Press Releases
Novartis CEO Finds Success in Biopharmaceuticals Through
Insight, Opportunity, Expertise and the Internet
Competitive Intelligence Can Identify Market Opportunities
Cambridge, MA - October 3, 2000 - Positioning Novartis AG as an
innovative company that responds to customer needs, CEO Daniel Vasella
has enabled the newly merged company to brand itself as a global leader
in the healthcare arena as well as the life sciences.
In an exclusive interview with competitive intelligence guru Leonard Fuld
on the Fuld Competitive Intelligence Center (www.factiva.com) during the
month of October, Dr. Vasella demonstrates how he and others at Novartis
roll up their sleeves and dig deeply into market data - from scanning the
Internet to combing other ends of the real, not vitual, market place. Vasella
addresses the multiple challenges in product development and how his company
(a merger of Ciba Geigy and Sandoz) uses competitive intelligence to succeed.
The Fuld Competitive Intelligence Center provides business professionals,
from managers to CEOs, with powerful company, industry and trend analysis
tools that help them efficiently compile, evaluate and act on competitive
intelligence and make timely, strategic decisions.
Competitive intelligence at Novartis comes from public sources, publications,
symposia, researcher networks and the Internet. While competitors can tap
into the same data, Vasella notes that not everyone has the same access.
Furthermore, analysts in his competitive intelligence group draw a picture
of what is happening, determine how relevant it is and distribute the information
to the right people.
"What does it all mean if you don't have the people who are good
enough to act with the information?" Vasella said. "A lot depends
not on the CEO, but on what kind of people and culture you have in your
organization. How entrepreneurial are they and can they act fast? That
is something the CEO alone cannot do."
Ideally, he would like to have the kind of development intelligence that
helps Novartis terminate research programs early, when there is no chance
of success.
"I would also like to know what kinds of studies and designs others
are using, how advanced they are, and how we can beat them in time-to-market," Vasella
said. "These are the kind of R&D related issues we'd like to know."
Addressing Novartis' new emphasis on pharmaceuticals, he said that successful
drug research and development depends on insight, opportunity, expertise
of the people who implement the programs, their ownership and then persistence.
Factivaä, a leader in delivering and integrating global news and
business information on corporate desktops around the world, launched Fuld's
groundbreaking competitive intelligence resource in the award-winning Ask
Dow Jones section of Dow Jones Interactive.
Each month, the site features an exclusive interview with a top CEO or
other well known executive. The interviews, all conducted by Fuld, uncover
each executive's competitive strategies, challenges and successes. Already
featured have been Robert Crandall, the former chairman & CEO of American
Airlines, Herb Baum, president of Hasbro Inc., oil magnate T. Boone Pickens,
Pitney Bowes CEO Michael Critelli and Symantec CEO John Thompson.
Besides exclusive CEO interviews, the Fuld Competitive Intelligence Center
offers a Competitive Intelligence Primer and an interactive introduction
to competitive intelligence basics - covering topics such as information
analysis, research techniques, global information interpretation and competitive
intelligence program organization. In addition, the site's Strategic Intelligence
Organizer provides a complete checklist of information revealing the best
competitive practices used by successful companies.
Fuld & Company
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., with offices in London and Geneva,
Fuld & Company is an international leader and pioneer in the field
of competitive intelligence. The company specializes in providing research
and analysis to the financial services, utility/energy, manufacturing,
high technology, telecommunications, healthcare and consumer product sectors.
In addition, across all of these industry sectors, Fuld & Company assists
corporations in the development of robust strategic intelligence programs
and processes. Leonard Fuld, often regarded as the father of competitive
intelligence, is a worldwide recognized expert and author in the field
of competitive intelligence. Since founding Fuld & Co. in 1979, the
firm has completed more than 3,000 competitive intelligence assignments
and count more than half the Fortune 500 as its clients.
Additional information can be found at http://www.fuld.com
Contact:
Sarah Gerrol, (617)
523-4141
sarah@morrisseyco.com
Morrisey & Co.
121 Mount Vernon Street
Boston, MA 02108
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