Shared services (SS) are the precursor to global business services (GBS). Whereas SS serve the needs of a country or region, GBS are typically global, integrated, and centralised organisations that provide comprehensive and complex end-to-end processes.
However, despite the change in their raison d’être, one-third of GBS organisations have no change management capability within their organisation, claimed a new Everest Group study.
“Our study findings indicate that 75% of GBS organisations see change management as critical, overwhelmingly confirming that it is vital to the success of the model, but this does not align with actual execution, as only 16% of these organisations take a systemic approach to managing change across their scope of initiatives,” said Deborah Kops, executive advisor to Everest Group and a co-author of the report.
She added that change management is a work in progress for most GBS organisations and poses significant challenges: there is no one-size-fits-all solution; it’s not a once-and-done task; and it’s difficult to define ‘good’ and ‘best’ when so much of what comprises change management is perceived as ‘soft stuff’—unmeasurable and therefore unknowable.
“This research aims to address these challenges head-on by defining the dimensions of change management for GBS organisations to help the industry understand how to approach, staff, invest in and manage change.”
Deborah Kops
Observations
Strategic or situational: Only 16% of respondents manage change as a critical component of GBS initiatives, or what we would consider systemic across all aspects of GBS operations. The normative view of change management is that it is situational, triggered by an event.
Biggest catalyst is change in operations: Today, GBS change management at its most evolved is focused on changes in operations, such as a transition to a new delivery model, or to ease the pain of a transformation project, such as digitization.
A tool to diminish resistance: Change management approaches have been focused primarily on informing and breaking down resistance as opposed to helping enterprises adopt and embrace the changes that an agile GBS model continually makes. Over 50% of respondents see change management a tool to “tell” or diminish resistance to a GBS program.
Maturity and scale matters: Maturity and scale of the GBS organisation impact the approach to change management: 45% of GBS organisations with large scale (5,000+ FTEs) tend to approach change management as a strategic transformational tool while most smaller organisations (with a scale of 100-999 FTEs) tend to focus on communications and diminishing resistance to change.
Digital maturity correlates with strategic change management approaches: There is a discernible shift from communications to a more strategic approach as respondent organisations mature their digital operations.
Over 70% of those GBS organisations embracing digital initiatives focus their change approaches on strategic transformation. These findings and more are detailed in Everest Group’s recently published report, “State of Play in GBS Change Management.”
Other findings
Everest Group was able to identify patterns that define four personas, ranging from organisations that have not yet prioritised investment in change management (“Headshakers”) to those that embed it into all aspects of GBS operations (“Institutionalists”). Falling in between are “Crawlers”—who are gradually moving toward establishing a GBS change management competency— and “Game Changers,” organisations who see change management as necessary and are aggressively establishing it as a strategic capability.
12-step program to advance the persona continuum
“One of the most surprising findings of our research was to see how common it was for GBS organisations to take a piecemeal approach to change management rather than developing it and strengthening it as a strategic muscle that is always in use,” said Rohitashwa Aggarwal, vice president at Everest Group.
He opined that research clearly indicates that ideally, the change management team will have a seat at the leadership table from the outset of the GBS journey.
“The team also needs systemic funding, the scope and authority to succeed, and the right talent and training to adapt to all the needs of the GBS organisation over time, because, as we’ve said, change is at the very heart of the GBS mission, every day, all the time.”
Rohitashwa Aggarwal
