Glaxo WellCome Inc Case Study

Overview

The pharmaceutical industry is very aggressive, and they must try to avoid mistakes on a regular basis to prevent tragic consequences. Customers demand improved service, products must reach the market quicker, and there is a continuous strain on costs. Glaxo Wellcome Inc is the biggest UK company in regards to capital with an 8 billion turnover. In 1994, Glaxo Wellcome Inc established its intranet. The system really came into fruition once it started being used for knowledge management to help determine some of the company’s issues, (PharmaKnowledge, 2003).

With Glaxo using the intranet for knowledge management, it assisted in producing a corporate culture, established communications across the enterprise, and it gave people a desire to learn vice reinventing the wheel. Billions of dollars are spent by Glaxo Wellcome Inc on research and development in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, US, and Japan for scientists to identify a cure for a specific disease. By having a place to keep information concerning keeping all chemical properties, protein properties, and how they may work together, Glaxo Wellcome Inc can significantly decrease the number of chemical compounds from one million to 100,000. By not having a KM system can have a negative effect on Glaxo Wellcome Inc. All teams have to know what each other is doing at all times; therefore, a learning organization is demanded so that the knowledge can be combined and shared, (PharmaKnowledge, 2003).

Profile

According to Wikipedia, Glaxo Wellcome Inc profile is below:

Former type

Public limited company

Industry Pharmaceutical

Fate Merged with SmithKline Beecham plc

Successor(s) GlaxoSmithKline plc

Founded March 1995

Defunct 27 December 2000

Headquarters London, United Kingdom

Key people Sir Richard Sykes (Chief executive)

Products Pharmaceutical products

Revenue £9,559 million (2000)

Operating income

£3,018 million (2000)

Net income

£2,229 million (2000)

Employees 59,000, (Wikipedia, 2012)

KMS

The Knowledge Management Exchange (KME) was created and carried out by Glaxo Wellcome Inc. The objective of the KME is establishing a learning organization that continues to capitalize on the fresh knowledge it produces. Just