International Strategic Management
Strategic management report This is an individual assignment. It should be a concise report of a strategic analysis of your seminar organisation with recommendations for future action. Guidance for assignment structure and format will be provided at the first seminar and time for discussion will also be provided during seminars. The word limit for the assignment is 3000 words This word limit excludes the use of tables/charts, references and appendices. Students should indicate the number of words on the front page of their assignment.

Attention：i wrote 1000 words，you need to continue to write 2000 words，so when you finish send to me essay should be 3000 words

Introduction
AstraZeneca pharmaceutical is a rapidly leading growing company that has branches in several countries. This company was formed on 6 April 1999 through the merger of Astra AB of Sweden and Zeneca Group PLC of the UK – two companies with similar science-based cultures and a shared vision of the pharmaceutical industry. It is having Approximately 61500 Employees worldwide operating in more than 100 countries. It is a company fully focused on single purpose, to enable the people life altering condition to live better lives. major disease areas including cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation. In 2015 it was the eighth largest drug company in the world based on sales revenue.

External Analysis
The PEST analysis examines changes in the marketplace caused by Political, Economic, Social, Technological factors. Political is political change whether it be through the European Union or the UK, from one party to another in control. Economic influences are the level of interest rates and the level of inflation. Social change involves changing attitudes and lifestyles. Technological change creates opportunities to invest in new products cutting costs.
Political factors
The government can have a major influence on the eating out industry, as all laws are passed through parliament. The types of laws that can affect the eating out industry are, tariffs on imports, a possible raise in value added tax and new health and safety laws, and also there is the possible introduction of laws from the European Union. So government regulations and legal issues have a direct impact on the way AstraZeneca operates.
In result of growing awareness of the environmental consequences, U.K Government is planning actions to ensure aviation reflects its environmental impacts. Proposals are emerging for a tax on aviation, fuel, and VAT on air tickets. Government’s taxation policies and decision about the increase in the petrol prices have affected the buying power of the individuals in U.K.
All of the above can cause a rise in costs so prices may rise in order to pass the costs onto the consumer.
Economic factors
Economic factors also affect AstraZeneca nationally and globally. Whether an Economy is in a boom, recession or recovery will also affect consumer confidence and behavior.
Economic factors have affected the purchasing power of potential customers, and the state of the internal/external economy in the short and long-term. Thus, the company needs to consider:
Economic growth
Interest rates
Inflation rate
Budget allocation
The level of inflation
Employment level
Interest rates are the lowest they have been for forty years and this affects the rate of consumer spending on goods and services. The rate of interest affects the economy through its influence on aggregate demand, the higher the rate of interest, the lower the rate of aggregate demand. A fall in interest rates usually means that assets rise in value; this means that consumers become wealthier.
Social factors
Social factors will include the demographic changes, trends in the way people live, work and think and cultural aspects of the macro environment. These factors affect customer needs and the size of potential market:
Population growth rate
Age distribution
Internal/external emphasis on safety
Internal/external attitudes to change
Technological factors
The complexities of achieving business success through increased efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness, combined with innovative applications of modern technology, has heightened the awareness of both technology and business managers towards more strategically oriented approaches for planning and management of AstraZeneca.

Industry analysis
Industry analysis—also known as Porter’s Five Forces Analysis—is a very useful tool for business strategists. It is based on the observation that profit margins vary between industries, which can be explained by the structure of an industry.
The Five Forces primary purpose is to determine the attractiveness of an industry. However, the analysis also provides a starting point for formulating strategy and understanding the competitive landscape in which a company operates. AstraZeneca’s Porter’s five forces can be show in Finger 1.
Finger 1 Porter five force of AstraZeneca

Because of the Capital requirement, talents, patent, innovation research, the Customers loyalty to the brands and the access to distribution. The new entrants are low. At the supplier part the bio-pharmaceutical industry, supply chain is becoming more complex and globally dispersed, most companies have their own research labs. So, the supplier power is lows. Drugs as a special commodity, with a strong professional, health care products or medical devices is hard to replaced so the substitutes are low. In buyer’s part, there are many alternatives for customers and pharmaceutical industry is quite competitive Especially in neuroscience and respiratory areas, there are lots of competitor in the market, But the company’s core products still exist in the majority of buyers’ market，so the buyers is medium. The competitive rivalry is high, the major pharmaceutical companies compete fiercely, with several drug formulations open, in some areas gradually lost its dominant position.
To conclude the industry analysis the pharmaceutical industry is Stable, from the future aspects of the pharmaceutical companies still have a good prospect.

The opportunities and threats for the AstraZeneca
Opportunities 1. It can leverage its strong presence in emerging markets
2. Increasing importance of biosimilar market
3. Increasing global ageing population
Threats 1. Seroquel their blockbuster drug is facing threat of copycat generic drugs
2. Stringent drug development guidelines
3. Competition coming up with effective drugs

In conclusion, in the world the Global pharmaceutical sales grew by 9.5% in 2015 and the Patient populations are still expanding and ageing. According the medicine report the Non-communicable diseases kill 38 million people each year around the world, so the company still have the huge potential market, in addition the company in some specific medical field still have obvious advantages, such as Cardiovascular drug（Brilinta）the small molecule drug and biology agents, these is the opportunities for the AstraZeneca. But the company till facing some threats. In pharmaceutical industry, the sector remains highly competitive, the AstraZeneca in the world list ranked eighth. The costs of developing a new medicine continue to rise Priority Reviews and Breakthrough Therapies are becoming more prevalent. Pricing and reimbursement continue to be challenging and patents are expiring on some of the biggest-selling drugs ever produced. It is all influence the company’s future development.