That’s a Wrap

Friday again – amazing, it seems like it happens almost on a weekly basis – and a date notable for seeing the launch of SSON’s Weekly Wrap, a podcast in which I combine interviews, news, comment and classical music (ok, not really) to, hopefully, not-too-emetic effect. You can listen to the first instalment now: once you’re done laughing, let me know what you think.

Earlier today I interviewed Liz Mackay, Group Head of HR Services UK, AXA, about her organization’s HR transformation journey which was launched around six years ago. You can get the full story when I put this podcast up on the site next week, but one of the salient points to emerge was that yet again one of the biggest obstacles to the process was ensuring robust buy-in from the very top. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard this over the past few months but I guess there’s no real way to avoid it completely; the best remedy seems to be that which Liz and her team utilized: demonstrating through solid metrics the absolute worth of the new set-up. Despite all the evidence there still seems to be a great degree of scepticism regarding shared services in some quarters. Maybe the downturn and the increased reliance on shared services we’re observing will change all that. Or maybe not. Maybe this time next year we’ll all be living in caves. Which would definitely be another negative for the housing market.

On a radical tangent: I had the pleasure of meeting Phil Fersht in the flesh for the first time yesterday along with a couple of SSON colleagues. It was an all-too-brief pleasure, but we had time for – as well as a couple of refreshments – a good chat about the prospects for the global economy next year, and about a couple of the more notorious characters from around the SS & O space. I look forward to many more, and more protracted, such occasions.

I’m off. Enjoy your weekend. This will help.

Jamie

Shiver, Caressed

There was a cornucopia of takeaways from the 8th Shared Services & Outsourcing Exchange, as anybody who was there will testify; for me, though, the resounding phrase of the two-day event was a very simple and by-no-means-original one: “it’s not just about doing more with less; it’s about doing better with less”.

Those words (I have paraphrased liberally but hey, that’s my prerogative) came out of the CXO Forum which opened the Exchange, at which CFOs Andrew Tinney (Deutsche Bank), Anna-Karin Stenberg (Vattenfall) and Jerome Andries (Eli Lilly), along with the panel’s chairman Richard Payne of the BBC, gave a few of their own experiences and then turned their minds to the pressing issues of the day (in the form of an open-mic Q&A session) which, of course, tended to be (dis?)coloured by the ongoing doom and gloom oozing from the pustulous carcass of the global economy. Jerome Andries it was who, in response to a question posed by yours truly about the possibility of there having been a crisis-induced strengthening of the shared services model, opined that “better with less” was the order of the day – an opinion which, I found through various interviews, chats and close-closeted mutterings over the next two days, is shared by at least a substantial proportion of the Exchange’s attendees.

“Better with less” is, surely, if not an entire academic field in itself, then at least a healthy diploma course – but chief among the questions arising seems to me to be a glaringly obvious one: why wasn’t “better” being achieved in the days of “more”? Has it taken the worst financial crisis since the Depression to shake shared services out of a somewhat self-satisfied and over-resourced slumber? (NB all enraged practitioners: that was a rhetorical question) Or – the flipside to that – is “better” just a demand from panicky execs who only have “less” to offer?

Surely the answer must be a combination of those two extremes? Yes, some SSOs have been meandering along somewhat (as Alsbridge’s Elaine Harrison discovered during her recent survey) and there’s no doubt that many organisations have been caught napping by the economic whirlwind; however, it’s also true that the ball wasn’t dropped by the rank and file, but by those at the top who couldn’t see that all good things come to an end eventually – and who now are making implausible demands of their foot soldiers in a last-ditch defence of possibly untenable positions. Yes, shared services will have to do better; but so will everyone else, and if “better with less” is the dish of the day, then it’d better be served at the top table too.

Moving away slightly from my attempt to break the record for most different metaphors in one blog post, and keeping a safe distance from the anagram generator (Shared Services = Aches Served, Sir) I re-discovered last night while reminiscing about my (in? vain?)glorious college years: the CXO Forum which kicked off the Exchange (and which initiated this missive) is now available in its near-entirety as a series of podcasts on the SSON site; check them out here. Of course, there’ll be more content from the Exchange emerging over the next couple of weeks.

BREAKING NEWS: On Friday – just in time for the sixteenth helping of turkey (I’ve got a mean recipe for turkey and ice cream; if anyone’s interested, mail me) – I’m launching our new Weekly Wrap, a radio-type podcast bringing you a selection of interviews, commentary and other editorial bric-a-brac that’ll give you the perfect end to every long week at the coalface. I’ll be linking to it on the homepage and we’ll be blasting the link out on the Gateway e-newsletter too, so you’ve got no excuse for missing it. As with the rest of SSON, your input on this is vital; please do email me your feedback including suggestions for content, interviewees and general ego-stroking. Any death threats will be less gratefully received.

That’s my lot. Those of you in the US, have a great Thanksgiving (I may pop my head in – should I bring ice cream?); the rest of you, have a great, er, day. And remember: Shared Services = Deserves Chairs (I did like “Shared Services = Ravished Recess” but this is most definitely a family show).

Jamie

Life Moves Pretty Fast

A whirlwind couple of days for your faithful correspondent, including crossing London so often between the National Outsourcing Association’s Sourcing Summit and SSON’s UK lair that, if I didn’t set some kind of record, I surely qualified for a Frequent Tuber (NB: not a recurring potato. But it should be.) pass. If there were one. Which of course there is not. Because London’s transport system is itself a record-breaker.

The reason for this peripatetic period can be seen (or, rather, heard) in the form of the podcasts I recorded at the SSON end of the route: DHL’s Carl Barnes on quick wins in the finance function (absolutely vital listening, though I say so myself, for any organization currently looking for a few pennies to rub together – you never know what a quick audit might glean); and Diageo’s Jan Comhaire, looking at how Credit & Collections practitioners can prove even more indispensable than usual in these critical times. Feedback, as always, is more than welcome.

Between such larks I’ve been gearing up for next week’s 8th Annual Shared Services and Outsourcing Exchange 2008, from where I’ll be reporting on anything not covered by Chatham House rules (I’m particularly excited by the unique CFO Forum which opens the event on Monday – you’ll be able to access extracts of this by the middle of next week) and at which I’m hoping to squeeze the juice from some of the finest minds in the business to pour into my very own content cocktail upon my return. (Note to self: design SSON-branded cocktail. Market. Move to Aruba.)

Almost done in this (mercifully) briefer-than-usual blog – but first a couple of notes. Those of you who aren’t members of our SSON LinkedIn group – why not? All SSON members can sign up and we’re looking forward to seeing you there. And for those of you who enjoy reading this blog twice, in two different parts of the electronic ether, we’ve now set up a page on WordPress. It’ll be the same as this one except with a different background. Excellent.

Bye for now,

Jamie

Edukashun Edukashun Edukashun

I had a very enjoyable chat yesterday with Vandana Saxena Poria, OBE, the CEO of GetThroughGuides.com (GTG) (you can listen to the podcast of this interview here). Vandana’s organisation recently conducted a study into the BPO space in association with the ACCA, looking at providers in Ireland, C/E Europe and India. We discussed the burden felt by BPO providers when recruiting from what often seems to be a relatively under-prepared and under-qualified talent pool – a burden then exacerbated by sky-high attrition rates. This is obviously a huge issue for even (especially?) the biggest players, and the findings of the GTG/ACCA study chimed with comments made to me earlier in the year by, among others, Genpact’s Pramod Bhasin and Amitabh Chaudhry of Infosys BPO, and Vandana was nothing if not forthright:

“It’s a major major problem, not just in India but around the world. Because attrition levels are so high; firms spend all this money training up these people in getting the right accents, giving them the right skills to deal with the IT or A/P or whatever function it is – and then within six months or a year that person’s left and gone on to the next center.”

There doesn’t seem to be any easy solution to this conundrum since even the most advanced state-sponsored education program wouldn’t pay immediate dividends, and the jobs in question themselves don’t exactly compete with those of Hollywood Star, Sporting Hero or Shared Services & Outsourcing Network Online Editor in the glamour stakes. However, in one of the few silver linings so far glinting out from the economic stormclouds, worries about the strength of the job market in India in particular are expected to put the brakes on the attrition rate as job-hoppers realise it might not be the most auspicious time to walk out on a job. Presumably the same will apply in Ireland, one of the other foci of the study, as that country’s economy enters what I’m pretty certain will be an Celtic economic Gotterdammerung. Or maybe Ragnarok. It’s hard to work out which it is when one’s so busy trying to dodge these tumbling heavens.

Less exciting and important an event than Vandana’s podcast it may be, but I suppose it’s worth pointing a weekend-y spotlight on the G20 summit about to take place in the US. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown (remember him? The man who abolished boom-and-bust?) spoke today in advance of the summit proper on the need to resist the temptation to assume protectionist policies: protectionism is apparently the “road to ruin” (although apparently there’s a shortcut involving alcoholism, gambling and infidelity which, let’s face it, sounds a lot more fun). This is all very well – but I’d love to be a fly on the wall for his next chat with President-elect Obama…

Brown: Protectionism is the road to ruin.
Obama: Who is this man? And what’s wrong with his jaw?

The BBC quoted Brown as saying “I think what we need is a route-map to bring the economy back, so that people feel more secure about their jobs, about their homes, about the prospects for the future” (prompting an immediate and passionate endorsement from the Committee for the Closing of the Stable Door after the Horse has Bolted). Forgive my temerity but what we actually need, Gordon, as well as a map, is a vehicle, some fuel and a navigator who wasn’t even a teensy-weensy bit responsible for getting us lost in the first place.

Have a good weekend people. It officially starts here.

Jamie

Flat Broads and Rosy Glows

Back to the coalface after a relaxing (and ever-so-well-earned) couple of days’ leave in north Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, one of England’s flattest, bleakest and as far as I’m concerned coldest corners. I’ve heard the Broads are stunning: I’m sure they are, but unfortunately my eyelids seemed to have frozen to my eyes so I couldn’t really give a decent assessment of their aesthetic qualities. Which made the cosy pubs with the nice roaring fires all the more appreciated by your faithful correspondent. Highlight of my break: seal-watching at Blakeney Point. Low point: Holme Fen. (That is a geographical joke. You may have missed it, but trust me, it’s there. Look.)

Anyway, back to being back at the coalface: I was at SSON’s 7th Annual Finance & Accounting Shared Services & Transformation event this morning and greatly enjoyed, in particular, the presentation by Unilever’s Christian Kaufmann on “Achieving Next Generation Finance through Shared Services and Outsourcing” – so much so that I’ll be recording a podcast with Christian next week. He emphasised the importance of clear and robust governance and, especially, communication with an outsource provider: “Keep regular meetings going even during the good times when it might seem there’s nothing to meet about.” I also liked his take on KPIs: “In the absence of knowledge, you try to secure your business through performance indicators. Which does not work.” Having lived most of my life “in the absence of knowledge” I can sympathise.

One question arising from Christian’s presentation which piqued my interest was related to scale. Unilever are a veritable behemoth in the business world and, while that makes the complexity of an outsourcing relationship all the greater, it clearly also helps when it comes to a range of issues such as cap-ex and, dare we say it, negotiating with potential providers. But smaller organisations for whom the need to find a good outsourcing relationship is no less pressing – especially now – don’t have the same swing. Talking with the head of a Europe-based SSO after the presentation, I was struck by how much more difficult the outsourcing proposition – indeed, any serious structural change – seemed to be right now for smaller firms for whom the primary drive is cutting costs to the bone. Specifically, how can SME shared services draw up a compelling business case, for a project requiring significant investment, to put to a board focused intensely on the bottom line? I said I’d ask the network – that’s you – for any advice. So let’s have it: any SMEs out there experiencing the same difficulties, or with any advice to give, I’d love to hear from you. It’s an issue we’ll be looking into in depth in the months to come and any input will earn the putter-in a rosy glow of satisfaction.

I almost made it to the end of this blog without bringing up the US election once again but John McCain’s spot with Leno yesterday was too good not to mention. The zenith went something like this:

Leno: How’ve you been finding life after the election?
McCain: Great. I’ve been sleeping like a baby. (pause) You know: sleeping two hours, waking up, crying for an hour.

Now his executive ambitions have finally shut down he could do worse than to consider branching out into stand-up.

Easy now,

Jamie

The Morning After The Night Before

What a night. This isn’t a political blog (thankfully: I think there are now officially more of those than there are people on earth) but there’s no point pretending that something epochal didn’t place in the US yesterday and, although the consequences of Obama’s victory will take many years to fully unravel, as I said in yesterday’s also-not-a-political-blog-mostly-about-politics the impact on the world and America’s relationship with it – and therefore, ineluctably, the global economy – will be profound. In many ways it already has been: no-one of the many, many millions at home and abroad watching and listening to the new president-elect at his apotheosis, nor to McCain as he delivered a supremely honourable concession speech, will be the same again. Even if they did have to stay up til 6am GMT to do it.

But the election’s over now and the reality of what still seems slightly unreal will sink in over the next few days. It’ll be very interesting to see how the global markets react to events in the US – and even more so to see how the outsourcing sector deals with the news. So far people seem to be pretty sanguine (my ol’ interviewee buddy Oscar Sañez in the Philippines certainly doesn’t sound too concerned) and it’s true that in the short-term the global economic situation is a much more pressing influence than concerns over the future actions of the chief-to-be. Longer-term, who knows? I’ve asked the Magic 8-Ball but all I got was “CONCENTRATE AND TRY AGAIN” and I got stuck on the first part.

Away from the world of politics and into the sphere of SSON events: I’m looking forward to the 8th Annual Shared Services & Outsourcing Exchange 2008 in a couple of weeks. My colleagues have pulled a blinder with a fascinating CFO forum for the first plenary session; I hope to be putting the audio track of this session up on the site pretty rapidly on my return (assuming I remember the CD this time) and will be grabbing people on-site for interviews and, hopefully, some good old-fashioned scurrilous gossip. If you’re there, come and say hello – if not, I’ll give you all the juice (within reason) after the fact.

Before that – and unfortunately (for me) lacking my presence - Shared Services México kicks off next week and promises to be a humdinger. I’m going to be looking a lot more closely at shared services in Latin America over the next few months and as well as bringing you presentations and interviews from a range of events, I’m also hoping to get your own stories of operating in the region. If you’ve got any feedback on the sector in Latin America please do let me know.

Time to go. As a parting gift, here’s a picture of a goat on a pole. Enjoy.

Jamie

Decision Time

Election day in the US (and Puerto Rico, lest we forget), and the rest of the world holds its breath. (Well, the human part of it does: the animals probably couldn’t care less, being more concerned with their nasty, brutish and short existences; and the vegetables can’t serve a third consecutive term.)

It’s probably fair to say that the shared services and outsourcing space won’t be the primary preoccupation of the new occupant of the White House – that, presumably, will be jumping up and down cheering on the executive bed and singing “Hail to Me” in the presidential shower – but, of course, the impact of the change in administration will be significant regardless of who wins.

This isn’t just because the candidates are likely to take very different lines on policies regarding outsourcing and offshoring – although of course this is an important factor; if, as seems likely at this point (McCain is currently 15-1 to win at Betfair.com, incidentally) Obama wins, he’ll be hard-pushed not to live up to his promise that “when I am President I will give tax credits to companies that hire in the United States and end tax breaks for companies that ship US jobs overseas” while McCain’s comparatively pro-outsourcing stance (which has both impressed and depressed his supporters according to taste and/or possession of shares in Boeing) is presumably unlikely to change upon election.

But the impact goes far beyond policy. Like it or not – judging by the Guardian’s ill-fated experimental meddling in US democracy last time round, it’s definitely “not” – Americans know that this election will have repercussions far beyond American shores. Surveys suggest Obama would win with an overwhelming majority if the rest of the world could vote, and this is assuredly a consequence of what has to be seen as eight years of one of the most damaging administrations in the history of America’s interaction with the global community. However, those years have seen incredible growth across the outsourcing sector. Globalization has carried on apace despite the high-profile calamities of W and his pals, and partly as a consequence of the economic policies which came to their unfortunate but logical conclusion in the last couple of months but which have driven vast wealth far beyond US territory. The discontents on the streets of Gaza, Islamabad and the like have very different perspectives on globalization from those of the increasingly affluent BPO executives in Pune or the up-and-coming ITO crowd in the Yangtze Delta. The intellectual and emotional responses of each of these communities – and countless others worldwide – to the new US president, and the electorate that puts him there, will be as important to the future of the global society and economy as the policies that the new chief puts in place. And I very much doubt that it’ll be his policies on outsourcing and offshoring which determine those responses.

Enough politics. It’s too serious and there’s too much at stake. Let’s have a musical interlude.

Awesome, dude.

In other SSON-related news: Phil Searle interviewed the esteemed David Wyss of Standard & Poor’s recently (the latter recently signed up to present at the 13th Annual North American Shared Services Week – for more information see the Shared Services Week website) and it’s a good read. He urges us to“remember that shared services and outsourcing is not a goal in itself for companies. It is a means to an end in supporting the core strategic goals of the business. Shared services and outsourcing for the sake of it is not the right answer. The rationale for doing so and the approach to implementing are both critical to success.” Wyss words indeed…

Also, I’ve just published a podcast of an interview with Andrew Simpson, VP Finance Shared Services, Nationwide Mutual Insurance, in which Andrew talks about the Nationwide shared services story and the value he’s getting from his BPM system. BPM seems to be a great boon for an increasing number of users right now: is it one of those “nice-to-haves”, however, that the crisis has moved to the back of the queue behind general scrimping and saving with a crazed, shell-shocked look in the eyes?

Time to go. The votes are flooding in and I’m going to stare at the TV until I fall asleep. And it’s not even my country. But then, we are all Americans now. Just don’t tell the IRS.

Jamie