ABSTRACT
The chemical and pharmaceutical group Rhône Poulenc is represented in more than 160 countries. It has four main business divisions: agro-chemicals, chemicals, synthetic fibres and pharmaceuticals. The divisions are organised as business units and have management responsibility for their worldwide activities. A group-level executive committee makes all strategic decisions and maintains the cohesion of the group. Individual subsidiaries are subject to rigorous performance scrutiny by group management. In 1990 Rhone Poulenc and the US pharmaceutical concern Rorer Group Inc placed their pharmaceutical activities into a joint venture in which Rhône Poulenc holds a 60 per cent stake. The aim of achieving critical mass in pharmaceuticals worldwide and being in the first ten companies in the field, and in the first five in the other core areas, had almost been attained by 1991. Rhone Poulenc ranked seventh amongst the largest chemical concerns.
