A Fortune 100 Pharmaceutical Reframes its Global Narrative after Years of Acquisitions
A Fortune 100 Pharmaceutical Reframes its Global Narrative after Years of Acquisitions
BLUEPRINT
BLUEPRINT
A Fortune 100 Pharmaceutical Reframes its Global Narrative after Years of Acquisitions
BLUEPRINT
01 CHALLENGE
After a torrid three-year acquisition spree, the CEO, board members, and executive leaders of a global pharmaceutical company turned their attention to a harder question: what did they now have, and how exposed were they? The company was larger, more complex, and operating across a significantly wider set of geographies and business lines than it had been just three years earlier. And the security function that existed before the acquisitions had not been built or modified to support the company that now existed. The board chairman put it plainly: "We are a more complex, diversified company today. And we have a lot of strategic security issues here we need to address in a much more globally integrated way." He ticked off the priorities on his fingers. “Supply chain integrity. Product diversion and counterfeiting. Workplace violence prevention. Threat assessment. Executive protection.” The list went on.
After a torrid three-year acquisition spree, the CEO, board members, and executive leaders of a global pharmaceutical company turned their attention to a harder question: what did they now have, and how exposed were they? The company was larger, more complex, and operating across a significantly wider set of geographies and business lines than it had been just three years earlier. And the security function that existed before the acquisitions had not been built or modified to support the company that now existed. The board chairman put it plainly: "We are a more complex, diversified company today. And we have a lot of strategic security issues here we need to address in a much more globally integrated way." He ticked off the priorities on his fingers. “Supply chain integrity. Product diversion and counterfeiting. Workplace violence prevention. Threat assessment. Executive protection.” The list went on.
02 ADVISORY
First, security experts from Hillard Heintze — the national security and risk management advisory firm where Stephen served as Chief Communications Officer — conducted independent risk, threat, and vulnerability assessments across the enterprise's four most critical facilities — fieldwork that identified the company's greatest exposures. Next, Stephen took those findings and built the strategic architecture around them, designing a three-year global security strategy that translated technical findings into a direction the organization's leadership could own and execute. The strategy defined the security function's mission, objectives, and operating principles — establishing a clear framework for how the company would manage risk across its newly expanded global footprint.
First, security experts from Hillard Heintze — the national security and risk management advisory firm where Stephen served as Chief Communications Officer — conducted independent risk, threat, and vulnerability assessments across the enterprise's four most critical facilities — fieldwork that identified the company's greatest exposures. Next, Stephen took those findings and built the strategic architecture around them, designing a three-year global security strategy that translated technical findings into a direction the organization's leadership could own and execute. The strategy defined the security function's mission, objectives, and operating principles — establishing a clear framework for how the company would manage risk across its newly expanded global footprint.
03 OUTCOME
The client was pleased with the security strategy blueprint. “Feels like we wrote this ourselves,” the CEO said. Several years later, the company was still using the framework to drive its evolving security strategy. The framework became the foundation for subsequent engagements. Stephen developed six security strategy blueprints in total, each built on the same architecture, adapting them for client in pharmaceuticals, consumer products, entertainment, and transportation. Hillard Heintze placed IP controls around it, establishing it as a proprietary asset. When the firm was acquired in 2019, the framework was among the intellectual property that contributed to its valuation.