Igniting the Olympic Spirit at Sanofi

How do you jump-start culture change? At pharma company Sanofi, three years into a global integration of 50+ businesses, we needed that spark. Employees knew the “One Sanofi” story now, but truly seeing it as one company – and instinctively feeling they were “Sanofians” – was still a challenge. We needed something bold. A signal. Action.

So we decided to invest in an external sponsorship (Paris 2024) to ignite our internal transformation. Leaning into core Olympic values, the results were extraordinary. The Sanofi Cup, our internal Olympiad, drove the largest voluntary participation in company history – 26,000 employees got involved and 10,000 watched the Final live. Globally, 2,000+ Sanofians seized the chance to help run the Games as Volunteers, 297 carried the Olympic flame, and thousands more took part in Torch Relays. And with 6,000+ Sanofians in Paris during the Games, we rebuilt our HQ into a 1,000m2 journey through our company story – sending our colleagues home supercharged as company ambassadors. Six weeks after the Closing Ceremony, employee advocacy for Sanofi had trebled, and initiatives originally designed as one-offs (Sanofi Cup and Exhibition) had already received sign off to continue beyond the Games.