Management Assignment: Business Consultancy Report For GSK

Question

Task: You are requested to write a consultancy report on management assignment of 2,500 words. You should identify ONE major responsible management challenge your case company currently faces, and analyse it in the context of the company’s existing responsible management practices. You should then make recommendations for how the company should address the challenge through a combination of TWO or THREE different business functions (e.g. strategy, marketing, accounting, HRM, and supply chains etc.). Your analysis and recommendations should be supported by research, and you should clearly indicate how the functions will work together to solve the challenge identified.

Answer

Background Of Management Assignment
GSK, an organization operating in the health care industry is dedicated towards delivery products along with services in three main aspects, which includes vaccines, pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare. The company has a strong and ethical corporate culture. The company has been successful in its business due to its innovations in pharmaceuticals, like oncology, immuno-inflammation and respiratory. They also provide vaccines for different age groups and for various phases in life (GSK, 2022a). Through the consumer healthcare it facilitates diseases treatment, pain relief and healthy lifestyle.
Responsible management challenges refer to the problems which are associated with going ‘sustainable’ in approach. The management faces problem in aligning sustainability with business (Širca et al, 2018). Sustainability must be integrated intothe supply chain and core business. The company, GSK, in terms of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), has outperformed its peers in the health care industry. This attracts the investors as they look for non-financial attributes while investing in a company. GSK is aiming at developing a sustainable business. The focus of the company is on sustainable aspects like transparency, integrity, respect and patient focus. However, abiding closely by these ESG, leads to various responsible management challenges. The environmental concern of GSK has led it towards reducing its energy consumption. This has led to a major challenge, which will be analysed in this paper. A combination of corporate functions like strategy, HR and marketing will be implemented to address the challenge. Furthermore, recommendations will be made for GSK to improve its business while maintaining its sustainability.

Analysis of Major Responsible Management Challenge
In the recent years, governing bodies, environmentalists, politicians and corporate leaders are constantly focused on sustainable business practices so that it has less impact on the climate. Ethical management of firm’s operation that helps in balancing the interest of the environment, people and the entire world is known as responsible management. The company, GSK, is trying to meet the environmental requirements keeping the sustainability aspect in mind. For ensuring and enhancing environmental protection, the company has amended its production procedure. This change is being reflected positively in the ESG performance. However, the annual financial reports show a downfall. The company through its business activities has tried to reduce the carbon emissions. They have increased their energy recycling rate and much more (GSK, 2022b) This has been achieved through some significant changes in the supply chain and operations. GSK now emits lesser amount of carbon because it uses less fuel. It reduced the consumption of natural gas and electricity in its business processes. This is a good step towards sustainability. But this also implies less production due to less usage of fuel. The company has also taken a responsible step where it makes responsible and optimal usage of water. They have not only reduced the volume but also increased the recycling of water. They are discharging less water.

These responsible actions of GSK are affecting its business leading to management challenges. The improvement in the ESG performance is restricting the business activities of GSK in various ways. The company has reduced the use of energy. This has resulted in the loss of significant amount of short run profits. The company is sacrificing on this profit because it has its responsibility towards the environment. This has also led to increased expenses. The company is having to incur higher costs for building new facilities with less use of energy. However, the company is not compromising on the quality and safety of the consumers. Therefore, their quality is always of the highest quality. They are constantly developing and innovating. To make the business procedures energy efficient, GSK is having to make higher investments. Thus, the overall costs of operation increases. During the pandemic, when the consumers needed quality assured products for health care, GSK supplied the best products to its consumers keeping the sustainability and responsible management in mind. To balance this sustainability and product quality, the company had to lose on its profit margin. The implementation of clean tech, transparency and sustainability can create resource pressure. Though the cut in use of energy could seem to be a loss in business profits, for the long run it is a good investment. The energy efficiency would reduce the operating costs of the business in the long run (Johansson and Thollander, 2018). In the short run, it would mean reduced production and increased cost of installation and innovation. However, this green energy in the long run would reduce the wastage of resources and also reduce the cost of operations.

The responsible management challenges due to use of less energy or adoption of environment friendly and sustainable approach arise because of certain reasons. First of all, the immediate returns on investment (ROI) reduces when sustainable approach is adopted in business (Chowdhury et al, 2018). Thus, it might seem difficult to convince the stakeholders for this shift towards sustainability. Moreover, the consumers mind set is also important while going green. The consumers should be conscious and aware of the sustainability needs and actions of the company. This will motivate them to associate and purchase from sustainable organizations. Furthermore, initially when a company adopts eco-friendly and sustainable approach, the output will not be equal to input. This might create doubts in the mind of the management (Tetiana et al, 2018).

Analysis of Corporate Functions
Human resource is an important aspect of modern-day business. Organizations operating in various sectors are constantly focused on developing effective human resource strategies to overcome major challenges and gain competitive advantage. There is no exception in case of GSK. The HR leaders of the company has always made sure to help grow exciting minds within the organization. These exciting minds can be further be used to develop the productivity of the firm. HR leaders also train employees within the workplace so that they are well-aware of the changes in the global market and the needs and demands of the customers. Once, employees within the workplace are well-informed about the activities of the global market then they can easily develop relevant and effective strategies.The organization has also launched a graduate programme that aims at training employees within the firm that can further help GSK become a high performing company in the healthcare sector (GSK, 2022c). Moreover, in the above part of the report, it can be found that GSK is unable to incur short-term profit due to sustainable actions taken by the organization. Therefore, to overcome this financial challenge the strategic leaders of the organization have made sure to focus on the sales growth of the firm. The corporate leaders of the organization have made sure to reach sales more than 33 billion Euro by the next 10 years. The organization also expects to increase cash generation of the firm by 2026 (GSK, 2021). Therefore, from the above discussion it can be found that the strategic leaders of GSK emphasized on achieving short term financial goals so that GSK can prevent themselves from incurring losses and can achieve further goals in the coming years.

In addition to this, convincing stakeholders about sustainable management practices have also been identified as one of the major challenges that are faced by GSK. It is found that customers are often confused about sustainable business practices. Thus, it is the utmost responsibility of the marketing team of the organization to focus on promoting the benefits of sustainable business practices. This can increase awareness among customers in various ways. In the year 2020, GSK launched a press release where they announced new environmental goals. The press release focus on demonstrating the constant change in the climate that is having a negative impact on the health of human and other organisms in general. In the press release, the marketing practitioners not only announced sustainable targets of the company but they have also made sure to discuss how sustainable business practices can enhance the value of the shareholders and the stakeholders of the firm (GSK, 2020). Furthermore, GSK also launched a campaign named “smile change lives”. The objective behind this campaign is to treat children with clefts and remove any kind of stigma associated with clefts. Thus, this campaign portrays GSK’s contribution to the society. Furthermore, it also ensures awareness among the members of the society regarding clefts (Cristea, 2021). Thus, from the above discussion it is clear that the corporate leaders of GSK have undertaken various strategies on the basis of department to overcome challenges that have come along with sustainable business practices. Since, global market condition has become very volatile therefore, it is the utmost responsibility of all the departments of the firm to develop effective and cognitive strategies that can be well aligned with the organization. These strategies will not help GSK to overcome market challenges but it will also help the organization to focus on continuous improvement of productivity of the firm.

Recommendations
The objective of this section of the report is to provide constructive recommendations to the management team of GSK so that they can overcome responsible management challenges in the most effective way.

• It is highly recommended to the marketing team of GSK to launch campaigns that emphasizes on importance of sustainable business practices and importance of usage of sustainable products. Customers and other external stakeholders of the organisation often gets confused about the sustainable products. Customers think that sustainable products might cost high and hence they start avoiding such products. Thus, it is the core responsibility of the marketing practitioners to formulate campaigns that can enhance awareness among customers and other external stakeholders. The long-term benefits of sustainability should be communicated by the marketers to the customers. This will not only help GSK to recover short term losses that the company is incurring but it will also help the firm to inform long term benefits that the organization can bring if sustainable business practices are properly executed by the firm.
• In the above section of the report, it has been found that GSK has made sure to reduce the usage of energy. This led to decrease in short run profits of the firm because the operating expenses of the firm have increased. Thus, it is highly recommended to the organization’s strategic leaders to focus on empowering employees so that they can indulge themselves in innovative actions. Strategic leaders should make sure to motivate employees so that they can attend brainstorming sessions. Operational innovation can help the firm reduce operating expenses even after decreasing the usage of energy. Strategic innovation undertaken by the strategic team of GSK can also be collaborated with the marketing department of the firm. It is recommended to the strategic leaders of the firm to provide innovative campaign ideas like social media campaigns and many more. This can increase the reach of the products/services and the process of operation among a greater number of customers across the world.
• HR team of an organisation plays a major role in developing reformed vision and mission. As mentioned earlier, constant sustainable business practices are reducing the profit generation of the firm. Profit within a firm can be increased by reducing the expenses or the cost of operation within the workplace.Moreover, cost reduction within the firm can be possible by reforming the process of operation of the organization.Thus, it is recommended to the HR team of the firm to review the vision, mission and other strategic goals of the firm. Once, the mission and vision are reviewed thoroughly then it can be restructured as required. To achieve new set of goals the HR team of the firm should form new initiatives and new targets. Employees within the firm should be trained so that they can work to accomplish new goals within the firm. Updated mission and vision of the firm not only helps employee to accomplish new set of goals but it also motivates them to work towards something new and innovative that further contributes to the firm. Therefore, it can also help GSK overcome the short-term financial losses that the company has incurred due to responsible management and can also help the firm enhance productivity within the organization.
• It is often found that short-term losses within the workplace enhances grievance among a greater number of investors. Investors often prevent themselves from investing in a firm who is incurring financial losses. There is no exception in case of GSK. Investors or shareholders were not happy with the decision that strategic leaders of the firm have undertaken. Thus, it is recommended to the senior managers of the firm to enhance awareness among investors. The short-term financial goals should be communicated to the investors in the form of press release and annual report. Furthermore, investors should also be informed about the long-term benefits that can the company will witness after ensuring sustainable business practices.

Thus, from the above discussion it is clear that it is the collective responsibility of the strategic, marketing and the HR team of the organization to focus on overcoming responsible management challenges that GSK is incurring after integration of sustainable business operations within the workplace. Furthermore, from the above discussion it can be also found that coordination and collaboration between business functions are of utmost importance because it helps firms across the world to overcome any form of challenges.

Conclusion
The recycling of resources is increased and more energy is being saved by GSK. It can be concluded that the company has been doing very well in terms of its environmental and sustainable responsibility. However, the company is facing the responsible management challenge. The inclination towards sustainability has reduced the profit margins and the business volume. Thus, it has to combine its corporate functions and strategically integrate sustainability into the business. The recommendations should be followed so that the manufacturing and production is not hampered while addressing the environmental and social concerns. From the report it can be concluded that strategy, HR and marketing business functions can help GSK overcome the responsible management challenges that the organization is facing after implementation of sustainable business practices. The corporate leaders, marketing practitioners and the human resource team of the firm is constantly focused on developing effective strategies that can help the firm overcome challenges. The report concludes that the strategic leaders of the firm is forming short-term financial goals and are also empowering employees within the firm to achieve these goals so that the company can prevent themselves form incurring short-term losses. Marketing practitioners of the firm has also collaborated with various other agents to launch campaigns that enhances awareness among stakeholders of the firm regarding sustainable business functions. Despite, undertaking several measures GSK is still facing few challenges. Thus, at the end of the report few recommendations have been made. The recommendations conclude that it is the core responsibility of each and every members of the organization irrespective of their department to come together and develop innovative strategies. This can further help the firm to perform better in the global market and also gain relevant competitive advantage.

References
Chowdhury, J.I., Hu, Y., Haltas, I., Balta-Ozkan, N. and Varga, L., 2018. Reducing industrial energy demand in the UK: A review of energy efficiency technologies and energy saving potential in selected sectors. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 94, pp.1153-1178.
Cristea M.A., 2021. GSK Consumer Healthcare, in partnership with Smile Train, launches ”Smiles Change Lives” campaign to help fund treatment for children with clefts. Available at
GSK, 2020. GSK sets new environmental goals of net zero impact on climate and net positive impact on nature by 2030. Available at
GSK, 2021. New GSK to deliver step-change in growth and performance over next ten years driven by high-quality Vaccines and Specialty Medicines portfolio and late-stage pipeline. Available at
GSK, 2022c. Human resources. Available at [Accessed 06 January 2022].
GSK. 2022a. About Us. Available at https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/about-us/our-history/ [Accessed 05 January 2022].
GSK. 2022b. Responsibility. Available at https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/responsibility/ [Accessed 05 January 2022].
Johansson, M.T. and Thollander, P., 2018. A review of barriers to and driving forces for improved energy efficiency in Swedish industry–Recommendations for successful in-house energy management. Management assignmentRenewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 82, pp.618-628.
Širca, N.T., Dermol, V., Trunk, A.N. and Trunk, A., 2018. Responsible management and challenges of inclusion in multicultural school environment in Slovenia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 238, pp.670-679.
Tetiana, H., Karpenko, L.M., Olesia, F.V., Yu, S.I. and Svetlana, D., 2018. Innovative methods of performance evaluation of energy efficiency projects. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 17(2), pp.1-11.