Shared services and GBS are growing, but…almost every analyst survey shows that over 80% of large enterprises have adopted some form of functional shared services, centralized operations, or multifunctional global business services (GBS) organization and governance model. While there are notable and highly publicized instances where companies have abandoned models such as GBS, the trend toward more shared services and GBS continues to trend upwards.
Business leaders remain concerned around whether their business services organization and governance models will continue to be the right ones, particularly as companies grapple with the new reality coming out of COVID-19.
Some is the natural tug and pull between business unit leaders clamoring for self-sufficiency and function and business services leaders seeking efficiency and effectiveness through scale. Past successes are often easily forgotten and business unit leaders often revert to a “what have you done for me lately?” mantra after the low-hanging cost-saving fruit has been picked. It is easy to fall into a pendulum swing between decentralized and centralized services. This can be particularly acute if you have new leadership that is not aligned to the original intent of the model and did not see the original benefits first hand.
Those business services organizations that will thrive will adjust their value contribution and operating models in line with the changing value propositions of their companies. Simply following the historical “tried and true” model of running a transaction factory runs the risk that the business services organization will be starved of investment. More importantly it leaves off the table the ability of the business services organization to not just support, but to directly contribute to driving value for the corporation in new ways demanded for the 21st century enterprise.
Learn more by reading this exciting paper.
