The Six Biogen ‘Elements’ Permeate our Culture and Drive Our Mission as Pioneers in Neuroscience

• Our Elements: Customer Focused, Inclusive, Pioneering, Agile, Accountable, Ethical
• These six Elements inform our leadership, expand our impact and fuel our growth
• Performance management, leadership development and recognition are now aligned behind the Biogen Elements

Beginning with a small Geneva meeting between our five founders — Charles Weissman, Heinz Schaller, Kenneth Murray and Nobel Prize winners Walter Gilbert and Phillip Sharp — in 1978, Biogen has grown into a vast organization working in many countries around the world. So how, we wondered recently, do we permeate all we do with our philosophy of Caring Deeply. Working Fearlessly. Changing Lives.™ even as we continue to change and grow?

Our answer is the Biogen Elements, six core ideals that give form and shape to our culture that were first launched in 2018. As the elements of the periodic table are the building blocks of nature, these six Elements are woven into the fabric of our every action.

The first Biogen Element, ‘Cf’ represents our strong customer focus while ‘In’ is emblematic of our commitment to inclusion. ‘P’ signifies our mission as pioneers in neuroscience. ‘Ag’ embodies agility and adaptability in a world of change and innovation while ‘A’ symbolizes accountability for our results and the impact we have. Finally, ‘E’ epitomizes our adherence to the highest of ethical standards. 

Practically speaking, the Biogen Elements reflect how we work and are now embedded directly in our workflows and into our employee lifecycle, beginning with recruitment and continuing through performance management. Our Inclusive (In) Element, for example, informs our strategy of hiring a diverse workforce. We even celebrate and recognize one another’s contributions through the ‘Elements’ lens — from our BIG Awards (our peer-to-peer acknowledgements) to our CEO Elements awards, all of which are aligned with the six Biogen Elements.

Our Supply Chain Resiliency Team, for example, won a Biogen Elements award in 2018 for ensuring continuity of critical supplies despite serious supplier issues during a hurricane. They were selected for embodying the Customer Focused (Cf), Pioneering (P), Agile (Ag) and Accountable (A) Elements.

With the Biogen Elements as our bedrock, informing our leadership, expanding our impact and fueling our growth, we believe we are even better equipped to fulfill our mission as pioneers in neuroscience.