GlaxoSmithKline

The story so far...

Achievement

Grow a team of leaders, operational excellence, delivered business objectives.

Situation

GSK wanted to create a Global IT centre in Asia to deliver cost savings and better support the Regional Businesses.

Merriweather helped Director, Alison Dyer, build a team to deliver this from start up through to becoming a successful part of GSK’s Global business strategy that is continuing to save GSK millions of dollars. She has demonstrated what is possible to achieve in the Region through an outstanding focus on leadership & teamwork and has established an outstanding reputation for leading a winning team who have the X factor – an accountable team of leaders who get things done.

Business Challenges

Before Merriweather - A New Concept and Challenging Targets

Alison’s primary goal was to grow a local team of leaders who would deliver world class operational services to GSK and in the process pass on cost savings of millions of pounds. Her main challenges included:

• Delivering operational IT services for a growing number of GSK businesses
• Driving cost saving measures
• Growing a local team of leaders
• Engaging & managing stakeholders
• Developing internal processes and governance
• Attracting and retaining staff

“I was wearing so many hats to begin with – working on the financial model, the budgets, facilities, recruitment,” says Alison. “I was 100% operational all the time. I had no time to stand back and plan what needed to be done.”

The Measure of Transformation

Applying the Merriweather Business Improvement Programme

Building a culture of accountability and genuine leadership didn’t happen overnight but by Q3 2010, there was major breakthrough when the team delivered 93% of their commitments compared to 52% in the previous quarter.

After two years, the level of leadership at GITC is high enough to make processes repeatable and sustainable. The GITC has successfully made the transition from start-up to a core part of GSK’s strategy.

A reputation for attracting the best talent locally is shown by the increase from an initial team of 30 to an office of over 200 high calibre staff members and plans to recruit the same again. The GITC is also moving to a new office to provide the larger team with the environment they need to deliver their Business Objectives.

As part of the BIP process, Merriweather measures the team effectiveness throughout the journey using the programme success factors.

Programme Success factors reported by the team:

The transformation I have seen in my team includes greater trust and openness, improved co-operation and alignment of goals. I knew from past experience of this program that the Merriweather programme would overcome at least 75% of the team’s dysfunction.

• More discipline
• Holding each other accountable
• A greater sense of ownership
• More unity
• More organisation and structure
• Better focus on the right tasks

Programme Success factors reported by the leader:

• Real leadership
• Holding themselves accountable
• A focus on collective results
• A volunteer mentality
• Always looking for the next opportunity
• Thinking of the changes that would inspire GSK
• Senior executives are now championing the Global IT Centre

"Merriweather’s quarterly business improvement programme has become the ‘must attend’ event of our leadership team calendar – a chance to take a step back, assess how we’ve been doing and provide clarity to the whole organisation on the priorities for the next 3 months. As a team, we come out of these sessions performing as a single unit, united and aligned in our way forward. Without Merriweather, we wouldn’t be enjoying the successes that we’re becoming famous for."

Alison Dyer

Director