GSK's Global Business Services Journey: "What we're learning from our first steps"

Neil Serjeant, who heads the GBS initiative at GSK, concedes he is only about 3 years into his journey -  "at the early stages", as he describes it, while pundits generally suggest Global Business Services is an 8-year journey.

Last year, Neil presented this journey to delegates at SSON's European flagship event – Shared Services and Outsourcing Week. As head of the GBS initiative, he is pushing for collaboration and culture (with variable pull from the service lines), and aiming for stabilisation.

Since the start of this project, he has created Core Business Services across 5 functions, covering 5,000 people, with more than 50 service lines.

Here is a slide from Neil's presentation that we thought would help summarise what you might be aiming for within your centre's evolution:

[click to enlarge]

Starting with "hygiene" at the bottom, it highlights the GBS journey through "collaboration" to "transformation" and lists the internal steps required at every stage.

Why not create your own version of this, based on your organisation, and post it in a visible place for all to see.

Sharing and communicating your progress is an important step in getting to the end result.

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