Alfred P. Sloan, former GM president, introduced in the 1920s a divisional organisational structure. Then he recognized that there are redundancies regarding the administrative functions (e.g. accounting) in the group. He has decided to concentrate them and to locate them in the headquarters. This concept is known as centralisation, and it is a predecessor of the shared service center(s) concept. However, the first shared service centers have been established in the 1980s…
Why did it take as long? What have we learned from this story?
While implementing new concepts (or improving the existing ones) it makes sense to get known, how the leaders in their class did or do that. It is a good practice to talk to practitioners, companies having already implemented certain solutions, as
shared service centers for instance.
For that reason I have decided to participate in the
“Financial Shared Services 2009”, an event organized by
Axiom Groupe
and held in Barcelona, Spain on 17 and 18 September 2009. Within just two days you can get some insights into the importance of support got from the top management for the shared service center, how to save costs after a successful building phase, application of the six sigma concept, the future of outsourcing vs. insourcing. Many case studies and round-table discussions, and the networking possibility make this event especially attractive.
Now let’s come back to the “Sloan story”. Lessons learned?: The way from “to know something” to “to successfully implement something” can take some dozens of years. Do we really have as much time today? In the time of financial crisis we are searching for possibilities to reduce costs, to improve quality and/or to reduce time of delivery. And I will tell you something: there are some ways, how to reach these objectives.
Shared service centers? Six sigma? Any other solutions? Let’s discover it together on 17 and 18 September 2009 in Barcelona.
More about the event:
FINANCIAL SHARED SERVICES 2009, 17-18 SEPTEMBER BARCELONA, SPAIN
Magdalena Szarafin
http://www.szarafin.info
P.S. Good and bad news: the number of participants is limited to 40 persons. That is a good and a bad news. A good one as it ensures a high level audience and networking. And a bad one as 40 is not a big amount of people so that a quick reaction is strongly recommended.
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P.S. This year many conferences, trainings and other events on different aspects of outsourcing and shared service centers are on the agenda. As the member of
BPO Voice you are eligible for special discounts. For more information see:
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