The Proust Questionnaire: Kristina Beckendorf

Kristina Beckendorf, Managing Director, Maersk Shared Services Dates SSC Established: 2001 Number of centres: 6 Services delivered: Transactional, rules-based, knowledge-based as well specialised voice-based processes. Geographic remit: Global Q: What has your favorite job been to date and why? A: My current job as Site/Country Director for our SSC organization in the Philippines. The role entails responsibility for a large organization with more than 2,100 employees. This allows our team, and me personally, to make a positive difference for a lot of people, their families and their communities. Also, the role includes global process delivery responsibilities, allowing my team to have a positive impact on both the customer experience and profits for our global organization. This provides a great combination between local people aspects and global stakeholder and process management aspects. Q: Who do you look up to in business and why? A: There are people whom I look up to – but for me, this typically goes beyond pure business aspects. I would rather describe the personal traits or achievements of those people who set an example for me: Have a vision and can excite and engage others to work towards that vision Possess a high level of integrity – both on the personal and professional front Live up to their promises and commitments i.e. "walk the talk" Have a servant/leadership approach and truly empower their people Have stamina and determination to follow through and succeed Q: What has been your greatest achievement? A: To overview and shape the development of our company’s Process Excellence methodology in which all organizational levels (starting at the global management board) have been trained by now (>20,000 colleagues) and which continues to live (and evolve further) as part of our company’s DNA. This was not an easy journey and it feels like a nice "legacy" to leave behind… In addition, seeing some of my "protêgês" develop and move up in their careers feels like a great achievement, too. Q: What is your greatest regret? A: That over the years, I have often prioritized my job and not spent enough time with my family and friends… thanks to them for being so understanding and supportive. Q: If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently? A: Good question. I think I would do almost everything the same again. Just try to make more time for family and friends… Q: Which developments have had the biggest impact on your markets? A: Certainly the global economic crisis hit our shipping business very badly – and this clearly also had a heavy impact on our captive SSC organization. Specifically: A much stronger push for migrations, especially from high-cost countries, and tough cost savings targets and initiatives. Q: What looks like the biggest potential for you right now? A: Knowledge-based work. Our SSCs have already proved that we can handle processes requiring much higher competency levels. We can become centers of excellence (CoE) for some of the end-to-end business processes. Q: What is the quality you most like in men? A: Depends on the context… ;-) I do not like to put people into boxes – diversity is key to me. However, in general terms… the competitive approach is strong in many men – and I am always up for some good competition, whether in business or sports. I also admire strength. I like men who are confident and outspoken about their strategies. Q: What is the quality you most like in women? A: Typically, women think more of the bigger picture – the system – and they bring a broader perspective to the discussions. Q: What would you like your legacy to be? A: Encouragement and faith for a lot of people that change for the better is possible if they just believe in it and start working towards it. To quote Mahatma Ghandi: "We must be the change we wish to see." Q: In 10 years time - how do you see your current operation being run? A: I see our shared services as a truly integrated part of our global business system, providing transactional and value-added services to our global organisation. Clearly, the focus for our transactional service portfolio is to standardise and automate the processes to the furthest extent possible. The main growth area for us is knowledge-based and analytical processes, including direct interactions with external customers. Our service centres will be centres of excellence, providing leadership in operations and process management and supporting the global organisation with capable project and improvement resources to assist local organisations in their continuous improvement efforts. Ultimately, these are all aimed at providing a second-to-none customer experience and sustainable, profitable business. Q: What’s the best thing about using an external sourcing consultant? A: I think the best thing is that they provide an opportunity for an external perspective and benchmark information. I do recognize the value of external consultants for strategic initiatives however I am a firm believer that tactical and operational initiatives should, as far as possible, be supported by internal resources such as colleagues from Gemba (working in the processes) or Process Excellence Green or Black Belts. Q: What’s the worst thing about using an external sourcing consultant? A: I have had experiences where the external consultants seemed to pursue their own agenda of generating additional billing hours from the client, rather than enabling the client to pursue the identified strategy or improvement initiatives on their own, using their own resources. It is absolutely crucial that there is full integrity and trust for the engagement between client and consultant. Q: If your job requires a lot of traveling - what is your favorite destination and what do you miss most about home? A: Over the years, I have held jobs that required a tremendous amount of traveling. My current job does not require extensive traveling – on average, 1 week per month. My favourite destination? I have many but certainly on top of my list I would see Copenhagen, Cape Town, California, New York, Genoa - plus Singapore and Hong Kong. The list is actually long! What I miss about home? I guess for starters, I have a number of places that I consider "home" and I usually look more at the experiences and learning I am gaining when abroad – not so much what I am missing. Thinking about it, I am not a fan of those travels where all one gets to see is airports, planes, offices and hotels. I am an outdoor person and really miss fresh air and daylight during those trips. As such, I am really pleased that the Shared Services and Outsourcing Week is in Singapore – a nice place to be, with lots of opportunities to be outside, a great venue – and an amazing view! [inlinead]

The Proust Questionnaire: Kristina Beckendorf

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