The Sanofi Cup

At French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, we needed a spark; something to ignite a culture change that would take our internal business transformation to the next level. Employees all knew our “One Sanofi” global integration story by this point. Now we needed them to truly feel part of one company.

“The Sanofi Cup,” our own internal Olympiad, became a company sensation: 26,000 employees worldwide voluntarily embarked on a year-long quest to complete challenges together (sports, volunteering, etc.) to earn enough points to qualify for the grand final, when 277 Sanofi “athletes” would represent their countries or regions in competition at Paris’ illustrious Stade Charléty – a sporting spectacular timed to coincide with the Paris 2024 Games. This one initiative drove the largest participation of any employee engagement programme in Sanofi’s history. And when 10,000 voluntarily attended the final in person or tuned in worldwide to cheer on colleagues, we knew we had finally created a true sense of global togetherness.