Practitioner’s Perspective – Madeleine Roach on Sanofi’s Journey to Scale Hubs and Business Operations for Enterprise-wide Impact

Sanofi’s business operations transformation offers a clear blueprint for how enterprises can scale global capabilities to meet strategic goals. This Practitioner’s Perspective shares Sanofi’s journey of building and evolving regional hubs – spanning Bogotá, Hyderabad, Budapest, Kuala Lumpur, and Barcelona – each designed to serve specific roles across finance, HR, digital, medical operations, research and development, and more. With leadership from the business operations function, Sanofi has worked to align hub operations with broader enterprise strategy, emphasizing agility, value delivery, and cross-functional integration.

The perspective from the biopharmaceutical company’s Executive Vice President of Business Operations, Madeleine Roach, provides a candid view into the leadership, governance, and change management required to drive such transformation. A key message is the need for top-down support coupled with deep, hands-on execution across the organization’s layers. As Sanofi continues to evolve its network, including unifying its Barcelona operations into a consolidated innovation-focused hub by 2025, this interview offers actionable insights for peers embarking on similar journeys.