Pros

Great career opportunities.
Portuguese Sanofi-Aventis is an interesting company to work. You´ll find there the best and the worsth, so you must be able to identify the structure and who cares about business. Find your right partners and maybe you will be happy .

Cons

Peter principle in many manging degrees.
Family company (relatives and home visits..)
Some key managers tend to see as a threat new ideas.
Family members and close friends are threatening to outsiders.

Advice to Senior Management

More focus in busines, stakeholders and company mission. Give some use the results of the assesments of managers, for start.
Identify the employees who bring value to the company, still many.

Pros

Fair salaries, good health benefit coverage-many plans to choose from, excellent work-life benefits, vacation policy, and 401 k plan, Overall, a well managed company.

Cons

If you worked for a small company before, you may be overwhelmed. It takes more time to get things approved and put into action in a larger company like Sanofi-Aventis

Advice to Senior Management

Typically, sales managers are promoted from the field sales force. The main requirement is usually "high sales achievements" , However, many high sales achievers do not know the first thing about managing a dynamic group of sales reps. Even after completing "manager training" courses, it still takes some time to develop good "employee management" skills. (Of course there are some that just don't seem to be able to effectively manage others even with extensive training.) During the interim period, a company could lose most of it's top sales reps reporting to the new sales manager. This translates to sales losses on two fronts. The new sales manager has lost top sales reps and the new manager is no longer directly contributing to sales because they have been promoted.

Pros

Sanofi has a great work life balance, however, in recent times micro management has become increasely common among Sanofi managers.

Cons

micro management by divisional managers. poor compensation relative to other companies. lack of direction with upcoming generics and patent cliff.

Advice to Senior Management

slim down the territories. hire internally for open positions. why train a new rep for a territory that has six months left on patent.

Pros

Great benefits, a few good products to sell, to get pharmaceutical experience, to see how Big Pharma works, to get a paycheck (albeit one on the low end of the pharma company pay spectrum)

Cons

Micromanagement of employees, constant poor corporate decision making resulting in an increasingly unstable company, no clear vision or path for employees (business plan/model changes virtually every quarter), corrupt management, bonus payout reports ridiculously late and often contain conspicuously "funny" math, little opportunity for advancement or growth compared to other companies, abusive managers, poor product pipeline, loss of credibility in the medical community, unethical practices, disregard for employee morale

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the bleeding, please.

Pros

None, the company ignores its workforce and only pays lip service to career opportunites, respect, recognition etc

Cons

no genuine recognition of effort

Advice to Senior Management

Get real, cut back on management tiers and understand whats happening at grass roots level...really understand motivations, drive etc. Stop internal politics driving good people from the company

Pros

Being able to get on with the job with relative freedom. Occasional travel.

Cons

Difficulties encountered with dealing with certain overseas working cultures.

Advice to Senior Management

Lead and make the company hierarchical rather than flat as it takes too long to get decisions made and actions taken.

Pros

The benefits package is excellent. Best vacation policy of any pharma in the US. Strong pipeline.

Cons

There is a spoken emphasis on work/life balance, but it doesn't translate into workload. As with any pharma company, the sales reps can be treated like children/micromanaged.

Advice to Senior Management

Trust your employees. Communicate the negative info about products as thoroughly as you communicate the positive. Arm us with all of the information and trust us to use it wisely and fairly.