AstraZeneca Reviews

Pros

Great environment and people. Most are laid back but very diligent. Culture is friendly.

Cons

Slow promotion. Sometimes very political.

Advice to Senior Management

Great company. Keep it up.

Pros

Fantastic, life changing molecules to sell

Cons

No new drugs in development

Pros

Good pay and benefits, collaborative environment mostly

Cons

Current downsizing and entering into a period of negative growth

Advice to Senior Management

Work harder on the pipeline

Pros

Great place to start, lots of opportunity to move and learn within the company

Cons

Lots of turnover. Very disruptive

Pros

Employee are able to learn a lot in this pharmaceutical company, learn how the big pharma to do research and development, especially what is the high standard for quality.

Cons

Top leader dominate the opinion and not willing to hear the voice from employee or hear but not accept. Employee work hard but are not rewarded for their achievements.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen, listen and listen. Employee are the real assets for the company and should be cared as well as leaders.

Pros

Great products, friendly work place, work life balance

Cons

Low on diversity , unfair and political promotions , poor product pipeline

Advice to Senior Management

Give opportunity to non Europeans and non Americans, be honest in communication

Pros

Good mid-level management. Vastly improved in recent years (2009 onwards).

Cons

Headed at the very top by sales people who have a short-term vision and shareholder focus when it comes to R&D. Short-term vision can be quite detrimental in an industry where product development cycles are about a decade. The current management will be long gone by the time the real trouble manifests itself, which explains the incentive to 'create value' now, at the cost of future failure.

Advice to Senior Management

Good R&D is the life-blood of pharmaceutical development.

Pros

There are opportunities for working 1/2 day Fridays and for telecommuting, depending on what department you're in and what kind of manager you have. Good salaries, benefits, etc.

Cons

Work/life balance is a joke, jobs are often eliminated or "restructured" based on management's whim and their like/dislike for certain individuals. The most qualified candidates are typically not promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop micro-managing every little thing. Most of the mid-level employees can do their own jobs and yours (and better than you can) without someone looking over their shoulders 24/7.

Pros

You are working for a FTSE 10 international company during challenging time of evolution with highly professional and high calibre individuals

Cons

They are slow to promote and recognise contributions. Differing work life balance at each site with the London HQ fairing worse on both a work life balance and comparable salaries / bonus paid on a geographical basis. Highly political with various Kingdoms not working harmoniously

Advice to Senior Management

You need a clear and credible strategy to grow the business. Cost cutting will not solve the main problem which is that 40% of AZ's current turnover will be gone in the next couple of years due to patent expiry. You have a strong sales force and have a pipeline which is still a couple of years from delivering siginificant returns as well as excess manufacturing capacity. Demerge the manufacturing business to compete against the generic manufacturers and utilise the sales force you have by increasing the toolkit that they have to sell.

Pros

Salary, company car, 401K, benefits

Cons

management, large territory, constant teleconferences,

Advice to Senior Management

Don't hire DM's straight from corporate. They have no clue what it's like to carry a bag