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先卖烟再卖药,全球最大烟草公司收购药商

先卖烟再卖药,全球最大烟草公司收购药商

Darrin Dunber-Smith 2021-07-22
菲利普-莫里斯国际公司收购药企Vectura Group,让人回想起日用消费品巨头联合利华在2000年收购冰淇淋制造商Ben & Jerry's公司。

图片来源:UTE GRABOWSKY—PHOTOTHEK VIA GETTY IMAGES

今年7月的早些时候,菲利普-莫里斯国际公司(Philip Morris International)宣布将收购Vectura Group,后者是一家开发可吸入药物的制药商,其产品包括治疗哮喘的药物。这家烟草巨头声称,此举将助力该公司进入吸入式治疗领域。

鉴于菲利普-莫里斯国际公司在全球销售烟草产品的悠久历史,这样一桩收购交易可能会引人侧目。但对美国企业界来说,这并不算特别出格。几十年来,不少大企业一直利用收购来提升自己的公众声誉。

我尤为关注的研究主题是,美国企业是如何利用收购来提升其环保形象的。一些寻求“绿色化”的企业试图通过收购一家更注重环保行为的公司来促进这一进程。但是,一个组织仅仅通过收购另一个更环保的组织就能够变得更环保吗?

简单来说,不能。企业领导者不应该将可持续发展努力仅仅看作是对政治风向的迎合,而应该看作是实施一种可取的、旨在获得全面成功的商业模式。执行这一模式的关键是设定具体的、可衡量且可实现的目标,以便在多个领域不断改进,并记录你的进展。在这个过程中,收购可以发挥作用,但并非必须这样做才行。

在许多情况下,收购都是一个行业生命周期中非常健康的组成部分。当所有主要参与者的收入随着企业的成熟而开始趋于平缓时,就会出现整合。企业有各种很好的理由来收购其他企业,包括学习和采用具有变革意义的最佳实践——比如那些涉及可持续发展的好做法。

收购一家拥有更环保的商业实践、供应链和产品的公司,似乎是阻力最小的途径。但收购只是一个开始。接下来,收购方必须充分整合被收购方的可持续发展实践。企业不一定非要通过收购来实施可持续发展审计和规划;但这能够是一个很好的开始。

一旦成功收购某家以环保著称的公司,企业领导者往往依赖其品牌来提升收购方的环保形象。他们经常为这样一桩貌似“高尚”的交易而兴奋不已,但这种情绪有时候会掩盖真正需要做的工作,即有意义地整合和扩大可持续发展实践。如果不做这些工作,企业就经常会招致“漂绿”(Greenwashing)指责。

在许多情况下,收购方和被收购方的企业文化迥然不同,这往往会加剧两家公司的融合难度。这个问题不仅仅局限于企业内部,还体现在消费者对新合并品牌的看法上。2006年被欧莱雅集团(L’Oréal)收购后,Body Shop品牌的美誉不再。同样,数十年前被日用消费品巨头联合利华(Unilever)招致麾下后,冰淇淋品牌Ben & Jerry's也遇到了同样的问题。现在,随着Ben & Jerry's决定停止在以色列占领的领土上销售冰淇淋,两大品牌的分歧再次爆发。此外,由于始终难以消化Plum Organics,金宝汤公司(Campbell’s)在今年的早些时候被迫将这家获得环保认证的婴儿有机食品制造商出售给了Sun-Maid公司。

不过话说回来,有些合并最终取得了最佳效果。高露洁(Colgate)在2000年代中期对天然产品先驱Tom 's of Maine的并购,就是一个成功案例。更令人称道的是,高乐氏(Clorox)成功地整合了另一家天然产品先驱——Burt’s Bees。经历了初期的波折之后,这桩美好的联姻很快就促成了高乐氏Green Works系列产品的转型,同时还造就了一个更强大的Burt’s Bees品牌。

如果想在并购后成功整合,收购方就需要切实采用最初吸引它的环保实践,勤勉地实施可持续发展审计和规划,并清晰地营销和传播公司的具体举措。唯有如此,大公司才可以真正走上绿色发展之路。(财富中文网)

本文作者达林•杜伯-史密斯从2000年到2016年担任Green Marketing Inc.公司的总裁;2003年至今任教于丹佛大都会州立大学(Metropolitan State University of Denver),担任高级讲师。

译者:任文科

今年7月的早些时候,菲利普-莫里斯国际公司(Philip Morris International)宣布将收购Vectura Group,后者是一家开发可吸入药物的制药商,其产品包括治疗哮喘的药物。这家烟草巨头声称,此举将助力该公司进入吸入式治疗领域。

鉴于菲利普-莫里斯国际公司在全球销售烟草产品的悠久历史,这样一桩收购交易可能会引人侧目。但对美国企业界来说,这并不算特别出格。几十年来,不少大企业一直利用收购来提升自己的公众声誉。

我尤为关注的研究主题是,美国企业是如何利用收购来提升其环保形象的。一些寻求“绿色化”的企业试图通过收购一家更注重环保行为的公司来促进这一进程。但是,一个组织仅仅通过收购另一个更环保的组织就能够变得更环保吗?

简单来说,不能。企业领导者不应该将可持续发展努力仅仅看作是对政治风向的迎合,而应该看作是实施一种可取的、旨在获得全面成功的商业模式。执行这一模式的关键是设定具体的、可衡量且可实现的目标,以便在多个领域不断改进,并记录你的进展。在这个过程中,收购可以发挥作用,但并非必须这样做才行。

在许多情况下,收购都是一个行业生命周期中非常健康的组成部分。当所有主要参与者的收入随着企业的成熟而开始趋于平缓时,就会出现整合。企业有各种很好的理由来收购其他企业,包括学习和采用具有变革意义的最佳实践——比如那些涉及可持续发展的好做法。

收购一家拥有更环保的商业实践、供应链和产品的公司,似乎是阻力最小的途径。但收购只是一个开始。接下来,收购方必须充分整合被收购方的可持续发展实践。企业不一定非要通过收购来实施可持续发展审计和规划;但这能够是一个很好的开始。

一旦成功收购某家以环保著称的公司,企业领导者往往依赖其品牌来提升收购方的环保形象。他们经常为这样一桩貌似“高尚”的交易而兴奋不已,但这种情绪有时候会掩盖真正需要做的工作,即有意义地整合和扩大可持续发展实践。如果不做这些工作,企业就经常会招致“漂绿”(Greenwashing)指责。

在许多情况下,收购方和被收购方的企业文化迥然不同,这往往会加剧两家公司的融合难度。这个问题不仅仅局限于企业内部,还体现在消费者对新合并品牌的看法上。2006年被欧莱雅集团(L’Oréal)收购后,Body Shop品牌的美誉不再。同样,数十年前被日用消费品巨头联合利华(Unilever)招致麾下后,冰淇淋品牌Ben & Jerry's也遇到了同样的问题。现在,随着Ben & Jerry's决定停止在以色列占领的领土上销售冰淇淋,两大品牌的分歧再次爆发。此外,由于始终难以消化Plum Organics,金宝汤公司(Campbell’s)在今年的早些时候被迫将这家获得环保认证的婴儿有机食品制造商出售给了Sun-Maid公司。

不过话说回来,有些合并最终取得了最佳效果。高露洁(Colgate)在2000年代中期对天然产品先驱Tom 's of Maine的并购,就是一个成功案例。更令人称道的是,高乐氏(Clorox)成功地整合了另一家天然产品先驱——Burt’s Bees。经历了初期的波折之后,这桩美好的联姻很快就促成了高乐氏Green Works系列产品的转型,同时还造就了一个更强大的Burt’s Bees品牌。

如果想在并购后成功整合,收购方就需要切实采用最初吸引它的环保实践,勤勉地实施可持续发展审计和规划,并清晰地营销和传播公司的具体举措。唯有如此,大公司才可以真正走上绿色发展之路。(财富中文网)

本文作者达林•杜伯-史密斯从2000年到2016年担任Green Marketing Inc.公司的总裁;2003年至今任教于丹佛大都会州立大学(Metropolitan State University of Denver),担任高级讲师。

译者:任文科

Philip Morris International (PMI) earlier July announced it would be acquiring Vectura Group, a pharmaceutical company that develops inhalable medicines, including those for asthma patients. PMI claims that it is doing so to help enter the inhaled therapeutics space.

Such an acquisition may raise eyebrows, given PMI’s long history selling tobacco products globally. But it’s not out of character for corporate America. For decades, companies have used acquisitions to burnish their public reputations.

My research has particularly focused on how they have done so in the green space. Some companies who want to “go green” attempt to catalyze the process by acquiring a company more focused on environmentally friendly behavior. But does an organization become green simply by acquiring a greener organization?

The short answer is no. Corporate leaders should not view sustainability efforts merely as appealing to the political zeitgeist, but rather as implementing a desirable business model that leads to overall success. The key to executing that model is to set specific, measurable, and achievable objectives for continuous improvement across multiple areas over time and document your progress. Acquisitions can play a role in that process, but they don’t need to.

In many cases, acquisitions are a healthy part of an industry’s life cycle. When revenues begin to flatten for all the major players as they mature, consolidation happens. Businesses acquire other businesses for a variety of good reasons, including learning and adopting transformational best practices, like those involved in sustainability.

It does seem like a path of least resistance to acquire a company with greener business practices, supply chains, and products. But acquisition is just the beginning. The acquiring organization must then integrate the transformative sustainability practices of the organization it acquires. Companies don’t necessarily have to make acquisitions to engage in sustainability auditing and planning; however, it can be a great way to get started.

Once the green company is acquired, business leaders often rely on its brand to make the acquiring company look greener. Their excitement over how virtuous their purchase appears sometimes obscures the real work of meaningfully incorporating and scaling up sustainability practices. This often leads to accusations of greenwashing.

This melding process is often exacerbated by the fact that in many cases, the cultures of the two companies are very different. This is a problem not just internally, but in consumers’ perceptions of the newly combined brand. Body Shop’s reputation suffered after L’Oréal bought the company in 2006. Ben & Jerry’s had the same issue when it was purchased by Unilever decades ago, and the discordance between those two brands is now flaring up again over the ice cream brand’s decision to stop selling out of Israeli-occupied territories. Campbell’s had trouble digesting Plum Organics (a green B Corporation), as evidenced by Plum being sold to Sun-Maid earlier this year.

Then again, sometimes these mergers work out for the best. Colgate successfully incorporated natural pioneer Tom’s of Maine in the mid-2000s. Even more notable was Clorox’s successful integration of another natural products trailblazer, Burt’s Bees. After an initial backlash, this beautiful marriage quickly led to the category-transforming Clorox Green Works line, as well as a much more robust Burt’s Bees brand.

Successful post-merger integration requires adopting the transformational green practices the acquirer found attractive in the first place, diligent sustainability auditing and planning, and clear marketing and communication about what the company is specifically doing. Only then can the larger company really green up.

Darrin Duber-Smith was president of Green Marketing Inc. from 2000 to 2016 and has been a senior lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2003.

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