Is Central & Eastern Europe the Logical Breeding Ground for Tomorrow's GBS Leaders?

Is it a surprise that Central and Eastern Europe are producing some of our top Thought Leaders in Business Services Support? I think not. While the CEE region benefitted from a popularity spurt when a majority of its countries joined the EU 10 years ago, thereby offering a more comfortable business environment to notoriously risk averse Shared Services teams, it was at the time based on very practical considerations of cost and language. Well, cost and language may still hold (though the former is not so obvious: success means others follow and SSOs like Diageo’s that pioneered CEE support services back in the day are now finding the region populated with SSCs – and demand for qualified staff impacted likewise), but there is something else. Home to two of the world’s oldest universities (in Czech Republic and Poland), a recent WIPO report highlights the strategic importance of universities and public research organizations across the CEE region in boosting the area’s innovation performance and growth prospects. That may go some way to explaining the extraordinary shift we’ve seen in terms of the kind of work being done here. Centers like J&J’s or Siemens’ in Prague, and BP’s Budapest, are emerging as powerful and respected hubs within their global organisations. [inlinead] Not co-incidentally, last year’s European Thought Leader came from a Budapest centre: Philip Whelan, at the time in charge of BP’s GBS operations there (he has since been promoted to a more strategic role at HQ) was nominated the most influencial Shared Services practitioner in the region. In his interview with me at last year’s Prague event, he spoke about how constantly changing markets present an opportunity, and how BP is actively taking advantage of these opportunities – whether by cleverly managing new locations or by accessing external resources through partnerships. I commend the leaders and managers of the Central and East European Shared Services centres, who are leveraging not just language, but also the cultural familiarity to the rest of Europe, and the incredibly skilled and capable workforce, to forge ahead and carve out a new career path in the region. At this year’s Central and Eastern European conference (in Poland, March 3-5) you’ll see all of this in action. A "gamification" workshop will share tips on recruitment and retention; Fujitsu will open the doors of its Services Centre of Excellence to offer a tour and answer your questions; and Shared Services leaders from across Central and Eastern Europe will debate harmonization challenges and strategies, CEE’s role in the Global model, and the continuous shift upstream to drive a step-change in value. Hear all this and more – download the brochure to see what else we have planned. Editor’s note: read also From Back Office Processing to Knowledgeable Business Partner – 5 Strategies that Define CEE’s Position

Is Central & Eastern Europe the Logical Breeding Ground for Tomorrow's GBS Leaders?

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