Scenario

You are a business development manager reporting to the vice president (VP) of business development at one of the largest life sciences organizations in the Midwest. While the organization has shown constant growth and profitability since its inception in 1999, the owners have decided that it is time to sell. Given the current uncertainty in global markets, the organization’s board of directors is not convinced that this is the right approach.

While work was underway to find a potential buyer, the VP called on you to join the strategic planning team to assess the organization’s exit strategy and make recommendations to its board of directors. You have been working closely with your strategic planning team to make some initial analyses and recommendations to help plan for the sale of the organization.

As part of the planning team, your first task was to select people from your organization to build a guiding coalition to help the organization transition during and after the acquisition.

Then, you were asked to analyze one of the organization’s core strengths, its talented pool of employees. This included analyzing the attrition data to understand why employees have left the organization and recommending ways to ensure employee stability in the future. This essential information will be provided to potential acquirers to assure them of the organization’s ability to retain talent.

While planning was underway, your first potential buyer started to get cold feet. So, you were asked to research an alternative buyer and build a contingency plan. This contingency plan is an important part of your exit strategy and your report to the board of directors. You and your team were also asked to formulate an acquisition road map that lays out the action steps and timelines for the plan.

Now that the initial analysis and plans are complete, your VP is ready to make the presentation to the board of directors. The VP has asked you to prepare a formal report that you will send to the board prior to the presentation. This report will include the analyses and plans you have developed over the last few weeks. It is important to note that your report will provide the first impression to the board about the upcoming presentation and meeting. You need to craft a compelling message that provides insights based on all the work your team has done and substantiates your position with data. In addition, as a part of your report, you will also outline a change management strategy that will help ensure a smoother transition after the sale of the organization.

Directions

Exit strategy recommendations and plan: provide a change management strategy for moving forward toward a sale of the organization in the course scenario. Specifically, you must address the following criteria:

1. Change management strategy: Using Kotter’s change model as a guide, explain each step of the change management strategy that you recommend. Your response should address the following:

a) How will you create a sense of urgency?

b) How will the guiding coalition continue to guide the change? Who will they impact? Identify which critical tasks from the acquisition road map the guiding coalition should complete. Also, determine the expected timelines for these tasks to be completed.

c) What is your strategic vision for the company, its operations, and its employees after the acquisition?

d) What is the plan for enlisting a group of employees to get other employees united around the common vision?

e) What barriers to change do you foresee? How do you plan to remove them?

f) How will you track progress?

g) How will you communicate short-term wins?

2. Summary: Summarize your strategy and assessment of risks.

a) Describe the overall strategy that you recommend for the organization’s acquisition goals.

b) Explain how the strategy will fit in the business environment of the oncology market segment in the pharmaceutical industry. Consider using an external business environment analysis to inform your conclusions.

3. Risks: Identify three potential risks that may be associated with your recommendation and explain steps the organization can take to mitigate those risks.