AstraZeneca Annual Report and Form 20-F Information 2008

Embedded in business processes

Risk is an inherent part of doing business, and our approach to risk management is designed to encourage clear decisions on which risks we should take and to provide assurance that the commercial, financial, compliance and reputation implications of these risks are adequately understood and managed to an acceptable level.

We constantly strive to ensure that risk management is embedded within our existing business processes and performance management processes. The Group maintains a long-term business plan, updated annually, to support the delivery of its strategy. Each Senior Executive Team (SET) area and key functions are required to provide a comprehensive assessment of their risks as part of the annual business plan update. The Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer undertake quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with each SET area at which the key risks are reviewed. To support this review, key functions within each SET area are required to provide quarterly updates on their key risks.

Our Code of Conduct and Global Policy framework require all employees to maintain consistent standards of responsible behaviour. Compliance with the Code of Conduct, the related policies and standards is mandatory. Employees are encouraged to raise questions about how to apply these standards and to report suspected breaches and incidents of non-compliance through our continuous assurance process or the AZethics line and other reporting channels described in the Code of Conduct. Compliance with mandatory standards is also subject to ongoing monitoring and review by our compliance functions and Group Internal Audit (GIA), in accordance with its annual plan, agreed with the SET and the Audit Committee.

To strengthen further our high-level corporate responsibility (CR) management capability, during late 2007/early 2008 we established a dedicated Global CR Team of experienced CR professionals from around the Group. The Global CR Team leads the development of our CR strategy and the alignment of tactical delivery, working closely with Global Compliance to ensure that the CR risks and opportunities are identified and managed appropriately, in line with business objectives.

In early 2009, we developed a combined Compliance and Corporate Responsibility ‘Responsible Business’ scorecard with defined objectives and accountabilities, to track performance consistently across all SET areas and enable quarterly reporting to SET, the Audit Committee and Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell (the Non-Executive Director with responsibility for overseeing CR within the Company), as well as annual reporting to the Board and SET. We plan to introduce this new scorecard during 2009.

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