Business Case Study: Royal Museum Greenwich Interview Preparation

This case study examines the Royal Museum Greenwich, exploring its organizational profile, objectives, consumer trends, sustainability initiatives, financial operations, and governance structure. The study delves into the museum's integration of various sites, including the National Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory, and Queen's House, highlighting its unique architectural significance and visitor numbers. It outlines the museum's objectives, including fostering understanding of history, science, and Britain's role in the world. The case study analyzes consumer trends, such as increasing interest in astronomy and sustainability, and how the museum adapts through virtual reality programs and community engagement. It details sustainability efforts, including energy efficiency, waste reduction, and sustainable construction practices. The financial operations section discusses the impact of COVID-19, revenue streams, and governance frameworks, emphasizing the role of the board of trustees and internal controls. The study also identifies key stakeholders and current issues, providing a comprehensive overview of the Royal Museum Greenwich's operations and strategic direction. The report is designed to assist in interview preparation, providing a detailed understanding of the museum's business model.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As the competition is at its peak in world of business and especially for the people who are
searching for the job as the requirements and culture and way of hiring has been evolved with
the time which has made difficult for the job seekers to crack the interview, the present report
aims to clear the interview in the Royal Museum Greenwich for which the interviewer is
required to learn all the necessary information related to the organisation which will be
presented in the report.
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CONTENTS PAGE
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................................................................................1
Organisational profile............................................................................................................................3
Objectives..............................................................................................................................................3
Consumer trends...................................................................................................................................4
Sustainability.........................................................................................................................................5
Financial operations..............................................................................................................................6
Governance...........................................................................................................................................7
Key stakeholders...................................................................................................................................8
Current issues........................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCE LIST...................................................................................................................................11
Online..............................................................................................................................................11
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Organisational profile
The Royal Museum Greenwich integration of 5 sites which includes the Queen's house, The
clipper ship Cutty Sark, The Prince Philip Maritime collection of planetary centre, Royal
observatory and the National Maritime Museum. The national Maritime museum was launch
by King George IV to the public in year 1937. In 1953 the royal observatory and the queen's
house was included with the museum and converted into royal museum Greenwich at
Greenwich. The museum has a unique architectural significance and the setting of its building
(Armstrong and et. al., 2019) . In 2011 the royal museum Greenwich was included in the
Royal Greenwich observatory. The national Maritime museum of royal museum Greenwich
was founded by the act of parliament and is the largest Maritime museum all over the globe
which includes the royal observatory. The sites of royal museum Greenwich opens 362 days
in the year and welcome more than 2 million visitors of Britain every year. The
organisational structure of the Royal Museum Greenwich is under the executive non
departmental public body for the management purpose. The Royal Museum has the divisional
organisational structure and the whole organisation is operated and managed by the Board of
directors, trustees and an executive. The royal museum has divided its organisational culture
as per the 5 sites and each has its directors and operational areas to run their activities. In
order to strengthen the organisational structure the company has recently recruited the new
director for royal museum Greenwich which has the various departments such as collection
management conservation department and has a behavioural framework based on the brand
commenced. The organisational structure of RMG includes the human resource and voluntary
department, visitor and sales, retail, catering, photo, studio, event department, Finance and IT
special project department as all of them help in strengthening the organisational structure by
developing the culture and people.
Objectives
The royal museums Greenwich enjoys the virtue of subjects like history science arts and
work hard with their visitors and pays attention to provide great understanding about the
world history and role of Britain in the history and its consequences in today's world. The
company has a mission to foster the people's understanding related to the sea, the exploration
of space and the role of Britain in the history of world (Agyeman, 2019). The museum has an
objective to discover and understand about the humanity and the potential of human
endeavour by exploring the world and universe through its royal observatory.
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The Royal Museum Greenwich has 4 aims and to achieve those aims museum has
conducted various activities which help the museum in gaining the several achievements and
showcasing the outstanding performance throughout the year 2019-20. The four aims of
museum are:
Aim 1: Putting audience as the priority and at the heart for every making every collection.
This aim of museum has a purpose to pay attention to what the audience suggest and to listen
them actively in order to learn what makes their visitors and their subject’s experience
gaining as well as a relevant and engaging.
Aim 2: To value our heritage
This aim of museum focuses on how to value and care for their unique and historical
collection of archaeology, art gallery and other space and scientific related collection and to
develop more unique and diversifying collection in the history of Britain and to make this
heritage world's biggest historical site for the public.
Aim 3: Enhance the reach as well as the repetition of royal museum Greenwich.
This aim of museum has an objective of expanding their collection and enhancing their
marketing activities in order to reach the larger audience through the social media and
network as well as to maximize their impact on the visitors as well is the stakeholders like
trustee (Braun, 2019).
Aim 4: To strengthen the culture and organisational structure.
The aim of royal museum Greenwich has an objective maximize and develop their culture
and the skills of the people in order to build their financial sustainability as well as to enhance
the impact of their services on the financial statement as well as to manage the risks.
Consumer trends
In the Royal museum Greenwich the consumers have the trend of learning more about the
astronomy which gave the refurbishment of the royal observatory. There is the increasing
trend among the children to watch the planetary in the 3-d form for which the RMG has the
Maritime planetary centre. The consumers are now becoming more supportive towards the
sustainability and therefore the museum has converted its construction and other operations
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as well started the sustainable development programmes to foster the sustainability in its
organisation to attract more consumers and also to draw the attention of stakeholders and the
government. To meet the consumers trend of virtually the RMG come up with the idea of the
moon programme in which the app is developed for the consumers to have the virtual reality
for the consumers. The consumers have the more trend of collective working as the part of
community participation for which the Royal Museum Greenwich organised the fun place
activities the festive programmes for the community participation in running those programs
effectively to increase the consumer expectation as well as their satisfaction level (Blooploop,
2020). In the young youth of UK there is the increasing trend of volunteer work for which the
RMG has made the volunteer team and also with the lockdown the RMG has new e-
volunteer crew.
Hence, in Royal Museum Greenwich the consumer’s trends are increasing and company is
also meeting the demands of the consumers as per the trend as it is the aim of the RMG to
increase the presence of audience and to develop each and everything as per the consumers
needs as they are the heart of the RMG.
Sustainability
The various stakeholders of the Museum staff, volunteers I am visiting audience highly
committed for the sustainable development and a working hard by taking numerous number
of initiatives in the form of programs and activities to improve the sustainability of the
museum. Government bodies play the major role in increasing the scope of sustainable
development through their Greening Government Commitments. The Museum has a greatest
contribution in increasing the sustainability through energy efficiency for which museum has
working to improve their performances in energy usage (Cusuem, 2020). Proof the
sustainability the Museum has a corporate plan that features the strategies to attain
sustainability for which in 2019 the Museum replaced all the LEDs on the main site of
museum in all the cannon bollards. The Museum was also replaced rail lights with low
voltage LED in Maritime museum. The Museum is also reducing its carbon emission
footprint in tonnes and implementing the policies to use renewable energy.
The museums has a policy to minimise the wastage aunt maximize the recycling of waste
materials and also aims to composite the biodegradable waste. Major key difference made by
Museum to improve their sustainability what's the use of energy efficient resources to reduce
the energy consumption every year for which museum install free charge points and use day
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light in museum by replacing LED usage during day time. The Museum aims for the
sustainable procurement and they were managing their current assets for which museum
introduced in network printing but reducing the number of printers per member in order to
reduce the wastage of paper while improving their information security system. Museum has
converted its construction into the sustainable construction by attenuation of their water
tanks, photovoltaic cells on the roof, reduce the 90% transmission of ultraviolet blinds over
the windows, reducing the use of energy by introducing new roof installation. new thermal
wall lining and air handling units and chillers to enable the better sustainable management
systems by which museum ensure that their new galleries are highly sustainable integrated as
well as there are more sustainable financially and practically (Moneypenny and Stephens,
2018).
Financial operations
Covid-19 has impacted the financial situations of the Museum but the charity and the
support of the volunteers has helped the museum to gain the total revenue income of euro
29.3 million euro 15.5 million a constituent from its self - engendered trading activity suggest
donations and sponsorship. According to the RMG (2020, p.4) annual report The car Museum
has 13.8 billion Euro of funding through the digital culture media and sports department of
taxpayer via Grant-in-Aid. Order to operate financially the Museum has the various different
sections and areas from which museum increases its annual income and gets their funding.
Recently in year 2020 the museum staged to exhibitions "the moon" and "the insight
investment Astronomy photographer of the year" and the total admission income earned was
Euro 7.8 million but due to Covid - 19 they were fewer visitors (Financial Reporting Council,
2018). The trustees of the national Maritime Museum has 100% ownership on the share
capital of museum therefore the carry out trading and other commercial activities which help
them in gaining the net trading profit of euro 1.8 million.
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The museum has decline in its trading activities due to the Covid – 19 from last year the
amount added in this year financial statement from trade activities is Euro 1.2 million. The
Cutty Sark has increased the revenue by euro 0.4 million (Croarken, 2019).
Governance
According to the RMG (2020, p.4) annual report, the governance framework of the Royal
Museum Greenwich has the corporate governance. International Maritime Museum there is
board of trustees who are responsible to carry out the objectives as per the amended acts. In
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National Maritime Museum the board of trustees has the approach of governance that ensures
that there is appropriate following of principles of corporate governance. The board of
trustees are also accountable to the parliament of UK and has a corporate responsibility to
ensure there is appropriate fulfilment of aims and objectives that are set out in terms of
legislation and governing documents. There is internal control in line that ensures code of
good practice in regards of good corporate governance (Demirag, 2018). The RMG’s
corporate governance has a scope of responsibility in which the director and the trustee which
represents the chairman of the audit committee has integrated responsibility of maintaining
ethical and legal system which has internal control thereby supporting the museums missions,
aims and objectives. They are also responsible and accountable for protecting the funds
provided by public as well as the assets of the museum. As part of the corporate governance
they also manage the risk using the effective risk management system thereby implementing
the risk management policies for the museum (Ledgerwood, 2017). The in line management
also conduct the periodic engagement with the external investors and the visitors for which
company has a digital marketing department that consistently analyse the performance using
key performance indicators. Hence, the Royal Museum Greenwich has effective corporate
governance in their governance frame work for the effective management of the organisation
and to control the risk as well to foster the transparency between the various stakeholders.
Therefore the company has also adopted the information security system to maintain the
privacy of data and to protect their heritage from been hacked or breached.
Key stakeholders
The key stakeholders are people who have the interest in the organisation can be affected or
can affect the performance of the business. In the Royal Museum Greenwich the stakeholders
play a major role in increasing the efficiency of the museum and also in conducting various
activities and programmes to foster the museums revenue. The key stakeholders of the Royal
Museum Greenwich are:
Visitors: the visitors or the audience are main reason behind the profitability of the
organisation. The visitors timely suggest the museum to enhance their working or to bring
new collection in order to increase their experience. The museum has an engaging audience.
Rethink digital installed by the RMG in the Queen’s house is to track the behaviour and
reactions of the audience (Pivovarov, 2018).
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Trustee: there is the membership committee of three trustee those has role of appointing the
chairman and director of the museum. The trustees invest high amount for the development
of the museum and does not expect any shares in return. They are also responsible for the
control of the museum.
Volunteers: The museum has an active volunteer team that take active participation in
various volunteer programs of the museum which is highly supported by the HR department.
There is the significant increase in the number of volunteers during the last few years also
after Covid -19 there is e- volunteer crew (Mallin, 2016).
Staff: The staffs of the RMG work really hard and also provide their opinions for the
sustainable development of the museum. The museum always strives for the talented and
hardworking employees and also looks after their job satisfaction. The museum has diversity
in its museum.
Director: the director is the manager of the museum who also signs and agrees the financial
report of the museum. The director also protects the funds provided by the public as a
donation and manages all the day to day operations within the museum.
Current issues
The Royal Museum Greenwich has been facing many issues currently which are impact the
various stakeholders in different manner and especially impacting the overall value and
significance of the heritage and traditional virtues of the museum. Currently issues faced by
RMG are:
 The major issue the Royal Museum Greenwich is facing is in the protecting of its
data. The museum is unaware of the threat and the suffering it is facing due to the
lapses in protecting the security of a data which includes the personal financial data as
well as the date of their employees as well as the volunteers which is impacting the
corporate governance responsibility of trustees as well as the board of directors (Long
and Ibar, 2017).
 Due to the complete shutdown to stop the spread of Corona virus in the Britain by the
government the company is facing the issue in its trading activities and also there are
less audience in the events like the moon. This is not only hindrance in the completion
of the aim of the RMG to enhance their recognition but also decreasing their
revenues.
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 The RMG is also facing the issues like cyber crime, terrorism, with is making
business disruption and also collection of the museum is at high risk of breaching.
 At the royal observatory there was the issue of water leak which was repaired
although but made this issue into the investigation which is till continued and also
there is the issue of replicated billing in the Cutty Sark (Wetherley and Otter, 2018)
 The installation of installation of ice rink has increased the expenditure and also
increased the tonnes of carbon emission.
 The major issue the RMG is facing in attracting the visitors for the museum and other
sites as the restrictions of travelling and also after reopening the restrictions on normal
life has made the entrance of visitors and audience difficult. The company has also
weak approach towards digital platforms to create the presence.
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REFERENCE LIST
Armstrong, G and et. al., 2019. Marketing an Introduction. 4 th ed. Harlow: Pearson
Agyeman K.W., 2019. Top 10 Museum Trends You Should Know. Museum Tech Trends,
[online] 8 January. Available at: https://medium.com/museum-techtrends/top-10-museum-
trends-in-2019-3c5582ed8253 [Accessed 14 July 2020].
Braun, R., 2019. Corporate Stakeholder Democracy: Politicizing Corporate Social
Responsibility. Budapest: Central European University Press
Blooploop., 2020. Top visitor attraction trends for 2020. [online] 6 February. Available at:
[Accessed 14 July 2020].
Cusuem., 2020. Top Technology Trends for 2020: What it means for museums and non-
profits. [online] 4 February. Available at: [Accessed 14 July 2020].
Demirag, I., 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility, Accountability and Governance: Global
Perspectives. 1 st ed. Abingdon; Routledge
Financial Reporting Council, 2018. The UK Corporate Governance Code. [pdf] London:
Financial Reporting Council. Available at: [Accessed 24 July 2019]
Gregory, T., 2019 The Big Trends Transforming Libraries, Museums and Archives in 2019
and Beyond. Axiell, [online] 4 July. Available at: [Accessed 14 July 2020].
Ledgerwood, G., 2017. Greening the Boardroom: Corporate Governance and Business
Sustainability. 1st ed. Abingdon; Routledge
Long, D.G. and Ibar, Z., 2017. The Ethical Kaleidoscope: Values, Ethics, and Corporate
Governance. 1st ed. Abingdon; Routledge
Mallin, C., 2016. Corporate Governance. 6 th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Pivovarov, K., 2018. The future of museums: The ultimate visitor experience. BDC Network,
[online] 27 March. Available at: [Accessed 14 July 2020].
Royal Museums Greenwich, 2019. Annual Review 2018-19. [online]. Available at:
[Accessed 14 July 2020].
Wetherley, P. and Otter, D., 2018. The Business Environment. Themes and issues in a
globalizing world. 4 th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Online
Royal Museums Greenwich, 2020. Annual Report. 2019-20. [online]
Available at: <https://www.rmg.co.uk/about-us/our-spending>
[Accessed 5 May 2021].
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