Executive Summary: Monsanto Company
Strategic Management Issues
Over the past 20 years, Monsanto has grown and shifted focus from high-volume, commodity chemical products to becoming one of the world's leading producers of agricultural products. The firm has also developed a strong foothold in the human life sciences industry. This shift in business strategy has been the result of the culmination of many efforts to transform Monsanto into a global life sciences company. As a result of this transformation, the company has positioned itself as a dominant player in the agricultural products industry with hopes of continuing to grow its product portfolio within the pharmaceutical arena. In both areas, the company has ambitious long-term goals.
The process that Monsanto has undergone to become a life sciences company has proved to be very challenging. In the early stages, for instance, analysts questioned if Monsanto understood the difficulties in bringing new products onto the market.
Jeremy Rifkin, Foto: Stephan Röhl
Painter of the burial chamber of Sennedjem
MONSANTO CHEMICAL COMPANY SMOKESTACKS SEEN FROM TH...Although the company has made significant advances in its respective industries, it has been left with a very heavy debt load. This has a direct impact on the company's high debt-to-equity ratio. As a result of Monsanto's large debt service, we are concerned that the company will not have access to the financial resources it will need to exploit and maximize its various pipelines.
Mission and Goals
Monsanto's mission over the last two decades has been to transform the company into a global life sciences company. In doing this, it has been critical that the company take into consideration the claims of key stakeholders. For most companies, the main stakeholder groups include customers, employees, and stockholders. For Monsanto, there are many different stakeholders groups that all may have different claims in the company. These groups include employees and scientists, farmers and doctors, environmental groups, government organizations and elected...