In your opinion, what is the true measure of progressive GBS leadership, and why?

Okay, well, there are two things on Progressive GBS leadership. One is about the business and the orientation to the business. So, truly understanding the business, and it's not all about GBS, but it's about what you achieve and what you support in the business, and delivering for that organization. Getting really close and understanding what their drivers are and where you can help. The second is about employees and ensuring that you think very carefully about the employees and what they can do. One of the things that we've done in terms of creating the strategy for the employee strategy, the people's strategy for the GSS organization, is we've had a set of listening sessions with our employees in all of our centers to understand what they think should be in the people's strategy, what their fears are, what their aspirations are, what their challenges are, and to give us feedback on what they would like to see in a good strategy. And we're bringing that all together, and I'm bringing my leadership team together in early June, and we're going to create the people strategy from what the people in GSS have said about what they want an experience to be in the GSS organization.

What key areas are you looking to invest in over the next 18 months, and why?

Okay, so we as a corporation, when I'm thinking about investment, we're a company that's been built by many acquisitions. We've got a number of ERPs, and we've got a forward strategy to look at S/4HANA. But we're trying to look at where do we need bolt-ons, where do we need best-of-breed to minimize the amount we do in the core ERP. But we've got to get that balance right and make sure that whatever we think about, the business tools that we put in to support the business are a good fit for purpose and meet the need. And also, those critical things of compliance, controls, and making sure we don't miss anything there, and making sure we continue to improve margin and cash flow. Really, really critical in that balance of decision-making between tools, but very much thinking about what's in the core ERP, what's invested green, how do we maximize the opportunity from S/4HANA.

What advice/words of wisdom would you give to someone who is just starting their shared services and GBS journey?

So, advice on starting out a shared services career, you know, the first thing is I really talk about is expectation management. When you create a shared services organization, you deliver services they have no choice about where to go; they have to get that service from you. And if you don't set expectations, the expectation of the organization is perfection, and therefore, you'll always fail. So, you have to think really, really carefully about expectation management and think about what the business needs and bring things that the business needs into your service offering. And then talk to them about, you know, the fact that things will go wrong, that things won't always be run perfectly, but what you want to do is know that those things that are going wrong so that you can do something about them. And I think the other thing is you sort of got to have rhino hide, right? So, you know, people are going to expect perfection out of you, and if you get defensive, if you then they, it'll be taken the wrong way. The most important thing is you think about why it's a problem for them, you solve that problem, and you move on. And show some vulnerability in what you do to your people, that no one gets it perfectly right.

What has been your favourite part of SSOW Europe 2023 so far?

So, I always love coming to Shared Services Week and particularly this conference because it has the most diverse group. So, I meet a lot of senior leaders of GBS, shared service organizations, but you also meet some of the practitioners that are probably one or two levels down from the level I operate at the organization. And you always learn something new, and because there's so much variety of shared service organizations in Europe, I think this conference particularly brings that variety to life. So, the conversations you have, as well as the presentations you hear, spark new ideas, fresh thinking, and, "Oh yeah, why didn't I think about it like that?" It's always, I always walk away quite inspired by opportunities that can be created from the conversations I've had.

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