I don't want to disparage an entire group of people since there were some exceptions but from the level of Director on up, what was first and foremost was themselves and their careers with the interests of the stockholders second. The patients maybe came next and last of all, the employees.
You would think, with the stock not moving an inch since JP Garnier retired, that the Board would realize that British people are just not good at running a company. The English are terrific strategists but that's all they do. There's no execution of strategies. These position papers get stored on a company website which most employees do not have access to but for some reason, they believe these strategic plans are being carried out.
I remember being put in charge alone of all GSK's North, Central and South American sites which my VP at the time thought was reasonable while I had 11 counterparts in London who could not support any projects in little England because they "didn't have the resources."
Despite the US being the top market for sales, British management seemed to have no concept of the size of the United States. For example, I would be ordered by senior management to find one electrical (or painting or drywall, etc.) company to service all US sites, even though GSK's US sites are scattered throughout the country! They would visit a site like St. Louis and say they would stop by Pennsylvania on the weekend by car and would be shocked when I said in that timeframe they would have to fly here. Just because you can travel almost anywhere in the UK by train within hours, they thought the US was the same. Unbelievable!
Also, there was absolutely no legal support for contracts. It was expected that site engineers would enter into contractual relationships without any Procurement or Legal advice. I'm not criticizing site engineers who are first rate at what they do but this would be like an attorney reviewing drawings for construction projects.
GSK needs an ambitious American in charge if they ever want to grow as a company.
