Reporting on performance
Novo Nordisk reports on business performance in one, inclusive document, the Annual Report. This move reflects the company’s objective to ‘strive to conduct our activities in a financially, environmentally and socially responsible way’.
The Annual Report 2007 is a presentation of the company’s performance during the year, our achievements and our challenges. It comprises two main elements: the management report and the consolidated financial and non-financial statements.
The management report describes how we do business and explains how we will continue to create long-term value for shareholders and for other stakeholders.
The section Welcome to Novo Nordisk offers a quick introduction to the business and a letter from the chairman of the Board and the president and chief executive officer.
The section Business results presents the company’s strategy, opportunities and key risks, followed by an overview of performance in 2007, with highlights, progress, comparative data and commentary. The pipeline overview and progress illustrates development projects aimed to secure Novo Nordisk’s future growth.
The section Business environment elaborates on Novo Nordisk’s key challenges as a global healthcare company. It puts performance into context, with insights into how Novo Nordisk responds to an increasingly competitive environment and to the business implications of a globalising world. In the articles, we present a review of activities, strategies, ambitions and opportunities in light of the past year and looking ahead.
In our selection of themes, we have chosen to focus on presenting the drivers that will enable Novo Nordisk to pursue our vision and achieve our strategic objectives: our approach to doing business, our people and the resources we put into supporting each of the two business segments – diabetes care and biopharmaceuticals.
The sections Diabetes care and Biopharmaceuticals provide an update of the past year’s achievements in each business segment and initiatives to drive continued growth.
The section Shareholder information contains a description of Novo Nordisk’s approach to corporate governance and remuneration policy. It also provides profiles of board members and Executive Management as well as information on the Novo Nordisk share.
The consolidated financial and non-financial statements (including the financial statements of the parent company) give a detailed account of the year’s performance with comparative data.
Additional information and the full data set on the Interative Charts environmental and social performance are available. See the full list of consolidated performance data and interactive charts.
Integrated approach to reporting
Novo Nordisk continues the process to drive integration of the financial and non-financial perspectives on business and seeks to reflect this in the approach to reporting. In the absence of global standards for inclusive reporting, this approach takes its point of departure in current standards for mandatory financial reporting and current guidelines for voluntary non-financial reporting. The aim is to drive business performance and enhance shareholder value by exploring the interactions between financial and non-financial objectives. This entails alignment of key priorities, target-setting and definition of key performance indicators, in consultation with internal and external stakeholders.
Novo Nordisk recognises the challenges of reporting within two distinctly different frameworks. However, we deem that the benefits of presenting one view of the company’s performance outweigh the drawbacks, and we are continuously working to improve disclosure and transparent reporting.
The Annual Report is prepared in respect of current best practice and the principles of materiality, completeness and responsiveness. Stakeholder engagement informs the process, which also incorporates independent expert reviews of the company’s annual reporting. The selection of information included in the annual reporting reflects evolving priorities in response to business and societal challenges.
Evolution in reporting
A look at “Fifteen years of reporting—an evolution” can be found here.
Our on-line reports are available here:
- Sustainability Report 2003
- Environmental and Social Report 1999
