Caso ucb desbloqueado

F. WARREN MCFARLAN BRIAN DELACEY

UCB: Managing Information for Globalization and Innovation (A)

Damien faced the challenge of bringing the IT/IS plan in line with the overall business plan. As Damien prepared for his budget meeting for the members of the Executive Committee1, he contemplated:

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Are cost and service enhancement opportunities being appropriatelyaddressed throughout UCB’s supply chain? Was the company interface to the customer appropriate for its industry in 2002? Were customers being fully supported with appropriate information, ordering capabilities and services? Did systems give UCB information to react at least as fast as competitors to new challenges? (This was important given the role of innovation, speed and flexibility in UCB’ssuccess.) Were the costs of software maintenance and upgrades being driven down? computing capacity being efficiently utilized? Was the

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Were the right priorities being set for the numerous demands on the IT/IS budget? Which projects should be the central focus? Was the priority setting process adequate? Was UCB appropriately organized to address the varied geographic and organizational demandsbeing placed on the information architecture of the company?

1 Executive Committee members include Georges Jacobs (Chairman), Edouard Croufer (Director-General, Pharmaceutical

Sector), William Lowther (Director-General, Films Sector), and Ben Van Assche (Director-General, Chemical Sector.) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Professor F. Warren McFarlan and Research Associate Brian DeLacey prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission toreproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School.Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617-783-7860.

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In October 2002, Vincent Damien was updating the IT/IS plan for 130 subsidiaries and 10,000 employees of UCB spanning three sectors: Chemicals, Films, and Pharma. UCB had just completed an analysts’ meeting, maintaining a 10% growth projection for profit before tax and exceptional items. Pharmabusiness remained strong, led by its fast-growing drug Zyrtec. Films had opened a new R&D facility in August but was in the midst of a price war, and Chemicals was completing an acquisition while benefiting from strong margin improvements. Despite the good news, the stock price had been trading at its lowest level since January 1998. (Refer to Exhibit 1 for a description of recent businessdevelopments.)

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UCB: Managing Information for Globalization and Innovation (A)

Vincent Damien: Administrative & IT Director

Vincent Damien graduated with a degree in Applied Economics and European Studies from the University of Louvain. Damien joined UCB in May 1991 as a Corporate Auditor. In January 1993 he was appointed Management Controller ofPharma, where he experienced firsthand how operations and business groups depended upon information technology. In 1996, Damien assumed responsibilities for Pharma MIS where he saw significant need for improvement in the way Information Technology/Information Systems (IT/IS) was managed. At that time, there were no standards between any of UCB’s three operating sectors which, Damien felt, led to...