ABBOTT

Abbott Laboratories



Abbott Laboratories

Introduction

Abbott Laboratories, founded in 1888, is one of the most diversified health-care manufacturers in the world. Three of Abbott's four core businesses--diagnostics, hospital products, nutritionals, and pharmaceuticals--are the number one or two competitors in their fields. Abbott is, and has been for fifty years, a global company. Approximately 40 percent of its sales and one-third of its 57,000 employees are outside the United States. Its profit as a percent of sales places Abbott among the top companies in the world (for example, in 1998 Abbott was ranked 129 of the Fortune 500 in sales and 12 in profits).

Cultural Elements Influencing Leadership Development Initiative Abbott's success is the result of its strategy, execution, and culture. Among these sources of competitiveness are cultural elements that heavily influence leadership development thinking and efforts:

A passion for the business (improving customers' lives)

A passion and drive for achievement (and a belief that actions--results--speak louder than words)

Self-confidence and a desire for self-reliance (historically, a great emphasis on internally generated growth and fierce autonomy of the operating divisions)

A bias for action (and a bias against forms and processes)

A belief in "Abbott" (the team or system will deliver results, not individual "heroes")

History

Abbott Laboratories (Abbott) was founded more than a century ago by Dr.Wallace C. Abbott, a practicing physician and drug store proprietor, who set up the Abbott Alkaloidal Company for the manufacturing of dosimetric granules specialized formulated plant extracts. The company soon established its own sales force and branches across the US and also in London (Billingsley, 2006).

In 1929, Abbott stock was first listed on the Chicago Stock Exchange. In 1941, Abbott became one of the five antibiotic pioneers in the US to begin commercial production of penicillin. Moreover, its other important products introduced during the middle of the twentieth century included Halazone, Tridione, Surbex, Venopac, Aminosol, Erythrocin and Sucaryl, Abbott's first truly consumer healthcare product.

The company introduced 74 new products, spanning the pharmaceutical and medical device markets, as well as improved variations of existing products, in 1949. The latter half of the 20th century was one of continued growth, with Abbott moving into a variety of businesses, including several that it would subsequently exit, such as sweeteners, eye drops and golf equipment. A number of key events that would shape Abbott's future structure took place over this period, including the establishment of a relationship with Japanese firm Dainippon Pharmaceuticals for the manufacturing of radiopharmaceuticals.. Key product launches included Tranxene, Ensure, TDx, Hytrin and Depakote, which received approval for the US market in 1983(Ardalan, 2000).

In 1985, Abbott won US approval to market the world's first diagnostic test for AIDS, and TAP was able to launch its first product following successful approval of Lupron in 1985.

By the end of the 20th century, products were introduced across many of its divisions, some in-house and some brought in from external sources. Key launches over the 1990s included Clarithromycin (sold under the Biaxin brand in the US), Survanta, AxSYM, Sevoflurane, Norvir, Abbott Prism (a ...