A message from Tatjana May
A new role, a new perspective. Tatjana May reflects on her first year as chair of the Shire CR Committee.
I’ve taken a keen interest in CR issues at Shire ever since I joined the Company eight years ago, and when I was invited to take the chair last year, I didn’t hesitate. I’m proud about what we’ve already done, and I’m excited about how much more we can do. The first thing to say is that I believe very strongly that CR has to be owned and driven by every employee, not just by those of us who sit on the Committee. There’s a role for
top-down leadership and direction—as in every aspect of business life—but if ever there was an example of the value of bottom-up energy and drive, then this is surely it.
We’ve achieved a huge amount since we first started calling our work ‘CR’, but now we need to take a longer-term perspective while ensuring that our sustainable approach to business is built in to how we run Shire on a day-to-day basis. Angus has already talked about this and there’s more we can all do to encourage everyone who works at Shire to take responsibility for doing this. I suspect that despite all the first-rate CR communications we publish, there’s still a lot more we can do to help people understand what CR is, and give them the confidence to start taking the initiative themselves. It might be something as small as turning off their PC at night, or something as significant as organizing a volunteering event, or championing recycling at their site. After all, responsible business is often the same as sensible business—less waste, less risk, and lower costs. We can promote some of that from the top, but more often it’s the person on the ground who knows the right questions to ask, and the right person to put them to, and that’s when you get ideas that actually work.
I don’t think we need more initiatives or more campaigns—you can gain a certain amount from that, but the real change comes when people start to think and act differently without needing to be constantly reminded, or without even realizing that what they’re doing is ‘CR’. I talked about this at a recent all-employee meeting at our Basingstoke office, and one of the questions from the audience was about how employees could get involved. It’s great to hear people being so enthusiastic, and I’m keen that they take ownership themselves, rather than feeling that this is something that has to be run by a committee. If I had one ambition for this new role, I think that would be it.
The new sustainability strategy
Turning to the Committee itself, our focus at the moment is on developing the next phase of our CR strategy, in the light of the new emphasis on business sustainability. I see this as an evolution of what we already do, even if it might lead to some fairly new thinking in one or two areas. We want to know if there are changes we should be making to optimize the way we operate, or new things we should consider doing which the Company and our stakeholders will benefit from. We also need to think about how we measure what we do, whether that’s quantitatively or qualitatively. I have no problem with softer measures, and I certainly don’t think we should focus exclusively on things we can put numbers on, as that can divert attention away from areas where we could make a great difference, even if it’s a relatively intangible one.
The new strategy is very much work-in progress at the moment, but I think there’s still value in sharing our current thinking, and the approach we’re taking.
In the summer of 2008 we started a comprehensive review of the sustainability issues facing Shire, as well as those with wider implications beyond our own industry. We asked ourselves what the world would look like in five years, and how the Company was likely to change in that time. We looked at leading players in the field, and what they’re doing, and then focused in particular on the pharma sector. It’s clear to us that the sustainability agenda in our own industry is evolving from one focused on the direct impacts of operational activities, like drug safety and animal welfare, to a much wider remit covering the whole value chain, as well as an even broader range of social issues including healthcare systems, patient rights, and access to medicines.
We have identified sustainability issues which are significant to Shire and also to our stakeholders and we will work with the business to prioritize these to help determine what our objectives should be. Are there areas where we should aim to comply with accepted best practice, but others where we could take a more proactive stance, aiming not just for effective risk management but actual competitive advantage? It seems likely that there will be some key areas where we certainly will want to do this, notably drug safety, ethical sales and marketing, as well as the way we manage our own people, and our relationships with partners and suppliers.
Once the strategy has been finalized it will be presented to the Leadership Team and Board of Directors along with a detailed action plan. I expect this to happen later in 2009, and we’ll be reporting on it in detail in next year’s report.
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