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Case Study

Roche Diagnostics Belgium (A): Changing a winning formula

By Heather Cairns-Lee and Tawfik Jelassi

8 pages

July 2020

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Reference: IMD-7-2139

The Roche Diagnostics Belgium (RDB) case study consists of two parts: Part (A): “Changing a Winning Formula?” and Part (B): Cultural and Digital transformation. The cases focus on the transformation which Anna-Maria Heuchel-Reinig initiated to turn the company into a more successful business. RDB had a strong track-record within Roche for high-performance and good market share. Anna had an equally solid reputation, having managed different businesses and country organizations within Roche over a 20-year career. The two-part case study covers the period from April 2017 until October 2019 and recounts how Anna made sense of the situation she inherited when she became the General Manager of the Belgian organisation and the actions she took to initiate a journey focused on customer centricity, cultural change and digital business transformation. Case A covers Anna’s first 100 days as General Manager from April 2017 – August 2017. She was told that RDB was a high performing, customer-focused organization, yet she encountered a company living on past successes with weakening customer focus. The case outlines the company context, Anna’s early encounters with the Belgian organization, her developing concerns and the gap between RDB’s narrative of success and her own assessment of the company.

Learning Objective

How do leaders make sense of the situations they have been hired to lead when their sense-making is counter to the prevailing narrative?
How do leaders navigate their first 90 days in a new role?

Keywords

Organizational Transformation, Leadership, Cultural Change, Digital Transformation, Authentic Leadership, Women, Diverse Protagonist, Organizational Change

Settings

Europe, Belgium
Roche Holding, Healthcare, Health and Medical Services
April 2017 – October 2019

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

Related material

Teaching note, Video

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