Thought Leadership Archive

When companies undertake digital transformation, it’s crucial that they keep executive and organizational support throughout the multi-year journey. An effective strategy for getting and sustaining that support is to focus on the “moments that matter” to the executives and/or users. Those are the moments (or events, decisions, actions) that comprise the most important issues

Historically, vendor management teams built strong skill sets in acquiring services at low/competitive unit-cost prices and measuring vendor performance. But the world changed, and there is a growing misalignment between the purchasing and vendor management and the business units they serve. Businesses say the vendor management teams buy things cheaply but don’t buy the

There is a useful framework or construct for activities and issues that are critical to an organization’s success. We call these issues “moments that matter.” By focusing on the activities in moments that matter, an organization can ensure that employees and managers are effective in their jobs; it’s also a way to differentiate between

The number of shared services centers is growing, and enterprises are also expanding the size of their existing centers. Why? A key driver is that digital transformation enables shared service centers (also referred to as “Global in-house Centers” (GICs)) to deliver a new wave of business impact to their parent organizations. Digital technologies such

A major frustration between business units and their enterprise IT organizations is the issue of employee churn. The same issue affects relationships between enterprise IT and third-party service providers. Let’s look at how a company’s talent model affects whether the results of the IT work are consistent with the needs and desires of the

Historically, many companies have gone through channels to communicate about services and products with potential consumers. Insurance companies are a great example of this, as they typically go through broker-dealers, agents or wholesalers. But in today’s world where millennials and younger generations want to engage themselves in the buy, exclusively going through channels is

The role of CPOs and their organizations grew over the last 10 to 15 years by institutionalizing consistent disciplines in acquiring products and services. There is no doubt that they made a strong contribution to the earnings of organizations. But in the context of digital technologies and services, the nature of the buying process

The shared services market is growing quickly. US and European firms are either expanding their existing shared service centers (also referred to as “Global in-house Centers” (GICs)) or building new centers. Let’s look at what’s happening and the factors that are driving the growth. Read more in my blog on Forbes

Since the inception of offshored shared services, sometimes referred to as “Global In-house Centers” (GICs), the underlying assumptions were that (a) size matters and (b) the choice of functions (transactional, scale-driven processes) was a driver for gaining offshoring benefits. But the world has changed. The size and functions constraints no longer pose a barrier

Digital transformation disrupts the way companies create value that improves the customer, employee or partner experience. But it involves a multiyear journey and changing a company’s operating model, which is painful and difficult. Building executive and organizational conviction on the vision for what the transformation is and sustaining it over a three-to-five-year journey requires