Manage Your GBS as a Brand – And Watch it Succeed

One of the things that truly distinguishes a professional global business service (GBS) from a traditional shared services is the concept of service management. Effectively, this means treating GBS and its individual services (such as payroll or accounts receivables) as you would a bona fide brand – i.e., developing and maintaining its value, its perception, and the experience associated with it.
 
“There’s a certain equity associated with a brand which is fundamental to its sustained value,” explains Filippo Passerini, who headed P&G’s GBS organization for many years and is one of the co-founders of the GBS Professional Certification program offered by SSON.
 
He cites the example of Johnnie Walker whiskey – once struggling to maintain its market but brought back through a robust and proactive brand management strategy that saw demand for the product skyrocket. The differentiator was largely the experience associated with the rebranded whiskey.
 
“If you don’t leverage brand management for your GBS you will quickly become a commodity. The value proposition is strongly linked to the brand and needs to be a constant focus,” Passerini explained at a recent GBS Foundation session, one of the five components that make up the GBS Professional Certification. GBS’ value is calculated as benefits over cost – “but these benefits can be largely experiential” he says.
 
Certainly, benefits are not just cost-based. This is especially true as centers evolve and the cost-focus that initiated shared services becomes table stakes. Experience, Passerini explains, is influenced by all kinds of things – including accessibility to service and process, as well as the localized feel of the service.
 
“As a result, the concept of service management becomes critical to the success of a GBS,” he says.

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SSON is pleased to offer the GBS Professional Certification course to practitioners wishing to scale up the value-add of their operations while developing a tried and tested GBS framework. Find out when the next cohort starts here.