In the midst of the frenetic excitement surrounding GEN AI, we shared an article about KINETPRISE, a GBS (Global Business Services) concept with a reinvented structure, aimed at sharing and growing expertise, leveraging best practices and redefining process governance in preparation for the full potential of AI. Let’s delve deeper into why this concept is crucial, particularly for global organizations.
While processes like invoice posting, journal entries posting, processing payments, goods receipt booking, purchase orders creation, recruitment, onboarding, offboarding and many more may vary between companies, the core principles remain consistent. However, many organizations invest independently in finding optimal operational methods, leading to isolated efforts and higher costs.
This fragmented approach contrasts with nature’s collaborative strategies, where shared resources and collective efforts often yield superior results. KINETPRISE is a model designed to foster collaboration, share expertise, best practices, costs, and effort. It is particularly aiming to standardize operations across multiple business units and enhance efficiency by leveraging best practices and reinventing the governance surrounding processes.
Let’s explore what we believe are the main challenges faced by GBS organizations today. This is how we started to draft KINETPRISE structure:
- Governance: To excel as a GBS organization, it is essential to have expertise and active participation in decision-making processes. Collaboration is key, requiring the GBS workforce to possess the necessary skills to actively contribute, influence, and drive decisions. This is not merely about having a ‘seat at the table’ for GBS executives; rather, it is earned and demonstrated by every member of the GBS workforce, from top to bottom. Governance is earned, not granted and it has been a bottleneck for GBS organizations, in many instances.
- Technology: New technological advancements must be prioritized in GBS organizations and implemented with minimal disruptions. However, in many cases, the technology strategy is developed at group level and may not be closely aligned with the needs of transactional roles. There is also an unspoken conflict between fully embracing technology which will imply massive headcount reductions and that of growing GBS scope. Technology must be a stronger win for GBS organizations, considering 60%-70% of traditional shared services roles could be replaced by AI in the upcoming years.
- Agility: Traditional structures frequently result in slow-paced organizations due to highly diverse and unintegrated ecosystems, which often are a result of M&As cycles, absence of standard operating procedures (SOPs) across the organization, redundancies at different levels, inadequate process mapping, insufficient capacity planning, sluggish approval processes, complex reporting matrices and many more. The existing structure poses a significant obstacle to agility and makes it difficult to achieve a breakthrough transformation.
- Cost: Previously, the primary goal upon establishing a shared services was cost reduction, with an exclusive emphasis on leveraging best-cost countries to lower payroll expenses. While this strategy may yield short- to medium-term advantages, it could potentially result in disruptions over time. The market for GBS will continually evolve, necessitating a natural adjustment of the respective economy, in line with expertise and with progress. Therefore, cost reduction should always be pursued through structural efficiencies and the strategic integration of intelligent technology rather than payroll cost.
- People & Culture: In the current scenario, roles within GBS organizations have primarily been transactional, requiring entry-level expertise. Despite attempts by leadership, this has led to significant turnover, perpetuating repetitive discussions. It’s vital to attract and retain top talent with essential skills, and it is particularly important to focus on emerging fields like data analytics and artificial intelligence. A successful GBS also depends on blending diverse cultures and promoting clear communication, highlighting the growing importance of multilingual abilities.
KINETPRISE addresses these challenges by introducing an alternative organizational framework. We are firm believers that unleashing the potential of Gen AI demands a fundamental rethinking of governance, and an effective structure will enable precisely that. Merely layering new solutions onto existing structures is akin to patchwork and does not align with our philosophy.
Curious to learn more about COZIA’s proposed structure? Reach out to us via the contact form on our website or send a private message on LinkedIn. We are eager to showcase how KINETPRISE can transform your organization’s operations.
We look forward to the opportunity to collaborate and drive operational excellence together.
Cristina Volovei
CEO & Founder COZIA Solutions