Fast changing environment, war of talent, technology, political landscape and cultural sift arround the glob. Are these reson enough for Shared Service Center Leaders to change?
The shared services model has been around for a long time; in fact, the first shared service centres were created in the early 1980s. However, over time these shared service centres have grown and evolved into global business services (GBS). GBS is defined as an “integrated approach to providing value-adding operational support functions to business entities operating in a global environment”. In other words, GBS is the provision of shared services on a global scale.
As shared services grow in popularity and become more globalized, shared service centres will need to be ready for the future.
In the next five years, shared service centres will have to evolve their processes and capabilities so they can support evolving business needs. For example, shared service centres may be called upon to provide additional support functions like analytics or customer experience management. Additionally, shared service centres will need to be able to quickly adapt to changing business environments and regulations.
So what does this mean for shared service centre leaders?
War of talents in shared services on the global scale is around the corner. Leadership skills on the global, multicultural level is already a must.
Since shared service centres are increasingly global, shared services’ directors will have to adapt their leadership style in order to manage a globally diverse team of people, develop them and retain them.
In order to stay ahead of that talent management curve, shared service centre’s managers should acquire a good understanding of big data and analytics, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to their centres otherwise they will stay in the trap of low-cost locations perception.
For Shared Service Centre’s leaders, providing a solid platform for future people skills development should be an absolute priority.
They will also have to be able to strategically plan for the future and anticipate upcoming changes in the business.
For shared service centres, it’s not just about keeping up with the talent competition – shared service centre leaders need to lead their teams into the uncharted territory of leading global multicultural teams, advanced technology and end to end global business processes.
In the next five years, shared service centre leaders will need to be more innovative and proactive in order to keep up with the rapidly-changing global landscape.
This means shared service centre leaders will need to be more strategic, innovative, and agile than ever before. Shared service centres are evolving and shared services centre leaders will have to evolve even faster to stay out of the talent competitive edge if shared service centres want to stay relevant in the next five years!
Additionally, shared service centre leaders must be able to navigate the political waters of a global organization and the world itself.
The future role of shared service centre leadership is more important than ever before. In order for a shared service center to be successful, the leader must be able to navigate the political waters of a global organization. The unstable and less predictable political landscape can not only shift the change on a local scale but shape the future global economy. In order to be successful, shared service leaders need to have an understanding of how global business services work and the ability to see beyond their own four walls.
These shared service centers are taking on more responsibility for global processes and therefore must be prepared for operational risk, cyber security risks as well as regional conflicts that may impact their delivery models. As shared service leaders continue to face increasing global demands, they must be prepared to manage these risks and shift their focus towards delivering seamless global services.
Conclusion
The next five years are going to be an exciting time for shared services with lots of challenges and opportunities. shared service center’s managers need to be prepared for the journey.
What skills do you think shared service center’s managers should acquire in order to stay ahead of the curve?
Stay tuned,
Krzysztof Herdzik
GBS/SSC/BPO Practicioner