GSK expands services in biz centre as it celebrates 60 years in Malaysia
KUCHING: One of the world’s leaders in healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is celebrating 60 years of business in Malaysia this year.
GSK is responsible for the research, development and manufacture of pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines and consumer healthcare products, with over 100,000 employees worldwide.
With 18 years of experience under her belt, Nancy Cassiere, the current head of the business service centre (BSC), is tasked to take the unit to the next level.
“The business service centre started ten years ago as a regional IT hub, with 150 highly skilled IT professionals supporting the Asia Pacific region. Our centre is part of an integrated shared network with sister centres in Poland and Costa Rica to provide follow the sun support ensuring GSK systems are available to GSK staff across 110 countries, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Nancy said. “In 2012 the centre began its transformation into a global multi-functional business service centre which has grown to a workforce of over 350 providing IT, Finance, HR, procurement, and supply chain services regionally and globally.
“The centre’s services continue to evolve with changing business needs. This year, three new services were added: Tax and Statutory reporting, trade compliance, and a global enterprise resource planning (ERP) competency centre and we are in discussion on further services.
“Our BSC is a multifunctional centre that supports all of GSK’s business units, including Pharmaceutical & Vaccines, ConsumerHealthcare,Consumer Healthcare Supply Chains as well as the Shared Service Centre - each with very distinct purpose.
“By understanding the needs of each specific part of the business, we can ensure that they have access to the resources and support that they need to function at their best. This allows the teams to focus their efforts in growing GSK’s business in terms of innovation, performance and trust.”
Based here in Kuala Lumpur, Nancy described the rationale why GSK was drawn to Malaysia to house their multifunctional hub.
“The diversity of talent available immediately attracted GSK here. Our employees are not only highly skilled in their jobs but also fluent in multiple languages. Malaysia is also renowned for a nationwide ease in doing business - in 2017 it was voted as one of the top countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business report.”
Malaysia’s strategic location and strong infrastructure was another contributing factor.
“Being close to our regional office in Singapore and various sites across South East Asia, we are able to easily hop on a flight and head to one of our sites within a couple of hours. We are also pleased that the Malaysian Government has been very supportive to foreign direct investments.
“Investing in local talent forms the basis of our key value proposition. As an organisation focused on continuous learning, we provide regular opportunities for the development of both hard and soft skills for all levels of employees, particularly in leadership positions.