Amgen Inc Case AnalysisThe biotechnology company Amgen Inc. pays a lot of attention and time to the planning process. Since the results for a company like Amgen are often very uncertain and many employees are quite skeptical about the use of such planning, the main question can be described as follows: What is the added value of planning for a fast-growing company in an uncertain and dynamic environment? To address this issue, an analysis will follow based on the following elements: Responsibility structure Amgen Inc. is a biotechnology company. The responsibilities of product development teams (PDTs) can be described as “discretionary cost centers.” The output of a PDT is therefore difficult to connect to its input. Based on the long-term planning, a reasonably clear definition is given of the budget available for each of the teams. Early-stage research is subject to less strict policies. Planning and Budgeting Within Amgen, a lot of time and effort is spent creating long-term planning (LTP). In the early days of Amgen, strategic planning was executed by senior management and implemented from the top down. The PDTs then created their own budgets and 5-year planning. Later, Amgen's planning process developed into an interactive process in which planning and information from PDTs are also used from the bottom up. Amgen's LTP is now primarily prepared as a capital budget, with PDTs having their own operational budget. The current interactive planning process ensures that employees are better informed and greater commitment to planning is established. In the beginning, the LTP was mainly focused on finances. After the initial success of some of its products, Amgen's LTP devotes more attention to qualitative goals....... middle of paper ...... sensitive to financial rewards, the reward system should be more focused on soft rewards (additional facilities, more flexible hours, additional privileges). The problem of middle managers not actively using the plans could be addressed by more frequent evaluation of the plans. Indeed, middle managers recognize that reviewing plans creates added value by checking whether they are still doing the right things. By evaluating plans quarterly, commitment will increase, without losing the necessary flexibility.Bibliography:- Merchant, K., Planning and Budgeting Systems, in: Merchant KA, WA van der Stede, Management Control Systems, Performance Measurement, Evaluation and Incentives, Prentice Hall, 2007- Simons, R., Building a profit plan, in: Simons, R., Performance Measurement & Control Systems for Implementing Strategy, Prentice Hall, 2000