the next five years, 2010-2015.a) Research: Under
our research efforts,we will screen molecules and genes withthe highest probability of success
and lowest consequence of failure by managing risks onthe most likely candidates that will increase
revenue on pharmaceuticals in excess ($600
11
millionby 2015) of theexpected decrease in revenue on generics ($19 million starting
in2008).b) Development: We will leverage the outputs from research by creating hybrid cells andscaling
them up with enzymes to establish a platform for commercialization.c) Commercialization: Our success
will depend on receiving regulatory approvals andtactically marketing our products to reach our sales
goal.
Barriers to overcome:
1) As we shift our business model from generics, to also include drug discovery,we mustdetermine
howmuch topress therisk-reward continuum on all of our financial priorities by seeking a
balance between our capital obligations with venture capitalists, our subsidiaries, ourpartners and our
existing generics segment. We must also carefully monitor our new products forpotential post-market
liability consequences and identify potential opportunities for productgrowth events in the
marketplacesuch as expanding into new markets or increasing our share of existing markets.2) In
conjunction with overcomingthe above barrier, we mustdesign and build quality into
allof ournew or expanding processes. By leveraging our recent capital expenditures of
$135million( $ 1 0 0 m i l l i o n i n 2 0 0 5 - 0 6 f o r e n z y m e f e r m e n t i n g a n d $ 3 5 m i l l i o n i n 2 0 0 8
t o i n c r e a s e biopharmaceutical capacity),we must also increase our existing productivity through
continuousimprovement targets on our legacy processes sothat they will approachour new
processcapacities. This will enable us to more effectively integrate our total productive output
bysupporting operations in all segments to exceed the expected decline in generic revenues with
theexpected increase in biopharmaceutical revenues.The action plan detailed above provides a strong
internal framework to accomplish ourg o a l o f $ 1 b i l l i o n i n a n n u a l s a l e s b y 2 0 1 5 . E x h i b i t 1
providesan excerpt ofthe framework in amore detailed view that can be revised
as neededbased onquarterly reviewsduringexecutionof t h e a c t i o n p l a n
xviii
.The globalbusinessclimate will be a major determinant of whether or not we will achieve the
ranking of a top-10 biotechnology firm. AsMazumdar-
Shaw’s
top managementteam, we will need to assist incontrolling corporate matters on operational and
tactical time-f r a m e s a n d a d v i s e o n corporate mattersfrom astrategic time-
f r a m e p e r s p e c t i v e . I n r e v i e w i n g t h e framework offered by Porter, we learned that we need
tointegrate our action plan for Bioconwitha strategic plan that addresses factor conditions,
demand conditions, relatedand supportedindustries,firm strategies,structure and rivalry. In
some aspects,Biocon has taken an approach that addresses these areas by acquiring subsidiaries
with Syngene in the research segment andClinigene in the development segment. Biocon has
alsotaken this approach bysetting up acontrolling interest in partnerships with CIMAB in
development and AxiCorp incommercialization (through distribution), among other minority stake
interests. Theserelationships are strategic business moves that seek to address the factor and demand
conditionsas well as the related and supported industries. The remaining areas that Biocon should seek to

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12
strengthen are the strategies that encompass their local and global approach to rivalries andgovernment
policies.
Biocon’s strategy for establishing its global position could be compared with a
description offered by Pankaj Gemawat in a December 2005 Harvard Business Review article, titled
Regional Strategies for Global Leadership.In this article, Gemawatw
rites “Leading
-edgecompanies are starting to grapple with these definitional issues [on varying whatdefines a
region].”
For example, firms in sectors as diverse as construction materials, forest products,telecommunications
equipment, and pharmaceuticals have invested significantly in modernmapping technology, using such
innovations as enhanced clustering techniques, better measuresfor analyzing networks, and expanded data
on bilateral, multilateral, and unilateral countryattributes to visualize new definitions of regions.
xix
Biocon persists
as India’s largest and most successful biotechnology firm by a healthy
margin over its other national competitors. From a local strategy perspective,they
arecomfortablypositioned to stay ahead of theirin-country rivalries.For Biocon to reach its
desiredposition in global ranking within the top-
10,theymustbaselinetheirgoals on the performancec h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of at least
t h e a n n u a l n u m b e r 1 0 p e r f o r m e r e a c h y e a r. A s o f 2 0 0 5 , M i l l e n i u m Pharmaceuticals
(USA)was the number 10 ranked company. As of 2010,
Actelionwasthenumber 10ranked company
xx
.Comparing financially reported sales for2009 between
BioconLtd and Actelion in USdollars,
the difference is roughlytwiceforActelionat approximately$1.7 billion than forBiocon at
approximately $350million(based on an exchange rate of1 INR= 0.0219539 USDretrieved
on May 7, 2010).This difference shows that Biocon has a very aggressive goal of reaching at
least the number 10 global rank by year-end sales figures for 2009.Holding all other variables
constant,at this rateit would require Biocon to achieve an annual average increase in sales on
the order of $88 millionper year for the next four years to reach $1billionin salesby 2015. The action
plan proposed is a strong plan that needs to be integrated comprehensively with the strategic
plan so that the goal is more achievable in thegiven timeframe and considersthe relative factors of local,
region, demand, support industry, competition,r i s k a n d p o s t - m a r k e t c o n s e q u e n c e s .
i
Biocon General Information, retrieved on May 8, 2010 on-line at Biocon’s website,
http://www.biocon.com/biocon_aboutus_factsheet.asp
ii
Biocon General Information, retrieved on May 8,2010 on-line at Biocon’s website,
http://www.biocon.com/biocon_aboutus_factsheet.asp
iii
Biocon General Information, retrieved on May 8, 2010 on-line at Biocon’s website,
http://www.biocon.com/biocon_aboutus_factsheet.asp
iv
Anonymous. (2007, July 21). Biocon India. Retrieved May 8, 2010 from
http://www.iloveindia.com/economy-of-india/top-50-companies/biocon.html
v
Anonymous. (2007, July 21). Biocon India. Retrieved May 8, 2010 from
http://www.iloveindia.com/economy-of-india/top-50-companies/biocon.html
vi
Anonymous. (2004). Naukri Hub. Retrieved May 8, 2010 from
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Chandrasekhar, R. (2006).BIOCON LTD: BUI