Over the past three decades, global centers have become the preferred way for big companies to perform an increasing range of core work tasks and business processes. Concentrating the organization’s knowledge, talent, and capacity for specific business activities in one place provides multiple benefits: improving cost efficiency, aiding the dissemination and adoption of best practices, and ensuring every business unit has access to the resources and capabilities it needs.
The shape of global centers has changed significantly over this time. Moving from shared service centers focused on simple transactional tasks, many have evolved to become their organization’s primary resource for foundational support functions from finance to product development.
Leading global centers have achieved that shift in three phases. First, they earned the “right to play” in more and more complex business activities by demonstrating the ability to deliver high levels of service, quality, and cost efficiency. Second, they earned the “right to partner” by demonstrating the ability to help the wider enterprise develop better processes and adopt new technologies. Third, they earned to “the right to lead” by demonstrating that they can consistently deliver the best solution available.
Now leading global centers are poised to take the next evolutionary step—becoming a source of strategic competitive advantage for their enterprises by driving talent growth, customer experience, leadership, and innovation.
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