Organisational Behaviour and Global Strategy

Module Code: HR7002

Level:7
Assessment Title: Individual portfolio (3000 words)
Assessment Type: Coursework
Case Company: AstraZeneca
Submission deadline: 5th September 2025 – 16:00 HRS
Student ID: [insert your id ]
Royal Docks School of Business and Law
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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary:....................................................................................5
3. Case Company Selection and Justification:.....................................................7
4. Strategy & Advantage:.................................................................................8
VRIO Analysis.............................................................................................8
Kay’s Distinctive Capabilities.........................................................................9
5. Key Challenge: Vaccine Program:.................................................................9
6. Managing the Challenge:...........................................................................11
Leadership...............................................................................................11
Culture.....................................................................................................11
Human Relations issues.............................................................................12
7. Strategy’s Role in Challenge:......................................................................13
8. Challenge’s Impact on Strategy:..................................................................14
9. Recommendations:...................................................................................16
1) Institutionalize excellence in crisis communications....................................16
2) Harden supply chain risk management.....................................................16
3) Enhance people's sustainability and learning.............................................16
4) Develop a next-steps access strategy outside the crisis..............................16
10. Conclusion:............................................................................................16
11. References.............................................................................................18
12. Appendix:...............................................................................................21

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 List of Figures

Figure 1:COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca timeline infographic Oxford approvals

rollout..........................................................................................................10
Figure 2: Schein organizational culture iceberg model diagram...........................12
Figure 3: AstraZeneca COVID vaccine manufacturing world map UK India Brazil
Japan etc.....................................................................................................23

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1. Executive Summary:
AstraZeneca (AZ) is a UK-based biopharmaceutical multinational with a strategy that
emphasizes R&D, partnerships, and focused global operations (AstraZeneca, 2024;
AstraZeneca, 2025). The COVID-19 pandemic constituted a strategic and
organizational test case defining moment. AZ embarked on a historic collaboration
with the University of Oxford to create and mass-manufacture a vaccine (Vaxzervria)
at not-for-profit prices (Oxford University, 2020; AstraZeneca, 2020a; Doctors
Without Borders, 2020). Execution of this promise necessitated an unprecedented
build-out of supply networks, fast technology transfer, and coordination across
functions. The firm also confronted reputational and regulatory challenges, such as
efficacy controversy, supply conflicts, and infrequent safety issues (Bown, 2021;
EMA, 2021; Franchini et al., 2021; TIME, 2021).
This portfolio critically examines AZ's culture and strategy employing VRIO and Kay's
unique capabilities and analyzes leadership, culture, and human relations responses
by employing transformational leadership, Lewin/Kotter change models, Schein's
culture model, and the human relations approach (Barney, 1991; Kay, 1993; Kotter,
1996; Lewin, 1947; Schein, 2010). The examination identifies that AZ's existing
strategic strengths strong R&D capabilities, partnership-focused architecture, and
ethical, patient-focused culture were useful and scarce, allowing rapid vaccine
distribution. Yet the crisis also revealed weaknesses: inconsistencies in
communications, the vulnerability of multi-country supply contracts to political
pressure, and unevenly stressed employees in a prolonged emergency
(AstraZeneca, 2025; The Guardian, 2025; The Economist, 2025).
The challenge reconfigured AZ's strategy, speeding up investment in manufacturing
resilience, transparency of pharmacovigilance, and commitments to health equity
while reaffirming the value of cross-sector collaboration. Therefore, AZ's approach,
particularly the values and collaborative model, influenced how the challenge was
conducted. The report will finalize with specific recommendations:
 Establish crisis communications.
 Strengthen the governance of supply chain risk along with scenario planning.
 Response to the wellbeing of the workforce, and enhance the learning
systems to promote high-tempo science operations.
All these trends, taken together, espouse agility and sustained value.

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2. Introduction:
Global shocks like the COVID 19 pandemic force multinationals to align strategy,
leadership, and culture in the moment (Harvard Business Review, 2020). In the case
of life sciences organizations, the stakes reach beyond financial performance to
public trust and health outcomes. This portfolio examines the British pharmaceutical
firm AstraZeneca (AZ) as a test of strategic and organizational response to extreme
uncertainty. The report responds to HR7002’s objectives by critical analysis of AZ’s
strategy and competitive advantages, diagnosis of an overriding challenge that
impacted the firm, and an evaluation of the leadership, culture, and human relations
(HR) dimensions of AZ’s response. Then the report synthesizes strategy’s impact on
challenge management and how the challenge in turn transformed strategy, before
presenting evidence based recommendations.
Report employs established lenses: Barney’s VRIO framework to evaluate internal
assets; Kay’s distinctive capabilities (architecture, reputation, innovation) to reveal
sustained advantage; Lewin’s and Kotter’s change models to analyze mobilization;
Schein’s culture model to challenge assumptions; the transformational leadership
perspective to gain insights into executive behavior; and the human relations
tradition (Mayo) to analyze employee morale, motivation, and well-being. Critical,
rather than descriptive, approach is adopted consistently, triangulating company
revelations with independent analysis. Scope is limited to the 2020-2024 period with
selective reference to newer developments where these materially contribute to
strategic inference. The intent is to derive lessons about integrating ethics and social
responsibility into strategy, the dilemmas of change in a politicized environment, and
the practices that promote resilience in science-driven global firms.
3. Case Company Selection and Justification:
AstraZeneca is a UK-based multinational with international R&D centers and
commercial activities in over 100 nations. There are multiple reasons why it was
chosen. Firstly, AZ faced a huge, time-limited challenge: the COVID-19 vaccine
program that is both significant and well-documented (Oxford University, 2020;
WHO, 2021). Secondly, AZ's reaction cut across strategy, leadership, culture, and
HR and offered rich material for multi-dimensional analysis. Third, AZ is not on the
module's prohibited list and has sufficient publicly available sources (annual reports,
scientific literature, regulator communications), which allows triangulation and critical
appraisal. Lastly, being a science-driven enterprise with clear patient-centric values,
AZ represents the ethical challenges of meeting speed, equity, and safety, closely
matching the learning outcomes on incorporating ethics and social responsibility into
strategy.

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4. Strategy & Advantage:
Overview of Strategy
AZ’s stated purpose “to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing
medicines”( AstraZeneca Annual Report, 2022/23) translates into a strategy
anchored on:
(i) Sustained investment in high-risk, high-reward R&D across oncology,
biopharma, and rare diseases
(ii) Partnership-led scale (universities, biotech’s, contract manufacturers, and
governments) to accelerate development and access (Oxford University,
2020; WHO, 2021).
(iii) Disciplined execution through global operations, digital/AI-enabled
discovery, and selective capital deployment (Forbes, 2021).
Strategically, AZ emphasizes focus over breadth: winning in chosen therapy areas
via deep science, targeted acquisitions (e.g., rare-disease capabilities), and platform
technologies (e.g., biologics, antibody-drug conjugates). This approach seeks to
compound scientific leadership into durable cash flows while maintaining an explicit
social license through affordability and access initiatives.
Culture as Asset
Culture at AZ is deliberately articulated: patient-centricity, following the science,
doing the right thing, and playing to win (AstraZeneca, 2022). These values are
expressed through cross functional teaming, data driven decision taking, and an
openness to external partnerships. Vaccine program stress tested these espoused
values; the commitment to not for profit pricing for the program during the crisis and
to entering complicated, multi country supply agreements is aligned with an ethics
embedded strategy (The Guardian, 2021). But culture is dynamic: the crisis also
identified the requirement for stronger routines in risk communication and
intergovernmental stakeholder management (EMA, 2021).
VRIO Analysis
• Valuable: AZ’s R&D platforms, regulatory expertise, technology transfer
capability across the world, and partner network facilitate fast translation of
science into products and access, delivering patient and societal value
(Barney, 1991).
• Rare: Few peers combined university co development, not for profit
pricing, and simultaneous scaling across dozens of sites during the
pandemic; such a configuration was unusual among Big Pharma.
• Inimitable: Global shocks like the COVID 19 pandemic force
multinationals to get strategy, leadership, and culture on the same page
immediately (Harvard Business Review, 2020).
• Organised: AZ's operating model-centralized business units with central
science platforms, safety and quality governance, and alliance

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 management-enabled it to scale R&D, manufacaturing, and distribution at
pace.
• Inference: The program for vaccines also utilized a VRIO positive set,
though the “O” factor (organization) was occasionally pressured by
geopolitical tension and uncertainty in public health communication (The
Economist, 2021). Strengthening that organizational base is consequently
an imperative for strategy.
The VRIO Comparison (AstraZeneca vs Pfizer)

Resource / AstraZeneca (AZ) Pfizer

Capability

R&D Platforms Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, Valuable, Rare, Inimitable,

Organized Organized
Global Tech Valuable, Rare, Partial Valuable, Not Rare, Imitable,
Transfer Inimitability, Organized Organized
Partnership Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, Valuable, Rare, Inimitable,
Network Mixed organization Strong organization
Culture & Ethics Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, Valuable, Not Rare, Imitable,
Organized Organized

Kay’s Distinctive Capabilities

• Architecture (relations): Solid academic partnerships (e.g., Oxford’s
Jenner Institute) (Oxford University, 2020) and with partners for
manufacturing established an architecture for collaboration that allowed for
fast-tracked development with worldwide access.
• Reputation: Established reputation in science and the price set during the
acute phase at cost reinforced AZ’s reputation for public mindedness, even
with the safety arguments creating pockets for doubt (Financial Times,
2021; The Guardian, 2021).
• Innovation: Fast tech transfer and platform science demonstrated
innovative capability, not only in the laboratory but across the entire
extended enterprise (e.g., scaling fill finish using partners) (Teece, 2007).
5. Key Challenge: Vaccine Program:
In early 2020, AZ forged a historic collaboration with the University of
Oxford for the development and distribution of the Chadox1 NCov Ov 19
vaccine (Vaxzervria). One among the strategic choices for not providing
profit pricing in the event of matched epidemics with access and equity
objectives. The program required quick clinical development, emergency
power, and an international network of manufacturing across many
continents. Though the vaccine was cleared in the UK in December 2020
and numerous others followed, the distribution had many flashpoints:

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 (i) Public and political disputes on supply allocation, especially
between the European Union and the UK.
(ii) The efficacy stories in the form of trial datasets were pooled and
reanalyzed.
(iii) Very rare thrombotic events (VIT/TTS), emerging safety signs,
updated guidance, and, in some courts, age-based use bans.
From an organizational behavior and the challenge combined technical
complexity with social complexity. Internally, AZ had to coordinate
scientists, manufacturing engineers, quality and security teams, regulatory
affairs, country colleagues, and external partners. Externally, the firm
navigated governments, multilateral initiatives (e.g., Kovax), media
investigations, and a polarized public sector. The intensity and duration of
the crisis created fatigue risk and a moral crisis among the employees
whose work bore high social salutes. At the same time, the program
demonstrated a strategy above the values: Access commitment raised the
partners and reinforced the employee purpose, even as the firm absorbed
the reputed shock in some markets. Thus, this episode offers a rich setting
to analyze leadership behavior, cultural alignment, and HR practices under
extreme time pressure. A new study (Smith & Kumar, 2024) suggests that
vaccine distribution in 2021-23 was influenced by geopolitics, with
countries using access to doses as a diplomatic strategy.
Figure 1:COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca timeline infographic Oxford approvals rollout

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6. Managing the Challenge:
Leadership
AZ’s crisis leadership can be analyzed through a transformational leadership lens
(Bass,1990; Burns, 1978). Key behaviors included articulating a compelling vision
(rapid, equitable access to a safe and effective vaccine), intellectual stimulation
(empowering cross-functional problem-solving across R&D, operations, and
regulatory), and individualized consideration (visible appreciation for teams’
extraordinary efforts) (WHO, 2021; AstraZeneca, 2022; Forbes, 2021). Executive
sponsorship of the Oxford partnership, paired with swift resource reallocation,
signalled risk embracing yet values, consistent decision-making. Importantly,
leadership had to balance multiple accountabilities: to patients and public health, to
regulators, to partners, and to shareholders. The move from at,cost pricing to modest
profitability after the acute pandemic phase illustrates adaptive economic
stewardship without abandoning the ethical narrative (The Guardian, 2021;
AstraZeneca, 2023).
However, transformational flair must be complemented by crisis-communications
discipline (The Economist, 2021). Messaging challenges, around dose-regimen
efficacy, supply allocations, and the evolving understanding of rare adverse events,
at times ceded narrative control to external actors. A Kotter-inspired change
approach highlights where execution could have been sharper: establishing a more
formal “guiding coalition” spanning medical, regulatory, legal, and public-affairs
leaders; crafting and over-communicating a simple, evolving story, and empowering
local affiliates with standardized toolkits to address public concerns. These are not
cosmetic issues, they influence trust, uptake, and, ultimately, health outcomes.
Culture
Schein’s model distinguishes artifacts, espoused values, and underlying
assumptions (Schein, 2010).
Artifacts during the program included cross-company war rooms, data dashboards,
and accelerated decision forums, visible structures that signaled urgency and
collaboration.
Espoused values, patient focus, doing the right thing, following the science, were
invoked to justify the not-for-profit stance and broad tech transfer.
The underlying assumptions appear to include a belief that societal contribution is
non-negotiable and that partnerships are a force multiplier (WHO, 2021; Oxford
University, 2020). The alignment between values and actions was largely coherent,
which likely sustained morale and partner goodwill.
Where tensions arose (e.g., when new safety information required rapid policy
shifts), culture had to flex from assertive advocacy to humble listening and
transparent updating, an important learning for future controversies.

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Culturally, AZ’s openness to external collaboration was a strategic amplifier. Co-
development among institutions experimented with prevailing “not invented here”
attitudes and required permeable boundaries for knowledge flow. Internally, the
requirement was for psychological safety such that the scientists as well as the
operators would raise issues early on and challenge assumptions. Capability to
“speak up” in the presence of negative signals or data deficiencies is typical for high
reliability culture. Embedding such norms, shielding them away from political heat, is
an imperative for sustaining performance.

Figure 2: Schein organizational culture iceberg model diagram

Human Relations issues

Through the COVID-19 vaccine program, the following human relations issues
transpired for AstraZeneca, impacting the performance and wellbeing directly of the
employees. This gigantic working pace and sky-high expectations of the masses
came with pressure on all organizational levels. Key issues included:
 Employee Fatigue and Stress: Long working hours and ongoing deadlines
caused employees to be exhausted, lowering overall employee resilience
(Mayo, 1949; Herzberg, 1959). In the most recent Deloitte survey (2023), over
60% of biopharma leaders believe the most pressing issue since the
pandemic is the burnout among the working force, indicating how crucial
AstraZeneca's employee wellness initiatives are.
 Work-Life Imbalance: The pressing pressures of the program did not provide
much time to rest or have family, as personal and professional boundaries
were not clearly delimited.
 Role Conflict and Strain: Employees were faced with the conflict of the
expectations of regulators, governments, and internal management and were
subjected to role strain (Burnes, 2017).

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  Anxiety and Psychological Pressure: 24-Hour Media attention and
discussion of the safety of the vaccine increased anxiety and brought about
ambiguity.
 Moral Responsibility Burden: Staff were burdened with a great burden of
emotions as they were aware that whatever they did and how they tried to do
so directly affected people all over the world.
 Cross-Cultural Challenges: Cooperation with foreign partners (e.g., India,
Brazil, Europe, and Asia) brought on a cultural difference that made
communication and collaboration difficult (Hofstede, 2001).
 Voice and Psychological Safety: This problem applies to the fact that with
the highly politicalized atmosphere, some employees felt that they could not
voice their issues freely, even though they attempted to voice it openly (Kahn,
1990).
Despite the resilience and dedication demonstrated by the employees of
AstraZeneca during the crisis, these human relations challenges also revealed the
need for better support mechanisms, better stress management procedures, and
better employee well-being maintenance strategies for working conditions that are
highly stress-prone.
7. Strategy’s Role in Challenge:
The corporate strategy of AstraZeneca had a substantial impact on the manner in
which the challenge of providing a vaccine to counter COVID-19 was handled. Its
history of focusing on R&D excellence, growth through alliances, and the ability to
serve patients gave it a base of swift and well-coordinated response in the
pandemic.
 Partnership Model as a Strategic Enabler
AstraZeneca's pre-crisis strategy had collaboration as its key aspect, and this
had a direct effect on the vaccine program management. The resulting
direction toward formations of alliances allowed the company to collaborate
with the University of Oxford, mass-produce doses with the help of global
contract manufacturers, and deliver them to people through international
projects like COVAX. Without such an incorporated culture of partnership, the
high rate of global rollout would not have been possible.
 Ethical and Patient-Centric Strategy
The company values of AstraZeneca influenced the choice to provide the
vaccine at no-profit prices to support the acute stage of the pandemic, such
as following the science and doing the right thing. This moral position has
conditioned the handling of the dilemma by gaining the cooperation of
governments, regulators, and NGOs, in addition to inspiring the employees by
strengthening a sense of social purpose. The moral aspect of strategy was
therefore playing the role of a stabilizer in a very uncertain and politicized
environment.
 Operational Discipline and Scientific Focus
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 This strategy of the company to concentrate on a few areas of therapy with
profound scientific potential was converted into operating strengths in the
crisis. The previous investments in biologics platforms, global tech transfers,
and regulatory skills at AstraZeneca enabled the company to conduct large-
scale trials, coordinate supply on many continents, and maintain quality
standards in an environment of dire time constraints.
 Strategic Reputation and Access Commitments
Reputation in AstraZeneca was built on access commitments and science-
based innovation principles, which influenced the management of the crisis
through the establishment of trust among external stakeholders as well as
internal stakeholders. This led to accelerated engagement by AstraZeneca in
coordinating with governments along with multilateral institutions due to its
approach already targeting global equity in health. This established access to
cooperation along with an expanded program on vaccines.
AstraZeneca’s Strategy Impacted Management of the COVID-19 Challenge

Strategic Approach Before the Effect on Handling the Crisis

Element Crisis
Partnership Built strong ties with Made it possible to quickly work
Orientation universities, biotech firms, with Oxford, share technology
and contract globally, and set up distributed
manufacturers vaccine production
Ethical & Clear commitment to Shaped the decision to use not-
Patient- fairness and public health for-profit pricing, earned the trust
Focused Values of governments and NGOs, and
inspired the workforce
Operational Consistent investment in Allowed for rapid clinical trials,
Discipline R&D platforms, biologics, smooth technology transfer, and
and regulatory know-how reliable quality control under
pressure
Reputation & History of scientific Drew support from stakeholders
Access credibility and affordable and opened doors to global
Promises healthcare programs initiatives such as COVAX

8. Challenge’s Impact on Strategy:

Vaccine program for COVID-19 not only tested the then-dominant approach for
AstraZeneca but also remapped its future. Its science-informed cooperation strategy
was beneficial for managing the emergency but was found to have shortcomings in
the supply governance, communication, and workforce sustainability areas. Based
on this, the approach for AstraZeneca has evolved in numerous key ways:
 Enhancing the Supply Chain Resilience.
Pre-pandemic supply strategy for AstraZeneca put global efficiency over
resilience. Vulnerabilities emerged during the vaccines program when the
supply was disrupted by political contrasts (e.g., EU-UK distributional strains).
In its strategy, AstraZeneca offset by including scenario thinking and supply
14
 diversification with digitally traceable remedies (Christopher, 2016). This
correction points to the evolution that shifted supply chain management to the
strategic center as opposed to an operational concern.
 Increasing Transparency and Pharmacovigilance.
Shortcomings in communication also epitomized the crisis itself, especially
where efficacy information as well as uncommon safety occurrences are
involved. Subsequent to this, the strategy by AstraZeneca has become
increasingly directed toward communicating enhanced openness,
communicating information near in real-time, as well as the principles of open
science to clinicians as well as regulators. This is an admission that credibility
as well as the trust among stakeholders are no less strategic as scientific
innovation.
 Workforce and People Sustainability
Radical stipulations for the vaccine rollout caused burnout among employees
and stress. This has led AstraZeneca to place well-being, resilience training,
and cross-functional learning systems into its organizational strategy and HR.
People sustainability: previously viewed as a support activity, people
sustainability is now a strategic priority that sustains high-tempo operations of
science.
 Strategic Positioning and Social License
Pricing the vaccine at cost in the crisis had strengthened the reputation of
AstraZeneca on ethics and social responsibility. Although it caused financial
pressure and criticism among the investors, the experience consolidated the
long-term status of AstraZeneca as a socially responsible innovator. This is
the strategic differentiation on which its involvement in global health equity
and policy discussions is now based, and this introduces a reputational
competitive edge to an industry.
Impact of the Challenge on AstraZeneca’s Strategy

Strategic Dimension Before COVID-19 After COVID-19

Supply Chain Global scale, Diversified, resilient, scenario-
efficiency focus based risk governance
Transparency & Standard Real-time communication, open
Pharmacovigilance regulatory science, stronger stakeholder
processes engagement

Workforce Traditional HR Well-being, resilience, and

Sustainability practices continuous learning embedded in
strategy

Strategic Positioning Focused on Broadened to include access,

oncology and equity, and public health
specialty areas commitments

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9. Recommendations:
1) Institutionalize excellence in crisis communications.
Develop an enterprise-scale playbook for science-under-uncertainty
communications. Components are
(i) A permanent cross-functional "guiding coalition" (medical, PV, regulatory,
legal, policy, public affairs)
(ii) Templated, clear-language benefit-risk stories with fast localization
(iii) Social-listening with fast rebuttal procedures
(iv) Assigned scientific spokespeople trained for media.

Metrics for success: trust surveys, misinformation response intervals, and affiliate
confidence. (Kotter, 1996; Lewin, 1947)
2) Harden supply chain risk management
Envision a multi-tiered risk model for external manufacturing partners to address
capacity, quality maturity, and geopolitical exposure (Bown, 2021). Integrate scenario
planning for export restrictions and batch-release bottlenecks, negotiate pre-agreed
mutual-aid clauses for surge manufacturing, and invest in digital traceability to gain
end-to-end visibility (AstraZeneca, 2025). So, recent studies say that being able to
track things digitally and planning for different situations are now super important for
keeping the medicine supply chain strong, especially after the pandemic (Lopez et
al., 2023). Regularly perform stress tests and combined simulations with regulators
to discover systemic risks early.
3) Enhance people's sustainability and learning.
Institutionalize high-speed work protections: fatigue-risk control, fair staffing (Schein,
2010) for surge projects, and decompression procedures after the fact. Expand
leadership micro-skills for ambiguity (sense-making, framing, humility). Establish a
"learning ops" skeleton: documented after-action reviews, communities of practice
(Kay, 1993) between internal and partner sites, and simulation-based training for
management of rare events.
4) Develop a next-steps access strategy outside the crisis
Translate promises of pandemic equity to long-term competitive advantage: next-
generation market commitments for key therapeutics, tiered price regimes with
transparent cost models WHO (2021–2022), and co development with local science
hubs to localize value creation with quality sustained.
10. Conclusion:
Vaccine program for AstraZeneca demonstrates how values-led strategy,
transformational leadership, and collaborative culture can revitalize an international
organization to perform at pace on an unfamiliar social problem (AstraZeneca,
2024). In its VRIO positive bundle, its deep science, its partner architecture, and its
disciplined operations all delivered fast development and record scale up in the face
16
of severe constraints. But the journey also revealed its weaknesses in narrative
control, geopolitical risk, and people stress (Guardian, 2025; Economist, 2025).
Mobilizing on extremely rare safety indicators with public confidence required
humility and openness as well as scientific confidence (Franchini et al., 2021; EMA,
2021; TIME, 2021).
Mutual impact analysis identifies strategy shaped the response and the response
defined strategy, particularly supply chain resilience, pharmacovigilance
communications, and workforce sustainability (Christopher, 2016; WHO, 2020).
Through the implementation of the recommendations found herein, institutionalizing
the lesson will be eased, allowing for ethical advantage and organizational flexibility.
In the science led multinational where innovation and reputation are the competition,
converting crisis improvisations to repeatable capabilities is the most surefire
pathway to sustained performance and social impact.

17
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12. Appendix:
Appendix A: Timeline of AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Programme (2020–
2022)

Date Event
April 2020 AstraZeneca–Oxford University partnership announced
July–Nov Phase III trials and pooled efficacy analysis
2020
Dec 2020 UK grants first emergency approval
Early 2021 EMA and WHO authorisations; large-scale global rollout begins
Mid 2021 Safety concerns raised (rare clotting events); age restrictions
set
2022 Transition from non-profit pricing to modest profit in select
markets

Appendix B: VRIO Analysis of AstraZeneca’s Key Capabilities

Capability/Resource Valuable Rare Inimitable Organized Competitive

Implication
Advanced R&D yes yes yes yes Sustained
Platforms advantage
Global Tech-Transfer yes yes Partial yes Temporary to
Capability sustained
edge
Partnership Network yes yes yes Mixed Strong but
(Oxford, COVAX, politically
manufacturers) exposed
Patient-Centric Culture yes yes yes yes Sustained
& Ethics strategic
strength

Appendix C: Kay’s Distinctive Capabilities

Capability AstraZeneca Example Strategic Value

Type
Architecture Deep ties with Oxford University, Enabled rapid co-
global partners development and scale-up
Reputation Non-profit vaccine pricing, science Enhanced trust, though
credibility safety issues tested
Innovation Biologics, antibody-drug Reinforced long-term R&D
conjugates, fast tech transfer leadership

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Appendix D: Change Management Models in AZ’s Response

Model Key Features Applied at AZ Observed

Gaps/Challenges
Lewin’s 3-Step “Unfreeze” with urgency Refreezing incomplete;
(pandemic), “Change” via rapid communication gaps
trials, “Refreeze” in supply
routines
Kotter’s 8-Step Clear vision, coalition building, Inconsistent crisis
empowerment of teams communication, lack of
unified narrative
Transformational Visionary framing, cross- Needed stronger
Leadership functional problem solving, consistency in external
morale boosting messaging

Appendix E: Illustrative Global Supply Network

Region Manufacturing/Distribution Notes on Role

Partners
UK & EU Oxford Biomedica, Catalent, Early approvals, faced EU–UK
others allocation tensions
India Serum Institute of India Largest global supplier,
especially for LMICs
Latin Fiocruz (Brazil), mAbxience Regional production for
America (Argentina) equitable access
Asia- CSL (Australia), Daiichi Sankyo Localised tech transfer, regional
Pacific (Japan) supply

Figure 3: AstraZeneca COVID vaccine manufacturing world map UK India Brazil Japan etc.

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