About

Novo Nordisk’s business in Chile went through a major structural overhaul between 2015 and 2017, and its legal function played a pivotal role in the successful conclusion of this process. Following a decision to optimise its internal structure the company liquidated one of its branch offices in Chile, reviewing and re-negotiating with vendors across the entire organisation. ‘Our top five vendors were all re-evaluated and then either changed or we had terms and conditions optimised to better serve us,’ recalls the legal division head Andres Vasquez Obando. Following a joint assessment by the team and other lines of business that some of the company’s distributors were sub-optimal for the expected growth, Novo Nordisk changed the set up in other countries managed from Chile. ‘Mainly we decided to change our distributors in three countries in the South American Sub Region (Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Chile),’ says Vasquez. ‘We also incorporated a new legal entity in Peru to better address our business needs and continue to grow in the country’. The real achievement for the team here lies in the successful navigation of the company through this important transformation, by ensuring as much continuity in its work as possible. According to Vasquez ‘there were no fines, litigations or contractual penalties paid’, and his team managed to successfully ‘negotiate and agree on the terms of the termination without any litigation dragging on’. In parallel to this transformation in the wider company, Novo Nordisk’s legal team introduced improvement to its own internal operations by reviewing and revising all of its contracting practices, developing new templates and implementing an automated approval process flow for its must recurrent types of contract. ‘This reduced our time reviewing and approving contracts, it gave different lines of business the independence to move forward faster but in compliance of our internal and external requirements,’ Vasquez says. Besides Vasquez, the team’s legal and compliance coordinator Marianne Pichhott has received wide praise for her significant contributions to the automation of the department’s process flow. ‘Having a committed team that believes in the direction of the function enabled us to move at a rapid pace while also ensuring compliance with our internal processes’ says Vasquez when referring to his colleagues’ contribution.