CORPORATE-STRATEGY - PREPARING FOR THE 21ST-CENTURY

OVERVIEW: Companies confront increasing demands for efficiency, qualif y, flexibility and innovativeness. In order to identify the basic qual ities necessary to effectively meet these demands, the organizational and managerial features of the main European R&D laboratories of 14 la rge and innovative pharmaceutical companies were benchmarked Ir is con cluded that high-performance laboratories ave distinguished from their low-performance competitors by the way they integrate motivation, com munication and flexibility in their organizations. Based on the featur es of the ''best of the best,'' a star-rating system is introduced, in dicating the qualities that will enable R&D laboratories to excel in t he 21st Century.