A pharmaceutical incumbent’s resource reinvention for crisis resilience

Malte Langeloh (Student)

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

Consistent and continuous shocks across the world from pandemics to geoeconomic trade conflicts are posing existential challenges to even the most entrenched companies. The master’s thesis examines how a top pharmaceutical incumbent, MGJ Group, weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, India's abrupt API export prohibition, and nascent US-China trade conflict. It determines the strategic responses that MGJ Group used to maintain its market competitiveness through intense supply-chain interruptions and market turbulence. An extensive review of the literature synthesizes evidence from the Resource-Based View, the Dynamic Capabilities theory as updated by Barreto (2010), and recent crisis-management theory to underpin the theoretical context of the study. Based on semi-structured interviews with MGJ senior executives and industry experts and rich secondary material, the author builds a detailed case study of MGJ Group's crisis recovery. Adaptations involved the rapid spin-out of its European API manufacturing business to localize strategic inputs, deployment of a real-time digital control tower to establish end-to-end supply-chain transparency, the fast development of dual-sourcing agreements and extended safety stocks, and redeployment of its single-use plant modular capacity. On aggregate, these actions allowed MGJ Group to absorb shocks, capture nascent opportunities, and reconfigure its resource base with unparalleled speed. Findings highlight the critical importance of strategic adaptation - in tangible assets and routines of problem-solving - to maintaining enduring resilience. The thesis concludes with instructional notes that combine the review of literature and case information, enabling teachers to lead students through the MGJ Group case in courses in strategic management.