This note summarizes the STAR+ Organizational System Model as a powerful tool for leaders to diagnose, design, and transform organizations in rapidly changing environments. It outlines six key elements of an organizational system: Strategic Direction, Structure and Decision-Making, Processes and Systems, People and Capabilities, Measures and Rewards, and Culture. The note emphasizes the importance of understanding these elements and their interdependencies for effective organizational management and transformation. The STAR+ model, building on Jay Galbraith’s seminal work on organizational systems, helps leaders navigate organizational complexity, diagnose issues, ensure coherence among elements, and guide transformation efforts. It stresses the critical role of culture and its interaction with other system components, particularly measures and rewards and leadership behaviors. A case study of Stefanie Eisenberg at Global’s North American Operations illustrates the model’s practical application. It demonstrates how systemic issues can undermine performance even in seemingly stable organizations and highlights the importance of sequencing change efforts.
Chugai (C): Navigating the next century of global innovation
Summary
Chugai C focuses on the company's future as it celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025. In 2021, Chugai launched its ambitious 'TOP I 2030' growth strategy, aiming to transition from Japan's top innovator to a global leader. The strategy sets two primary targets: doubling RD output and launching one in-house global product annually by 2030. These goals are supported by three key drivers: a RED SHIFT toward early-stage research, comprehensive Digital Transformation DX, and Open Innovation. The case examines the progress made and the significant challenges that lie ahead. These include intense competition from firms in China and India, technological disruption from AI-driven drug discovery, geopolitical risks and cultural barriers to attracting global talent. The central question posed is whether Chugai's proven model for success can sustain its bid for global leadership in an era of unprecedented market shifts.
Reference
IMD-2711
Copyright
©2025
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Organization
Chugai Pharmaceutical
Industry
Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Chugai (B): Alliance with Roche to be among the best
Summary
Chugai B examines the pivotal strategic alliance formed in October 2002 between Chugai Pharmaceutical and Swiss giant Roche. Facing constraints in RD funding and global reach, Chugai's President Osamu Nagayama sought a partnership to achieve the firm's ambition of becoming Japan's number one pharmaceutical enterprise while preserving its autonomy. The case examines the unique business model by which Roche acquired a 50.1 equity stake while Chugai retained its management, public listing and corporate identity. This structure created a powerful synergy: Chugai gained exclusive rights to develop and market Roche's innovative products in Japan, while Roche leveraged Chugai's RD pipeline for its global distribution network. The case details how the alliance transformed Chugai from Japan's 10th largest pharma firm into its market leader in oncology and by market capitalization by 2024. It provides a rich context for analyzing how strategic partnerships can bridge resource gaps, foster a 'capability revolution,' and accelerate a company's path to becoming a global innovation powerhouse.
Reference
IMD-2710
Copyright
©2025
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Organization
Chugai Pharmaceutical
Industry
Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
6 things your inner child can do for you
Summary
Discover how reconnecting with your inner child can boost creativity, resilience, and courage, turning curiosity into professional strengths.
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Chugai (A): Overcoming adversity with a transformative leap
Summary
Chugai A traces the transformative journey of a leading Japanese biopharmaceutical firm from its founding in 1925 to the early 2000s. Starting with founder Jz Ueno's vision to 'create medicines that benefit society,' the case details the company's evolution from an over-the-counter OTC drug importer to a research-driven enterprise. Key milestones include the shift to prescription drugs in the 1960s and a strategic pivot to biotechnology in the 1980s. Despite Japan's limited biotech expertise at the time, Chugai successfully developed groundbreaking therapies by forging global partnerships, such as with the US-based Genetics Institute, and laid the foundation for its leadership in biopharmaceuticals. The case highlights visionary leaders like Jz Ueno, Kimio Ueno, and Osamu Nagayama, who drove pivotal strategic transformations in response to environmental and policy changes from 1925 to the 1990s. The central conflict focuses on how President Nagayama, upon taking office in 1992, navigated the limitations of the traditional business to seize the immense opportunities in biotechnology, ultimately realizing the firm's ambition to become an international enterprise.
Reference
IMD-2709
Copyright
©2025
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Organization
Chugai Pharmaceutical
Industry
Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Leading digital transformation in the age of AI
Summary
The case study examines the organizational transformation challenges faced by MedTech Diagnostics, an $850 million medical diagnostics company attempting to balance innovation speed with regulatory compliance and quality standards. CEO Patricia Chen must navigate the tension between traditional, reliability-focused operations and agile innovation pods, while facing a critical contract renewal worth $187 million that represents 22% of the company's revenue. The case illustrates the complexities of dual operating models in regulated industries. MedTech's traditional divisions generate $120M in EBITDA and are FDA-compliant but are declining at 8% annually. Innovation pods achieve 120% growth and high customer satisfaction but face higher post-market issues and lower FDA approval rates. Hybrid teams – intended as a compromise – satisfy neither approach, demonstrating the difficulties of organizational ambidexterity. Chen faces three strategic options: controlled evolution over 24 months, creating a separate subsidiary for innovation, or transforming into a platform company. Each option carries significant costs, risks, and uncertain outcomes. The case explores critical organizational design questions, including culture change, stakeholder management, resource allocation, regulatory navigation, and leadership alignment in transformation contexts. Key themes include managing organizational culture during transformation, balancing innovation with quality in regulated environments, addressing internal resistance and political dynamics, developing effective dual operating systems, and making high-stakes strategic decisions under uncertainty. The case is designed for classroom discussion on organizational change, innovation management, and strategic decision-making in complex operating environments.
Reference
IMD-2684
Copyright
©2025
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
MedTech Diagnostics' transformation crossroads
Summary
The case study examines the organizational transformation challenges faced by MedTech Diagnostics, an $850 million medical diagnostics company attempting to balance innovation speed with regulatory compliance and quality standards. CEO Patricia Chen must navigate the tension between traditional, reliability-focused operations and agile innovation pods, while facing a critical contract renewal worth $187 million that represents 22% of the company's revenue. The case illustrates the complexities of dual operating models in regulated industries. MedTech's traditional divisions generate $120M in EBITDA and are FDA-compliant but are declining at 8% annually. Innovation pods achieve 120% growth and high customer satisfaction but face higher post-market issues and lower FDA approval rates. Hybrid teams – intended as a compromise – satisfy neither approach, demonstrating the difficulties of organizational ambidexterity. Chen faces three strategic options: controlled evolution over 24 months, creating a separate subsidiary for innovation, or transforming into a platform company. Each option carries significant costs, risks, and uncertain outcomes. The case explores critical organizational design questions, including culture change, stakeholder management, resource allocation, regulatory navigation, and leadership alignment in transformation contexts. Key themes include managing organizational culture during transformation, balancing innovation with quality in regulated environments, addressing internal resistance and political dynamics, developing effective dual operating systems, and making high-stakes strategic decisions under uncertainty. The case is designed for classroom discussion on organizational change, innovation management, and strategic decision-making in complex operating environments.
Reference
IMD-2726
Copyright
©2025
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Organization
MedTech Diagnostics (Fictionalized)
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Use design thinking to navigate ambiguity
Summary
We're living through an era of accelerated change, and leaders feel it every day. In five years, we've experienced the impacts of Covid and how it rebooted the norms we took for granted in how we work; the advent of gen AI and the reckoning with i...
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Self-renewing organizations as innovations
Summary
Why is that we accept new product, process, and even business model innovation as normal, but significant organizational innovation not? After all, it is not as if our organizations continue to maintain their vitality as they age. Like fading iPho...
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From complexity to clarity: How ABB transformed its operating model (B)
Summary
The case study explores the second phase of ABB's 2018 to 2024 transformation journey to restore confidence in the underperforming conglomerate through a simplification of its structure and a focus on accelerating decision making. Under interim CE...
Reference
IMD-2683
Copyright
©2025
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Organization
Asea Brown Boveri
Industry
Manufacturing, Electric and Electronic Equipment
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
From complexity to clarity: How ABB transformed its operating model (A)
Summary
The case study explores the first phase of ABB's 2018 to 2024 transformation journey as it tackled longstanding challenges: financial underperformance, declining market confidence and inefficiencies in its complex matrix structure. To streamline o...
Reference
IMD-2682
Copyright
©2025
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Organization
Asea Brown Boveri
Industry
Manufacturing, Electric and Electronic Equipment
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications