GlaxoSmithKline: A Journey from the Foundation to the Creation of a Global Reporting: Business Analytics Assignment, UCD

Case Study

GlaxoSmithKline: A journey from the foundation to the creation of a global Reporting & Analytics organization

Introduction

This case study outlines the unique journey over two decades by one global organization in the development of People Analytics across the enterprise. The various stages of evolution were influenced by the organisation’s strategy and priorities; market forces in the Pharmaceutical and Consumer Healthcare industries; HR strategy and company culture; technology development and investments; and requirements to support the redesign of their HR Operating Model. As of now their vision of a data driven insights-based organisation has yet to be fully realised.

Background

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was formed in late December 2000 through the merger between of two global mid-scale pharmaceutical companies Glaxo Welcome and SmithKline Beecham. The new company had its headquarters in London and were listed on both London and New York stock exchanges.

A consequence of this federated model was that achieving global consistency and leveraging scale was extremely difficult to achieve. Inevitably significant variations developed over time between business units in each region but also within businesses operating in individual countries. Information technology (IT) under cost pressures was the first support function that sought to apply globally consistent and standardized approaches in terms of applications, support and processes.

Phase 1: beginning of integration of activities across Europe in 2003

GSK’s global pharmaceuticals business was split into 3 divisions, US; International; and Europe. The European pharmaceuticals business was under significant pressure as a result of governments seeking drug price reductions, expiring products patents, new market entry barriers e.g. NICE in UK1; and a gap in the new product pipeline.

Phase 2: New CEO transformation accelerates global reporting in 2008

Having successfully transformed Pharmaceuticals Europe, Andrew Witty, was appointed GSK CEO in May 2008. He immediately began to expand the transformation initiatives globally. He set up a CEO Transformation Office to co-ordinate business redesign and the implementation of new initiatives across all three global business units and support functions. For support functions the focus was on moving to a more consistent, global service and support model.

Phase 3 – Implementation of one global HR system 2012 to 2015

The implementation of HR Transformation throughout 2008-2011 was deemed a success with HR meeting its cost and headcount reduction targets while fully supporting other businesses and functions in their transformation. With the new HR model stable and in place the HR Transformation office was disbanded with implementation at a ‘business as usual’ phase.

Phase 4 – HR Global Operations and People Analytics Global Centre of Excellence formed 2016

With one HR system and global processes in place the next phase of HR transformation, based on the outcome of the feasibility study by the HR Evolution team, was to bring all country-based HR services under one global organisation.

Questions

1. What were the key challenges in the development and implementation of an integrated HR support and a data insight-based decision-making culture within GSK?

2. Why should a global organisation separate operational reporting from strategic analytics?

3. Data is the foundation of all HR systems in terms of service operation, reporting and analytics. Yet, failure to address data requirements is often a major weakness in HR systems resulting in lack of confidence in data quality and lower adoption and usage. Discuss.

4. HR operating model design is core to people analytics. Discuss using examples in the case study.