I worked at the GSK Corporate HQ in Brentford. In many ways GSK is a great place to work, good benefits, work life balance etc, but it is beset with inefficiency. There are a legion of overpaid middle to senior managers engaged in repackaging others work in an endless hall of mirrors comprised of powerpoint presentations that deliver zero change. Projects that in other companies might take 3 months are transformed into Steering Groups, Committees, stakeholders discussions etc and take literally years before people forget what the project was about and the project is rebadged and the clock starts over again. T&E waste was also on an incredible scale with completely unnecessary trips and staff grabbing their air miles. Hal Baron came in as a fated rock star who would with one touch transform the R&D pipeline into gold. I didn't see it. I did however see 620k of GBP in hotels and flight costs being racked up in just one year to pay for Baron to traverse between CA and Brentford. Admittedly working next to the A4 is not that glamorous, but if you don't want to based at the Global HQ why take the job? When Walmsely came in we were expecting change in the management culture which was far to complacent and bloated. Unfortunately it hasn't happened. There is a culture of don't rock the boat, this is a nice gig, let's keep milking it. The share price which has under-performed for years reflects this. Possibly breaking the company up will help. I think they could delayer a large portion of middle to senior management (particularly those who have been there for years) and it would massively improve the efficiency of the company. Again a good place work, but perhaps a bit too much of a gossip and social club than a commercial operation.
