The Novo Nordisk Way

Novo Nordisk is a focused healthcare company dedicated to leading the fight against diabetes. In this promise lies a clear business rationale and a social commitment deeply rooted in the company's way of doing business. Effective prevention, early diagnosis and optimum treatment improve the health of people with diabetes. This is what drives Novo Nordisk's mission of changing diabetes. As a world leader in diabetes care, the company pursues its aspiration to defeat diabetes while building its business on sustained and balanced growth.

Novo Nordisk is a public limited liability company. Within this framework, shareholders have the ultimate authority to exercise decisions for the company. The company 'strives to conduct its activities in a financially, environmentally and socially responsible way'. This statement is anchored in the Articles of Association and embraces the principles upon which the company was founded.

This formal commitment to sustainable development and balanced growth has been built into the corporate governance structures, management tools and individual performance assessments. The principle of 'preserving the planet while improving the quality of life for its current and future inhabitants' resonates well with Novo Nordisk's business rationale and its values-based approach. This is what lies behind the Triple Bottom Line, which the company has adopted as a broad business principle. It ensures that decision-making balances financial growth with corporate responsibility, short-term gains with long-term profitability, and shareholder return with stakeholder interests.

Novo Nordisk's holistic approach to doing business is anchored in the Novo Nordisk Way of Management, which is the framework for how the company does business. It consists of three elements: the vision, the Charter - describing company values, its commitment to the Triple Bottom Line and Fundamentals - and 13 global company policies giving operational guidelines within specific areas. Frequently consulted and often quoted, these are the words with which new Novo Nordisk people first become acquainted.

To ensure performance to the highest standards, whether legal or ethical, global or company-specific, the Novo Nordisk Way of Management has built-in follow-up methods that seek to ensure systematic and validated documentation of performance to the company's values-based management system.

• The Balanced Scorecard is applied as the management tool for key priorities in a short-term perspective. Corporate goals, both financial and non-financial, are cascaded through the organisation to functional areas.
• The annual reporting accounts for performance against short-term and long-term targets, strategies, activities, risk profile and key business opportunities.
• Facilitations, a unique set-up across the Novo Group, measure Novo Nordisk's governance performance at unit level, facilitate organisational learning and help align projects with business targets.

Read more about the Novo Nordisk Way of Management and the company's vision.

Novo Nordisk's ownership is split between holders of A and B shares. A shares are held by Novo A/S, a holding company fully owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and established in 1999 to manage the Foundation's assets and actively invest in life science businesses. With its holdings of 25.5% of the total share capital and 71% of the votes, it maintains a controlling influence and a long-term view to value creation. Through this lens, social and environmental aspects and their financial implications are factored into decision-making.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation is a privately owned self-governing institution. Its objectives are to provide a stable basis for the commercial and research activities undertaken by the companies in the Novo Group and to support scientific, humanitarian and social efforts. The majority of its grants go to medical and scientific projects.

Novo Nordisk remains committed to the principles of good corporate governance such as transparency, accountability, openness, integrity and responsibility in its operations. The company is in general in compliance with the codes of good corporate governance designated by the stock exchanges in Copenhagen, New York and London, where Novo Nordisk is listed. Read more about the company's approach to corporate governance. As a Danish public limited liability company Novo Nordisk has a two-tier board structure consisting of two separate bodies: the Board of Directors and Executive Management.

This page has been assessed by PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of its assessment of Novo Nordisk’s statement that it reports ‘in accordance’ with GRI. Please refer to Audit and assurance for a full description of the nature of assurance offered.