novo nordisk 2009 Annual Report Healthcare Denmark 5 Maintenance Background: Novo Nordisk is a healthcare company and a world leader in diabetes care. In addition, they hold a leading position in areas such as haemostasis management, growth hormone therapy and hormone replacement therapy. Essentially, Novo Nordisk manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and services that make a significant difference to patients, the medical profession and society. Committed to a triple bottom line focus, developing their business towards ecological, social and economic sustainability, the Novo Nordisk vision paints a picture of what they want to achieve as a company – their place in the market and their goals in relation to patients, society and employees. 34 The integrated journey Novo Nordisk A/S Annual Report 2009 Financial, social and environmental performance Creating value through innovation content review: Reporting in their stated ‘triple bottom line’ manner allows Novo Nordisk to refer to both financial and non-financial aspects of their performance throughout the report, beginning in the management statements and backed up with summary information and data of performance highlights from the year. The management statements provide a solid platform for setting the tone of the report; providing the reader with an overview of the company’s performance, new initiatives, as well as their core company values. These values are then discussed in further detail within the ‘How we work’ section where the main group strategic discussion is held. This strategic discussion is presented rather far on in the report, which perhaps takes away from the important messages it tries to convey, such as highlighting the vision and values and how the triple bottom line of performance management drives all the decision-making within the business. Additionally, the issues reported on directly following the Novo Nordisk Way of Management include: their impact on society; stakeholder engagement; employees; and environmental responsibility. Although the presentation of these areas of the business is commendable, due to the positioning in the report, the issues come across almost as part of a sustainability strategy instead of being core to the group strategy and activities. Summary Novo Nordisk have certainly made a significant effort to present an integrated report according to their triple bottom line beliefs, and have done so over a period of years. Overall, they have presented a combination of financial and non-financial information, although the company could further attempt to integrate and demonstrate the quantitative performance data results and targets of financial and non-financial issues.
