The sophisticated blood transfusion processes that we know today are the result of a long and complicated journey of many centuries in which different scientists sought to overcome their inherent problems of blood compatibility, coagulation, conservation and others.
long-term-competitiveness-factors-grifolsThe Grifols business group has been committed since its inception - at the beginning of the 20th century - to the scientific and technological development of blood products, going through difficult historical processes that include the entire period of Francoism, the Second World War and subsequent economic crises until currently establish in one of the main international companies in this industry.
This work constitutes a systematic analysis of the factors that have contributed to the competitive success of this international holding company and which now seeks to expand its borders with new alternatives in the area of health.
1. Introduction
The Grifols Group, in its long journey of more than sixty years, has basically concentrated on activities related to blood transfusion.
Today, blood banks, donations, transfusions are very familiar, but all these activities contain complex processes and a long history of scientific evolution that it is necessary to go through, at least partially, in order to understand from a historical perspective, the beginnings and subsequent evolution of this Spanish business group whose origin we find at the beginning of the 20th century.
Although the history goes back to the time of Hippocrates in which the Greeks had developed "techniques" related to blood, we will review less distant events (Góngora-Biachi, 2005, p. 282).
One of the first accounts we find in the year 1492 in which Stefano Infessura tells that a certain doctor obtained blood from two children to orally administer to Pope Innocence VIII who was in a coma and that unfortunately ended with the death of the children and Pope himself.
For the year 1616, based on some theories of the time, William Harvey discovered the circulatory system of blood, an important milestone from the scientific point of view. In the later years of the 17th century, some successful experiments on blood transfusion in animals take place. However, human attempts continue to have fatal results in most cases.
In the year 1667 in France we found the first documented human blood transfusion, which was administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys. This fact was not the first of this personal doctor of King Louis XIV, but it brought about an anecdotal legal problem that led to a general ban across several countries in Europe and a silence of almost one hundred and fifty years.
In 1818, Dr. James Blundell (British) performed the first successful human blood transfusion for the treatment of postpartum hemorrhage, using blood from the patient's husband. This event allowed this scientist to invent many instruments for blood transfusion and made a fortune with the company.
In 1901, Australian Karl Landsteiner was finally able to explain some of the problems in the transfusion. He discovered that people had different blood types and that transfusions were not possible when they were different. In 1901 he described the ABO system and in 1940 the Rh system. (He received the 1930 Nobel Prize in Medicine).
Until before the 1910s, the first transfusions had to be done directly from the donor to the recipient before coagulation. In this decade it was discovered that by adding anticoagulant and cooling the blood it was possible to store for a few days, thus opening the way for blood banks.
In 1914 the first indirect transfusion was performed on March 27 by the Belgian doctor Albert Hustin. In the same year, Argentine physician Luis Agote used a much less dilute solution with great success.
In 1916, the first transfusion was carried out with blood stored and refrigerated by Oswald Hope Robertson, a medical investigator and officer in the US Army, who is credited with establishing the first blood bank while on duty in France. in the First World War.
This is the historical setting in which José Antonio Grifols Roig, studied medicine and obtained his degree in 1909, the same year in which he founded the Central Analysis Institute, the prelude to what in the future will be the Grifos company that will survive all the Francoism and the subsequent crises of the Spanish economy until today becoming one of the first in the world in this segment of the medical industry.
2. GRIFOLS Historical Evolution
José Antonio Grifols Roig (1885 - 1976), Spanish doctor (Catalonia - SPAIN) obtained his Bachelor of Medicine from the University of Barcelona in 1909 in the specialty of clinical analysis, the same year in which he founded the Central Analysis Institute dedicated to clinical, bacteriological and chemical analysis, dedicating itself to the elaboration of oral vaccines for the General Society of Pharmacy, to clinical analyzes and to the practice of blood transfusions. Later he will expand his training at the University of Munich.
He obtained his doctorate in Madrid with a thesis on the Wassermann Reaction and then patented in 1929 the aspiration leaflet to extract blood samples and the transfusion blood cell for the practice of indirect transfusions, transcendental patents for what would later constitute the company of our analysis.
In the Spanish Civil War, the transfusion procedure devised by Dr. Grifols was used, complemented by the recent development on the temporary storage of Dr. Frederic Durán i Jordá (Spanish). These techniques were essential to the attention of field fighters in World War II.
It is important to emphasize that the two sons of José Antonio Grifols Roig, during the Spanish Civil War, worked on the blood transfusion process with these new methods successfully applied during the campaign from 1936 to 1939. José Antonio and Víctor Grifols Lucas, both were destined in the Blood Transfusion Service of the Republican Army.
The Civil War ends, on November 18, 1940, Doctor José Antonio Grifols Roig and his two sons founded Compañía Laboratorios
Grifols SA
In the year of 1943 his two sons, José Antonio and Víctor Grifols, were incorporated into the investigation of the process recently discovered of Lyophilization in blood, introducing the patent of the procedure in Spain, opening the way for the first private blood bank Hemobanco, in 1945.
In the early 1950s José Antonio Grifols Lucas developed the plasmapheresis technique based on the previous experiences of researchers Abel and Co Tui, whose results he presented at the IV Congress of Transfusion Doctors in Lisbon (1951) and published in the British Medical Journal. in 1952.
Hemobanco's activities promote the manufacture of intravenous solutions by needing them as preservative solutions for donated blood. Its industrial production began in 1952 with the registration of the first glucosaline solution.
It should be noted that in the period from the postwar period until 1960 there is high protectionism. Spain remains isolated from the rest of Europe, during this period of Autarchy, the technology transfer and import process is selected by political criteria, so the distances in this field with respect to other companies in Europe were paralyzed and widened, despite to which it resumed, timidly in the fifties and at a very fast rate from the sixties. The priority of Spanish companies in this period was to imitate –through manufacturing licenses–, not to innovate. For this reason, GRIFOLS had difficulties in importing machinery and raw materials with which to continue advancing the investigations: needles, ampoules, serums, Rh display boxes, water for injection, etc.,Despite these difficulties, he was able to innovate processes.
In 1960 the company Dade-Grifols was born, with 50% ownership of the North American company DADE Reagents that will market its reagents in Spain and which was the forerunner of the company Diagnostic Grifols. This fact was the first step for its internationalization.
The increase in production together with the multiplicity of industrial activities necessitated the construction of new industrial facilities in Parets del Vallès, province of Barcelona. The grouping in 1968 with American Hospital Supply meant for Grifols to contact the American administration and facilitated the implementation of quality controls in blood banks, where Grifols operated in Spanish territory, as well as the introduction of Good Manufacturing Practices in production processes.
In 1982, a change in the shareholding of Grifols companies took place when Alpha Therapeutic Corporation-Green Cross Corporation acquired the stake of American Hospital Supply.
In 1987 Grifols undertook a major corporate restructuring that made it a company holding company. At this time, Grifols Group was born, which will be constituted by various companies: Grifols Laboratories, focused on the manufacture of products for fluid therapy and nutrition, Grifols Institute, a new company whose exclusive activity is plasma fractionation and obtaining blood products, Diagnostic Grifols, which recovers the activities of designing and manufacturing instrumentation for hematology and diagnosis, and the manufacture of reagents, and Movaco, a company that distributes Grifols products in Spain.
International expansion began forging in the 1990s. The success of this process that has continued to this day, contributed decisively to obtaining 2 licenses from the US Food & Drug Administration in 1995: the Establishment License for the Parets del Vallés production plant and the product license for its albumin product.
In 2006 it was listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange.
On January 2, 2008 it became part of the IBEX 35.
In 2009 it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as ADR.
In 2011 Grifols is authorized by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to buy its rival Talecris for an approximate value of $ 3.4 billion.
Grifols currently has a homologous subsidiary in the United States, which acts as the parent company of companies in that country. The subsidiary has a blood product production structure and a commercial structure for Bioscience products (blood products) and Diagnostic products.
The industrial structure has been completed with successive acquisitions of plasma collection centers, reaching a total of 147. In this way, the company has ensured the supply of its main raw material, plasma. Grifols has a global blood product production system, from obtaining the plasma to the finished product, a system that guarantees the safety and efficacy of its plasma-derived medicines.
The company is also present in Latin America with its own commercial subsidiaries in 27 countries.
3. Theoretical Framework
In order to identify the factors that influence the Grifols Group's competitive success, it is necessary to address some theoretical issues that serve as an instrumental basis for this objective.
It is not a matter of simply listing some aspects that are considered important, but establishing systematically and exhaustively a tour of all the internal and external elements of the company that may influence in one way or another the competitive success of any company.
There are some alternatives in theory, but not all fit this particular case. Thus, for example, the methods related to the characterization of industrial districts do not correspond to this case, since Grifols, in our opinion, did not arise or develop in a context of this nature.
The first concept to be defined is that of competitiveness, on which there are criteria with different nuances but which are summarized in some way in what was stated by Rubio Baños and Aragón Sánchez, who affirm that:
The competitive success of a company depends on its ability to achieve a favorable competitive position, maintain and increase its market position and obtain superior results without having to resort to abnormally low remuneration for production factors.
For others, competitiveness is the capacity of a public or private organization, profit or not, to systematically maintain comparative advantages that allow it to reach, sustain and improve a certain position in the socioeconomic environment. (Rodríguez, 2010, p. 3)
Next, we must define the factors that affect the assessment of competitiveness. These factors are the elements that constitute it. In a first approximation, some authors point out innovation, human capital and infrastructure as factors of competitiveness, among others (López, et al., 2009, p. 126), but an exhaustive analysis of these requires more than this limited list of very generalized factors. "It is evident that numerous issues affect competitiveness, so it is necessary to consider a large number of indicators or variables" (López, et al., 2009, p. 128).
In the specific case of characterization of a company like Grifols, we consider that it can be separated into internal factors of the company, external factors from which internationalization strategy deserves particular treatment.
3.1 External Analysis of the company
Todo empresa es un sistema que se encuentra integrada en un sistema mayor y que constituye su entorno. El grado de interacción con éste es absoluto ya que ninguna empresa podría vivir de manera aislada.
Desde la perspectiva del método DAFO, en este entorno estarán localizadas sus oportunidades y también sus amenazas por lo que será indispensable el planteamiento de estrategias para aprovechar las primeras y protegerse de las segundas.
Para algunos autores existen dos tipos de entornos: el general y el específico (ver gráfico 3.1) (Guerras, et al., 2008, p. 7)
The environment contemplates all the external factors to the organization and that influence its decisions and results, and that the company cannot control them, but that nevertheless exert a significant influence on the success of the business (Gant, 2006, p. 102).
Figure 3.1 General environment and specific environment
Source: (Guerras, et al., 2008, p. 7)
The general environment refers to the external environment that surrounds the company from a generic perspective, that is, to everything that surrounds the company derived from the socioeconomic system in which it operates.
• The specific environment, however, refers to the part of the environment closest to the company's normal activity, that is, to the sector or branch of economic activity to which the company belongs. (Guerras, et al., 2008, p. 7)
Analyzing the general and specific environment will not allow establishing the external factors that influence the competitiveness of the company, as well as those that represent a brake on it. In other words, their opportunities and threats understood in terms of factors.
There are some methods that allow us to analyze each of these environments, but not all of them correspond to the characteristics of the company in our analysis. Thus, for example, the industrial districts method (see figure 3.2) assumes a different scenario from the one developed by the Grifols Group.
Figure 3.2 Industrial district method
Source: (Guerras, et al., 2008, p. 16)
Regarding the global environment, Luis Guerras et al. (2008) affirm that the first problem to be solved to study the general environment is to define its limits, that is, to identify which variables are going to have a significant impact on the company's activity. and which not.
The global environment represents the more or less common scenario for all companies, which is why it is hardly a source of factors that mean obtaining a competitive advantage, except in some specific events. However, it has dimensions ranging from a world level, country or region.
Another very popular method is the Porter diamond (see figure 3.3). It helps to determine the scenario that a country has as a source of competitiveness opportunities for the companies it welcomes in its economy.
Figure 3.3 Porter's Diamond
PESTEL analysis, strategic profile of the environment
However, we consider that to characterize the success factors in the Grifols Group's global environment, the method called "strategic environment profile" is more appropriate.
This method begins with a first geographical approximation and determined according to the territorial scope in which the company operates: world, economic area, country or locality. Relevant delimitation, since “it significantly discriminates the type of information that must be used to carry out the analysis”
(Guerras, et al., 2008, p. 10).
But the central part of this analysis focuses on the types of variables that must be considered in the analysis and that can be summarized in the following six groups (dimensions):
• Policy
• Economic
• Sociocultural
• Technological
• Ecological (environmental)
• Legal
3.2 The specific environment
The specific environment adds all the factors related to the sector in which the Grifols company operates and which is far from a perfectly competitive market, with particular attention to the companies with which it competes worldwide, those that offer substitute products or services..
Now, the substitutability characteristic can be measured by two criteria (Guerras, et al., 2008, p. 26):
1) The technological criterion is applied from the point of view of supply and defines a sector as the set of companies that use production processes or similar raw materials in the elaboration of one or more products. The key, then, of this definition is the degree of substitutability of the productive processes.
2) The market criterion is applied from the demand side and selects the group of companies that manufacture products that are close substitutes for each other from the point of view of the needs met by customers.
A theoretical model that allows an exhaustive analysis of the factors of the specific environment related to the so-called opportunities and threats, constitutes the model called Porter's Five Forces (1982).
Figure 3.4 Porter's Five Forces
The five forces (see figure 3.4) are the following:
1) The rivalry between existing competitors
2) The possibility of entry of new competitors
3) The threat of substitute products
4) The bargaining power of buyers
5) The power of supplier negotiation
Below we will explain what they consist of and what are the determinants of these five competitive forces.
1) The rivalry between existing competitors
It involves the current scenario of competition facing the company measured by the degree of rivalry in the sector. In the case of the market enjoyed by the Grifols company, despite not being characterized by a massive presence of competitors, however, this does not imply that there is very aggressive competition from the other large companies. In any case, the theory indicates that it should be observed:
• Number of competitors and balance between them.
• Growth rate of the industry.
• Mobility barriers.
• Exit barriers.
• Cost structure of companies.
• Product differentiation.
• Exchange costs.
• Installed productive capacity.
• Diversity of competitors.
• Strategic interests.
2) The possibility of entry of new competitors
The fact that Grifols has sold more than two billion in 2011 and that, despite the crisis, it has achieved positive returns, it should draw the attention of the capitals of many countries, including China, but it is not always easy to access a type of industry.
The possibility of entry of new competitors depends, above all, on two factors (Guerras, et al., 2008, p. 36): the existence of barriers to entry to the industry and the reaction of established competitors to a new entry.
3) The threat of substitute products
As substitute products appear in an industry, the level of competition grows and becomes less attractive to new competitors and will even affect current companies that may see their profits decrease.
According to Wars (2008), the importance of the threat of substitute products in an industry depends especially on the following factors:
a) The degree to which substitute products satisfy the needs of consumers better than those of the industry.
b) The prices of substitute products in relation to those of the industry.
c) The obsolescence that the substitute products incorporate in the products of the industry.
d) The costs of switching to alternative products.
4) The bargaining power of clients
Very powerful clients such as a country's Social Security systems impose conditions on their suppliers such as Grifols. The bargaining power of clients is given by the ability to impose conditions on the transactions they carry out in aspects related to price, quality, specifications, credit, terms, returns, etc.
5) The bargaining power of suppliers
What has been said about the bargaining power of customers can be applied to suppliers. In any case, according to Porter (1982, p. 44 et seq.) Attention should be paid to the following factors:
• Degree of concentration in relation to the industry.
• Volume of transactions carried out with companies in the industry.
• Degree of importance of purchases made in relation to customer costs.
• Degree of differentiation of the products or services object of the transaction.
• Supplier change costs.
• Level of benefits of the client in relation to the supplier.
• Real threat of vertical integration forward or backward.
• Importance of the product or service sold for the quality of the buyer's products or services.
• Possibility of storing the product.
• Level of information that one of the parties has in relation to the other.
Table 3.1 includes the above factors and their form of impact on the negotiating power:
3.3 Internal analysis of the company
Success factors in a company's competitiveness must also be determined within it, and in many cases these may be the most important, especially since they are closer to the company's domain.
Identifying the internal factors implies detecting their strengths and weaknesses in terms of the SWOT method, and, as in the other referred levels of factors, it is possible to resort to a methodological model that allows us to identify them in a more organized and exhaustive way. A good option is the Porter Value Chain, which can be previously supplemented with information such as:
a) Age of the company and its evolution
b) Size of the company
c) Fields of activity
d) Type of property
e) Geographical scope
f) Legal structure
The value chain
The value chain is a tool that will allow us to systematically locate and categorize some of the success factors in Grifols' competitiveness. This method is a proposal by Michael Porter (1987), and aims to describe the creation of value by companies and with it the success factors that we seek in this work, and which, in Porter's terms, would be called the advantages competitive companies.
The value chain is a method that classifies the internal activities of a company in a way that allows us to understand the points of value creation. Each activity incorporates a part of it associated with the final product. The value chain of a company should be understood as a part of a broader value system that includes the value chains of suppliers and customers.
As can be seen in figure 3.5, this method classifies the activities of the companies into two main groups:
a) Main activities
b) Support activities
Graph 3.5 Porter's Value Chain
Primary activities.- are those that are directly related to the company's production process as well as after-sales activities (Guerras, et al., 2008, pp. 12,13):
• Internal logistics or input factors: reception, storage, stock control and internal distribution of raw materials and auxiliary materials until their incorporation into the production process.
• Operations or production itself: activities related to the physical transformation of factors into products or services.
• External logistics or distribution: storage activities and physical distribution to customers of finished products.
• Marketing and sales: activities aimed at achieving the sale of the product.
• After-sales service: activities related to maintaining the conditions of use of the product sold.
Support activities.- These are activities indirectly related to the production process and serve to support the primary ones:
• Procurement: purchase of factors that are going to be used in the company, including raw and auxiliary materials, machinery, buildings, services, etc.
• Technology development: activities for obtaining, improving and managing technologies in the company, both product and process or management.
• Administration of human resources: search activities, hiring, training, training, motivation, etc. of all types of personnel.
• Company infrastructure: activities under the generic name of administration and which may include planning, control, organization, information, accounting, finance, etc.
For Porter, these activities are related and whose interaction can also constitute a source of competitive advantage. These value-generating interrelations are the links and can provide competitive advantages through adequate optimization and coordination, not only within the company but in the chain made up of its suppliers and customers.
Maintain competitive advantage
A business strategy should not be limited to creating a competitive advantage, it should aim to maintain it as long as possible, for which, in each case, the characteristics that will allow competitors to neutralize it and even overcome it must be analyzed. These are its durability, transferability, imitability, substitutability and complementarity.
An example of this is the current patents developed and owned by the Grifols Group.
4. Present Presentation of the Company.
Once the theoretical framework that would allow the analysis of the Grifols group's competitive success factors has been explained, we have to face the location of the sources of information and the quality of the data we obtain.
It is evident that an exhaustive and rigorous analysis of factors as the theory claims, requires a workload that exceeds that possible in this subject. It is for this reason that, due to the limitations of adequate sources of information, we have directly requested the company and we have only obtained in response a CD entitled: Grifols, 2010 corporate video, of which we took advantage of some content.
In any case, we have proceeded to collect information related to this company from different sources that do not necessarily guarantee the quality of the data, however, we proceed to make the best possible use of them.
The strategic analysis of this company is focused on the study of what the company itself calls the "Espírutu Grifols" and that allows locating factors that identify its business philosophy and that are of importance for strengthening its competitiveness. The
Grifols Spirit
The Grifols Spirit is a way of understanding our business, of doing things, of relating to each other and to the rest of the world that has contributed to making the company what it is today.
As a company dedicated to the health sector, Grifols helps the healthcare professional by providing innovative products and a responsible service. To achieve this end, Grifols wants to remain a dynamic organization, alive and full of growth possibilities, as a company and for the people who work in this organization.
Our corporate culture is a reflection of the Grifols Spirit, which is defined by: o Pride of belonging to the company
o Effort to achieve results o Commitment to our clients o Overcoming to obtain maximum performance from resources o Competitiveness working as a team o Improvement and innovation o Quality and Safety in all activities
Quality and safety in all our activities
Our products are of vital importance for the health and quality of life of patients. For this reason, at Grifols security is more than a legal requirement. Security is an attitude linked to integrity. The quality and safety of our products and internal processes, from manufacturing to marketing, are of fundamental importance in our organization.
In order to achieve the highest possible degree of safety and quality, Grifols maintains strong communication channels between the different areas of the company. By sharing information we ensure that each employee knows and shares the company's goals, innovations and results.
Our commitment to innovation and improvement
The ability to plan ahead, invest in improvement, and be innovative are key factors in fulfilling our mission to improve people's health and well-being. Our initiatives have helped us achieve a leadership position in the industry, but we want to continue developing and offering new products, services and sanitary solutions that solve present and future sanitary challenges.
In this business philosophy assumed by the Grifols group, the identity of this company is reflected, both now and with an eye toward the future, in a general way.
Grifols' mission is extensive. They are committed with their products and services to help improve the health and well-being of people around the world. With Innovation Grifols is committed to applying the most advanced techniques to promote patient health and support healthcare professionals. With his experience Grifols presents himself as pioneers of a great reputation in the development of hemotherapy since 1940 and is committed to using its resources to satisfy the needs of people.
Grifols sees an important commitment in the innovation, quality, efficacy and safety of its products and services as it has been for more than sixty years.
Among the strategic objectives that Grifols has set itself, we find an increase in sales in the Diagnostic division for next year (2012) by 8% - 9% compared to the current year, and for the Hospital division by 6.5% - 7%, given that in the third quarter of 2011 its sales in these divisions have decreased.
A second strategic objective constitutes an increase over the next three years in the market share in the United States and a third strategic objective aims to become, in the next 5 years, the first company in the blood derivatives markets worldwide. The above objectives are based on large-scale business decisions that include the integration of the Talecris company, with which Grifols will concentrate its sales to 66% within the United States and will tend to obtain better margins thanks to the investment plan (CAPEX) for the 2012-2015 period in the United States where the parent company will invest 75% of its budget, approximately 723 million dollars.
Organizational Structure of the Company.
GRIFOLS is a company that operates in a wide number of countries in order to maximize its benefits under a global perspective that integrates the entire group, reinforcing its nature as a MULTINATIONAL COMPANY.
Grifols is a leading pharmaceutical multinational holding company in the hospital sector, which develops products and services aimed at providing health and well-being to people. The Holding is made up of different companies whose activities focus on three fields: Bioscience, Diagnosis and Hospital - Quality, production and R&D Quality Management.
Furthermore, Grifols is a multicultural company made up of 5,968 people of various nationalities. A very high percentage of the workforce, both in production, research, sales and administration, have high levels of qualification.
Today the company is in more than 90 countries. 77% of its income comes from foreign markets and with the opening in 2010 of a representative office in China and its two new subsidiaries, in Colombia and Sweden, it has a direct presence through subsidiaries in 24 countries.
Research has also focused the effort of this company. More than 4% of its sales are used to promote new scientific advances, focused on the search for new therapeutic possibilities for blood products and the improvement of production processes, among others. Research lines as important as a possible treatment for Alzheimer's and liver cirrhosis using plasma-derived proteins. These are some of the most ambitious lines of research from which many benefits can be derived for thousands of people affected by these diseases worldwide.
GRIFOLS 'organizational structure is established by divisions responsible respectively for specific products and with subdivisions with different geographical locations.
Chart 4.1
Source: 2010 Grifols annual report
Its organization is based on the grouping of units by criteria of purpose (see figure 4.1) (products, clients, geographic areas or markets). This structure is made up of autonomous units (divisions) and a central directorate that deals with strategic problems, resource allocation and control. The separation of strategic and operational functions makes it possible for Management to focus on overall objectives and for divisions to harness their potential by acting as independent "quasi-companies".
The Central Management maintains a series of "staff" functions that it provides in a centralized way, such as: financing, purchasing, R&D, legal and legal advice. Each division is considered an independent profit center and controlled by its results in order to facilitate its evaluation.
The holding company increases with new companies in different countries but which will maintain financial control from the group's centralized policy and which has maintained it since its first division in 1987.
GRIFOLS currently has 3 main business areas organized according to the nature of its products.
• Bioscience
Division
• Diagnostic Division • Hospital Division
The group provides a wide range of non-biological products intended for the hospital pharmacy for surgery, clinical nutrition, fluid-therapy and products for other sanitary uses.
Favorable evolution in all divisions:
The obtained operating results reflect the positive evolution of the sales of all the divisions and confirm the leadership of GRIFOLS in the blood products sector as the third company by volume of sales worldwide. The integration plan will allow the expected synergies to materialize based on cost optimization and increased efficiency in all phases of production processes. GRIFOLS consolidates its future growth base, maintaining internationalization, product diversification, R&D and investment planning as those strategic of its management.
Bioscience sales (88.3% of revenues), which include the corresponding revenues from Talecris until December 2011, increased 98.0%, that is, to 1,531.2 million euros.
The increase in the volume of sales of blood products has been the main driver of the division, with a negative contribution from the price factor in some countries. In addition, the portfolio of blood products available is expanded with new commercial references that will continue to respond to the needs and specificities of large direct customers in different markets.
By products, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) sales stand out, driven by the significant increases registered in the United States, in the Asia-Pacific area and Australia, among others. Likewise, the sales of Factor VIII and albumin also increase, with the growth registered in countries such as Germany, Chile, and Argentina being relevant. In global terms, Australia and Canada are incorporated as prominent claimants of blood products while, by product, after the purchase of Talecris, sales of alpha-1-antitrypsin gain due to having the respective patent.
Diagnosis (5.1% of sales) increased its turnover by 7.6% to 117.4 million euros. The increases registered in the areas of blood banks (10.1%), inactivation of pathogens (28.4%) and new technologies (20.4%) stand out. This division is characterized both by its internationalization and by the various possible growth paths.
With this objective, GRIFOLS has grouped its Immunohematology and Blood Bank lines in the so-called Transfusion Medicine area.
Hospital revenues (5.3% of turnover) have increased by 6.5% until December 2011, achieving 95.4 million euros. The increase in sales of intravenous therapies (13.4%), medical instruments (10.7%) and hospital logistics (7.8%). All these positive results have been achieved despite an environment of budget containment by hospitals.
It also highlights the international drive and the geographical diversification strategy started for the division through agreements. One of them is the one subscribed with CareFusión, a leading global medical technology company that distributes the BlisPack® system, designed by GRIFOLS to automate the blister cutting and electronic identification of medicines for hospital use, in several countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
5. Analysis of the General Environment.
In order to identify Grifols' success factors in the global environment, we resorted to categorization that allows us to use the strategic environment profile method (PESTEL analysis).
The general environment is defined by everything that surrounds the company within the socioeconomic system in which it operates. Being a world market in which this company operates, both it and its competitors share this world scenario and we may need to pay more attention to what differentiates them from their particular strategies with which they seek to adapt and take advantage of the dynamics of this environment., especially in the last decades. It is important to highlight the fact that each country represents a very peculiar general environment, and due to its particular characteristics they are of more or less interest to this company. In these terms, Grifols has prioritized the North American market, constituting, for the year 2011,More than 60% of its sales are made in Canada and the United States, while Europe is limited to 25%.
If we apply this PESTEL method to the main market, the United States, and the largest processing location, we have the following considerations:
Political factors:
This country constitutes one of the most politically stable, with a solid democracy that guarantees a scenario of security and stability for Grifols company.
Its fiscal policy is possibly more demanding than many tax havens, but in return it is supported by a structure full of benefits and a market with purchasing power.
The foreign trade of the United States signifies support for its international strategy. Grifols can operate towards the rest of the world from this country that provides much better support for trade with the rest of the world.
Economic factors:
The GDP of this economy is the largest in the world and, despite the crisis it faced since 2007, it has currently grown and exceeds 15 trillion dollars. This macroeconomic indicator allows Grifols to operate in a strong market.
The main financing of this group comes from North American financial institutions that, even in the current crises, manage low rates. Deustche Bank and Nomura in the United States are one of their main sources of credit.
The inflation rate of this country is at 1.4% for 2011.
Socio-cultural factors:
This country has very favorable sociocultural elements. A low labor conflict that allows to work without loss of productivity, in addition to having well-trained personnel and continually retrained as technologies advance. There is a large market with qualified and surplus personnel given the economic crisis.
Technological factors:
Despite the criticisms that may be made, this country is characterized by the great scientific and technological development that it leads worldwide in many fields. Adequate policies for R + D + i as well as a high-level research culture, a totally favorable scenario for an industry as complex as that required by the Grifols group.
The protection of knowledge is important in this country, which is reflected in the security of patents and which has allowed the Grifols group to protect and usufruct its almost seven hundred patents (2010) efficiently.
Ecological factors:
Despite the fact that this country is possibly the most polluting in the world, it is not due to the neglect of its industries but to the overall size of the same. In fact, there are environmental protection laws that oblige their companies to take precautions.
In the case of Grifols, it has a firm commitment through the Environment Committee that monitors the system and environmental behavior, establishing and verifying compliance with the different objectives. The Department of the Environment coordinates the different activities and acts as an engine for continuous improvement in the different companies of the group.
Legal factors:
This country has very rigorous industrial and commercial laws. As an example we can mention that the purchase of Talecris has lasted a long time under conditions that aim to avoid monopolistic behavior in defense of competition.
Products, especially in the health area, are subject to rigorous controls, all of them aimed at consumer protection.
6. Analysis of the Specific Environment.
The analysis of the Specific Environment for the GRIFOLS company will identify some of the factors that contribute to its competitiveness of an international nature.
The method that we will use is the one known as the 5 Porter Forces and, in summary, they allow us to systematically identify some of the opportunities and threats that this company faces from its closest environment.
Porter's 5 Forces identify with the intensity of competition from current rivals, the threat of entry of new competitors, the threat of new substitute products, the bargaining power of customers and suppliers. Therefore, the greater the intensity, threat or power of these forces, the less attractive they are for the entry of new companies and the permanence of existing ones.
Intensity of Competition Among Current Rivals. Internal Industry Rivalry.
Grifols is located in the chemical industry sector, more specifically in the hospital pharmaceutical sector, with a small group of very strong competitors that is more like an oligopoly than perfect competition, the pharmaceutical sector and more specifically the pharmaceutical industry. blood products. However, competition is intense between these large companies.
On the other hand, the number of international competitors does not seem to increase, but their size does not. Currently, due to the economic and financial crisis, this type of industry is reacting with mergers, acquisitions and participations, tending rather to concentration. In fact, Grifols has carried out some of these processes, such as the aforementioned purchase of
Talecris.
In Spain, the industry is mainly concentrated in Catalonia, where the health sector is very important, as well as in Madrid. Catalonia is also the place where its sales have the most weight.
The growth rate of the sector is expected to be high due to growth expectations at the global level. It highlights the importance of the health sector of the United States of America as that of the BRIC countries thanks to the development of their health systems.
Mobility barriers are not a big obstacle for (transnational) companies, since they operate in a global market and Grifols will find the same big competitors in the 90 countries it operates in. On the other hand, its exit barriers are indeed raised by the gigantic production structures that all these companies have, such as Baxter and Grifols himself.
The pharmaceutical sector has a greater research intensity, uses highly advanced technology and highly qualified personnel. The cost structure of the sector is based on a greater weight in the fixed, which forces these companies to seek to operate to the maximum of their installed capacity.
Companies in the pharmaceutical sector refine their strategies through product differentiation, but this means making heavy investments in R&D since any of their new products normally requires patents to cover it. In the case of Grifols, the company emerged highly specialized in blood products that do not present a greater opportunity for diversification, however, in recent years they maintain some projects that aim at diversification but outside of their traditional industry, one of these projects has to do with a possible cure for Alzheimer's disease.
The pharmaceutical sector is a mature industry, with good growth expectations, especially in emerging countries (BRIC), where exit barriers and high fixed costs force these companies to fight to stay in the market. There is a high level of rivalry.
Grifols has acquired the company Talecris to reinforce its presence in the American market. Both companies together maintain a market share of 27% and have set the integration strategy of their competitor to optimize their size and maintain a high rivalry against the Australian CSL with a 25% share and Baxter with 21% and that they constitute its main competitors.
Threat of entry of new competitors.
The pharmaceutical company has high rates of profitability and growth, so it is very likely that new competitors want to enter, but it is not always easy.
Access for new companies in the sector where GRIFOLS operates presents difficult entry barriers and very aggressive commercial reactions from established competitors defending an expensive market share.
Barriers to entry are those factors that hinder access to the industry to new competitors, thus protecting the profitability levels achieved by companies already installed.
The main barriers to entry are:
• The economies of scale and scope that occur when increasing the volume of production and decreasing the unit cost of the product. GRIFOLS invests heavily in R&D to obtain economies of scale in its production and to be competitive in the market, despite having to take the risk of not achieving high sales levels. Performing small-scale production would suffer a cost disadvantage.
• Disadvantages in costs other than economies of scale, in the blood products sector it is essential to have access to raw materials. A new company that wants to enter the sector will have to make many investments to have access to plasma. GRIFOLS has full backward integration with favorable access to raw materials, proprietary product technology and extensive experience.
• Capital needs is necessary to establish yourself in the sector. It is one of the variables that discourages the entry of new competitors.
• Product differentiation is established by patents, so through R&D they can choose to establish a clear product differentiation and NOT imitable. Grifols has more than 700 patents.
• Access to distribution channels is limited for new competitors, motivated by distributors' risk aversion. New competitors entering the sector will have to pay high prices to distributors or create their own distribution channels. GRIFOLS and large pharmaceutical companies have their own distribution channel that works directly on Hospitals.
• Government policy is vitally important especially when there is legislation favorable to established companies such as greater access to subsidies, limitation of licenses, ecological or security legislation. A clear example is with GRIFOLS where in 1986 they had to close the Hemobanco due to a change in the health regulation carried out by the Government, against which position GRIFOLS was forced to look for a country where to obtain plasma. His USA point of view.
The Reaction of established competitors is one of the threats of entry of new competitors. New competitors may be deterred if established companies are expected to respond vigorously to hinder the entry of new competitors. This depends on two factors:
The availability of resources to defend itself, that is, the availability of liquidity or debt capacity. GRIFOLS has had to go into debt in order to enter the American market through TALECRIS.
The tradition of retaliation in the industry through drastic price cuts, aggressive advertising campaigns, or special offers. In the case of the pharmaceutical sector, the only claim in this order is to monitor the use "with zeal" of patents.
Therefore, we can indicate that the threat of new entries is LOW, because there are significant economies of scale in R&D and the high risk inherent in the development of medicines. However, biotech companies may enter the industry in the near future. An example is the acquisition by GRIFOLS of 51% of Araclon Biotech, a company that investigates Alzheimer's disease and is part of R&D.
Threat of New Substitute Products.
Grifols blood products depend on its many human blood donation centers. Blood, as a natural product, does not face an artificial blood threat any time soon.
According to the World Health Organization, 93 million blood donations are made each year. They are indispensable for health systems but even in more generous countries, such as Spain, this precious red fluid is scarce. Getting to cultivate it artificially is an old medicine dream that Koji Eto seems to have at hand. The latest progress on this path seems to have the goal in sight. "To apply it for the first time to two or three healthy donors, it will take three or four more years, but for a larger number of patients, already in clinical trials, it will take 10 years," says Eto. (abc.es, 2012)
Substitute products perform the same functions as the industry product, regardless of the technology used. The greater the threat of substitute products, the less attractive the industry will be.
The threat of entry of substitute products for GRIFOLS comes from generic or free patent products. Therefore, the threat is low.
Negotiating Power of Suppliers and Clients.
The bargaining power of suppliers or customers is given by the ability to impose conditions on the transactions they carry out with companies in the industry.
Grifols obtains plasma from plasma collection centers in order to produce high-quality blood products. Grifols has integrated its production structures from the plasma donation to the production phase, but also collects surplus plasma from hospital blood donations. Grifols does not depend on a supplier center to supply the plasma. Therefore, it does not face "suppliers" with a high bargaining power.
Grifols' clients are usually large hospitals or state / regional health services, and there is no direct commercial contact with the users (patients) of its products. Its clients are concentrated and acquire significant volumes of products, which gives them great negotiating power.
As a complement to what is exposed in this section, we can say that GRIFOLS is in a hostile environment that has learned to manage successfully.
In summary, we can indicate that factors that affect competitiveness can be divided into sector factors and company factors.
The factors of the sector are characterized by being large business groups among which are multinationals such as Baxter or Bayer. According to GRIFOLS, the most immediate competitors are German and North American companies in the blood product market, and Japanese and North American companies in the diagnostic market. The current large companies in the sector are fearsome because of their size and because they have had to go through a tough selection process marked by the market.
It is a sector that is in continuous innovation. Grifols does not stop innovating and investing in knowledge, knowledge and innovation by always offering optimal and competitive products. More than 4% of its sales are used to promote new scientific advances, mainly focused on the search for new therapeutic possibilities by blood products and on the improvement of production processes, among others.
It is a sector with few competitors, hardly half a dozen around the world, I feel GRIFOLS the fourth world level. The rest of the competitors are in the United States (such as J&J), Germany (Boering) and Japan.
GRIFOLS has favorable factors such as recognized international prestige. He has extensive experience in the sector that dates back locally seventy years ago. They also have extensive experience in international markets that began in 1987 when it underwent a major corporate restructuring that makes it a holding company. At this time, the GRIFOLS Group was born, which will be constituted by several companies: GRIFOLS Laboratories, focused on the manufacture of products for fluid therapy and nutrition, the GRIFOLS Institute, a new company, the exclusive activity of which is the fractionation of plasma and obtaining of blood products, Diagnostic GRIFOLS, which recovers the activities of designing and manufacturing instrumentation for hematology and diagnosis, and the manufacture of reagents, and Movaco,distributor of GRIFOLS products in Spain. Division that organizationally has allowed it to better manage the complex requirements of an international market and compete successfully against high-level industrial rivals.
7. Internal Analysis of the Company.
The value chain is a method that will allow us in this section to classify the internal activities of the Grifols group in such a way that it allows us to identify some of the factors that contribute to value creation and therefore strengthen its competitive capacity.
The value chain concept involves systematic internal analysis of the company's activities. With this method we will locate some factors that are related to the strengths and weaknesses that this specific company maintains within it.
With the limited information available we will seek to cover a panoramic analysis of the factors that Grifols has both in its primary and support activities.
Internal logistics
Grifols basically depends on blood donors. It is a fundamental activity that has justified the very expensive purchase of Talecris and that allows it to own, in the United States alone, a total of 147 highly sophisticated centers.
Grifols: one of the Talecris centers for blood donation
High technology storage
All these activities necessary to guarantee that the raw material - in this case blood - is obtained in an adequate, aseptic way and free of any sanitary defect, and that GRIFOLS must subsequently handle it with extremely high levels of control. An error in these processes does not only mean products that the customer rejects, but there is an eminent danger of widespread contagion and even death.
GRIFOLS treats all the departments of the company as micro clients / suppliers when it comes to remitting the blood that has passed all the security controls according to the process established by the American Licenses.
Operations (production).
After obtaining blood donations - actually paid - directly from its 147 centers in the USA, he was subsequently subjected to plasmapheresis procedures. The extracted plasma is immediately stored and transported at a technically specified temperature.
In this case it corresponds to the maintenance of the obtained plasma, the rigorous controls, the observation processes and their asepsis until they are sent to the transformation. From the obtaining of a plasma unit to the distribution of the final product, it takes between 9 and 11 months. This cycle is completely controlled and managed by Grifols, whose vertical integration model ensures the entire process to maintain the highest quality and safety standards in its blood products.
External Logistics
The Grifols group, as we have mentioned repeatedly, markets its products internationally in 90 countries. Its structure has been optimized through its three divisions that offer specialized products and services, grouped according to their nature (Grifols.com, 2012):
Bioscience Division
Specialized in research, development, production and marketing of blood products.
Diagnostic Division
Specialized in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of diagnostic products for laboratory analysis, including products intended for hospital blood banks and transfusion centers.
Hospital Division
It provides solutions for clinical nutrition, intravenous therapy and medical devices used in hospital pharmacy and hospitals.
It has its own subsidiaries in: Germany, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Spain, Slovakia, United States, France, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden and Thailand.
This company does not operate directly with the final consumers of its products but through large clients such as hospital centers or public health systems.
Marketing and sales
They are the activities aimed at achieving the sale of the product. Strategies focused on very specific clients such as national health services or public and private hospitals. Sales management is carried out directly by the company through its subsidiaries.
Their advertising strategies do not representatively include mass media to promote their products, opting for specialized direct contact with large customers.
We consider it convenient to reflect on the fact that in the case of Grifols mass advertising campaigns are used to promote blood donation, appealing to cultural issues such as solidarity, particularly in the United States.
One of the concerns presented to us when we try to establish the success factors of this company in some countries that unfortunately have high rates of corruption is that whether or not it engages in corruption strategies, which are often the only income alternative. of products in public institutions.
After Sales Service
They are the activities related to the maintenance of the conditions of use of the sold product. GRIFOLS cannot obtain direct feedback from the end customer, that is, from patients who do not have knowledge about the brand of the product being administered. It is the medical visitors who perform the feedback function from the medical unit that uses their products. They will be the ones who can report on its quality in conservation, as well as possible inconveniences with the application in patients.
Support activities Company Infrastructure
All the factors of the Grifols company that are related to the administration activities and that include in its planning, control, organization, as well as the information, its accounting and financial systems are included.
Although we do not have detailed information, but in general terms, all these processes are highly mechanized with highly integrated information systems, with a particular emphasis on the control systems that are required for monitoring your products, both in the phases of processes such as storage, since the blood products must be subjected to very rigorous standards.
Human Resources Management
Graph 7.6: Grifols instructor
They are the search, hiring, training, training, motivation activities of all types of personnel. GRIFOLS has an employee plant that by the end of 2010 was close to 6,000 people.
It requires continuous training of all its employees, paying special attention to those responsible for plasma extraction and handling in donation centers. The GRIFOLS Plasmapheresis Academy trains staff to correctly obtain plasma and all those methods necessary for its conservation, as well as humane treatment of donors.
Technological development
For Porter, these activities not only include those related to the company's R&D but also the knowledge that the company develops in its administrative and production processes in general.
In any case, particularly regarding research, the Grifols company finds its roots in these activities. Currently, it can be assured that one of its main success factors is found in research that has a budget of 4% of total sales and that has allowed, at least until 2010, to accumulate 673 patents.
Provisioning
These activities include the purchase of factors that are going to be used in the company. GRIFOLS has constant updates of its equipment, for example, CAPEX investments will provide a greater number of blood collection centers and new processes to obtain plasma.
The incorporation of Talecris donation centers are part of these equipment supply activities, in addition to other factors.
Grifols Engineering is a great support for the entire holding company in this field. Manage your building expansion projects with the necessary sophisticated facilities. For example, in this year (2012):
Grifols Engineering has been responsible for the design and execution of the two loading modules (2 and 4), the dosing unit (3) and the integration of the entire line. The objective has been to fully automate the process to improve the efficiency of this line. The most critical module of the process, the dosing machine, has been custom designed with the aim of exceeding the quality and safety standards of the equipment currently on the market.
Additional aspects
Primary and auxiliary activities provide GRIFOLS with a series of competitive advantages. These advantages must have certain requirements since they must be:
Unique: They must be scarce and rare resources and capacities. GRIFOLS 'capabilities are to obtain sufficient plasma to respond to demand, for which the development of the infrastructure as in the extraction methods will be essential.
Valuable: The organization must be focused on evaluating new business opportunities and securing repeat customers. GRIFOLS has acquired 51% of the company Araclon Biotech that is conducting research on Alzheimer's.
Inimitable: It is important that these competitive advantages are not copied by the competition. Patents allow GRIFOLS to differentiate the product from its competitors, but its human team is essential for its development.
Irreplaceable: It is very difficult to access plasma manufacturing, due to its large investment, but above all, patents and its human capital.
They should not be easily transferable: the patent makes the activity impossible for any company, the principle of guarantee of right that GRIFOLS has acquired with the patent must be upheld. The human team, again, is vital for GRIFOLS since the patent makes it impossible for the competition to develop products, but it is the human team that can carry out a transfer of human capital towards the competition. GRIFOLS acts on its team to integrate them into the company and establish them on the needs of its staff.
The Human Team and researcher is key for GRIFOLS to generate a competitive advantage. GRIFOLS has a specific capacity to search for its R&D department people with a certain profile (in many cases PhDs). Surely other companies like BAXTER have also developed this type of ability to attract people with a similar profile. Therefore, the capacity of people with a specific profile is not a scarce capacity because it is surely available to other companies. It is the training within the company, the learning and the experience of the people who make up the research team that is scarce, as well as being relevant for its usefulness when competing in the industry.New methods and new uses can obtain better results for products and this is very important in the sector that is being investigated every day to obtain products that improve people's health.
GRIFOLS bases its business model around 5 key fundamental factors. The first is based on the patient, where GRIFOLS contributes to improving people's health, since this is their raison d'être and therefore the company's mission. The second factor is obtaining plasma, with maximum security and control in obtaining this raw material. The third factor is the production of blood products with a total model of vertical integration backwards (TALECRIS integration) as forwards. The fourth factor is R&D, since it is essential for this type of company. Finally, a fifth factor, perhaps the most important, is the human team, which for the holding company is the basis of its growth. It has 5,960 people at the service of Health.
8. Strategy and International Expansion.
GRIFOLS 'international expansion is carried out through joint-venture strategies. This consists of an agreement by which two or more independent companies create a third company to develop an activity. The founding companies provide the necessary investments and personnel and benefit from the results of the created company.
Grifols together with Dade Reagents create the joint venture DADE GRIFOLS that is dedicated to the commercialization in Spain of Dade Reagents reagents. Using a Joint-Venture mechanism will provide Dade Reagents to enter a market by investing less resources. Today, Diagnostic Grifols is the company that carries out this activity, with Grifols, SA owning it 99.8%.
This incorporation of Dade Reagents occurs in the 1960s, however, the international expansion of GRIFOLS did not begin to take shape until the 1990s. The success of this process, which has continued until today, was decisively contributed by Obtaining 2 licenses from the US Food & Drug Administration in 1995: the Establishment License for the Parets del Vallés production plant and the Product License for its albumin product.
Grifols currently has a counterpart subsidiary in the United States, which acts as the parent company of companies in that country. The subsidiary has a blood product production structure and a commercial structure for Bioscience products (blood products) and Diagnostic products.
The industrial structure has been completed with successive acquisitions of donation centers, reaching a total of 147. In this way, GRIFOLS has ensured the supply of its main raw material, plasma.
GRIFOLS is present in Latin America with commercial subsidiaries in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. In Europe it has subsidiaries in Portugal, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Poland and Switzerland. In Southeast Asia it has subsidiaries in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Also in Japan and Australia the company has commercial activity.
The way to enter these countries is through direct investment abroad (IDE), which despite being more expensive ensures stability in these markets.
9. Some economic indicators
Information provided by Europa Press, on February 28, 2012, indicates that Grifols recorded a net profit of 50.3 million euros in 2011, meaning an expected decrease of 56.4% compared to the previous year due to the purchase of the North American company Talecris in June of the previous year. On the other hand, this purchase implies an increase in turnover that reached 1,795.6 million euros, 81.2% more than the previous year.
By business area, sales of the Bioscience division, taking into account seven months of joint activity, grew 98%, to 1,531.2 million euros, and contributed more than 85% of revenues to the group, while the division Diagnostic increased sales by 7.6% to 117.4 million, and Hospital sales 6.5% to 95.4 million.
By geographical distribution, revenues in the United States and Canada grew by 180.7%, to 948.7 million euros, and accounted for close to 53% of turnover, while in Europe there was 30% of turnover, which increased 22% to 526.6 million.
Grifols' net financial debt at the end of 2011 stood at 2,738.2 million euros, with a cash position of 340.5 million.
Investments in 2011 amounted to 160 million euros to expand and improve the facilities, with particular importance the construction of the new plasma fractionation plant in Parets del Vallès (Barcelona).
It is expected to invest some 700 million euros until 2015, with the objective of continuing to progressively expand Grifols' production capacities in Spain and the United States.
In the future, facilities related to blood products should be expanded. By 2016, Grifols expects to be able to fractionate more than 12 million liters of plasma per year.
Chart 9.1
Figure 9.1 shows the revenue that has been growing steadily since 1975, with a significant increase in the last year (2011) - more than double - due to the incorporated market of Talecris.
Chart 9.2
Chart 9.2 presents the trend compared to the IBEX 35, index of the 36 most important stocks in the SPANISH market. A revaluation of 27.45% is evident despite increasing its debt and a revaluation of 46.68% compared to the IBEX 35.
Chart 9.3
A final comment on the competition. Figure 9.3 presents a comparative analysis of Batex, Grifols' main rival company, in relation to the S&P 500 and S&P 500 Health Care index.
Conclusions
The Grifols group has had a business journey of seventy years involving itself with the scientific and technological changes in its industry; strategically adapting to the different political and economic scenarios from Francoism to the different subsequent events of the world order. Unlike other industries, for Grifols, because of the nature of its blood products industry, wars represented significant growth opportunities.
The most important factors in Grifols' international competitive success can be summarized as:
• High level of R&D since its inception.
• Ownership of patents (673 until 2010) that considerably hinder access to new competitors.
• Aggressive internationalization strategies.
• High positioning in a global blood products oligopolistic industry.
Grifols' presence in the markets of countries that unfortunately are criticized for frequently incurring corruption, and given the evident response to this company's products, it is necessary to ask whether part of this success lies in involving strategies of this nature.
Bibliography
- abc.es, 2012. abc.es. Available at:
1533839543001.html.Gant, R., 2006. Strategic direction. Concepts, techniques and applications. Madrid: ThomsonCivitas.Góngora-Biachi, RA, 2005. Blood in the history of humanity. Biomed, Issue 16, pp. 281-288.Grifols.com, 2012. grifols.com. Available at: http://www.grifols.com/portal/es/grifols/secciones.Guerras, L., Navas, J. & Rimbau, E., 2008. Strategic direction and policy of the company, vol. I. Barcelona: Eureca Media SAL López, A., Méndez, J. & Dones, M., 2009. Key factors of regional competitiveness. Territorial aspects of development # 848, pp. 125-140. Rodríguez, Á., 2010. Internal factors that affect the competitiveness of companies in the southern area of Tamaulipas. Industrial Engineering Magazine, vol. 4, pp. 1-13.
