葛兰素史克公司：CEO继任

Because the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, a large pharmaceutical company, would retire after four years, the management board decided to select the appropriate successor among three internal candidates. As the selection of the successor was being reported on by the media, an open “horserace” seemed inevitable. The management board needed to make careful decisions on the selection mechanism, the evaluation methods and, more importantly, the issue of office politics when the three candidates were required to work together during the selection process. Was it possible to find a solution whereby candidates could work together for the purpose of being evaluated, while at the same time the side effects of office politics could be minimized during the open competition? By reading the background materials, students should try to propose solutions to deal with these issues.