SUBSCRIBE

Why your organization may be at a disadvantage without GBS?

Six Dead-or-Alive Questions

Carla Sarti
Carla Sarti
Vice President Global Business Services
Lear Corporation
Carla Sarti is a business leader with over 20+ years of experience in the market space. She has been a reputed board member of organizations like Kettering University and Rhonda Walker Foundation and is currently the VP of GBS at Lear corporation.
Sashi
Sashi Narahari
Founder and CEO
Founder & CEO of HighRadius, a fintech enterprise SaaS leader that provides Autonomous Software for Order to Cash, Treasury & Record to Report. Sashi’s leadership has secured the trust of 200+ Global 2000 companies.

View Podcast Summary

Dead-or-Alive Question #1: In 10 years, do you think BPOs for outsourcing will be dead or alive?
03:04
Click to Listen

Answer First: Alive
  • They may be alive but in a different capacity.
  • The BPOs might benefit from a traditional low-cost BPO model for companies that still haven’t moved into centralization.
  • But others need a transformational model, and my clients looked at that 15 years ago when I was outsourcing.
  • That’s how they are selling that they’re transformational partners.
  • It will be up to the results and whether they can truly transform a company or not, and that will dictate whether they’re still around.

    • Dead-or-Alive Question #2: In 10 years, will large, centralized service centers be dead or alive? Especially given the Covid effect of Work From Anywhere?
    04:03
    Click to Listen

    Answer First: Dead
    • We’ve seen the ability of people to work from wherever.
    • We could help with the camaraderie and idea sharing, which will lead to a large service center being done.
    • We will also need to figure out how to engage groups of people miles apart to work together.
    • People also realize that you cannot just do remote work, so now everybody’s struggling; what is the combo?
    • Companies are seeing that employees are a bit disengaged, and if you don’t have people coming together, it’s challenging to keep that going.

    Dead-or-Alive Question #3: In the next ten years, do you think RPA in the current form ‘AS IS screen flow automation’ will be dead or alive?
    05:12
    Click to Listen

    Answer First: Alive
    • It would take a different form.
    • Most companies are going to look for end-to-end automation.
    • Blockchain could be an answer to get there versus screen scraping. But still, we haven’t seen a full-blown business case on the blockchain.
    • RPA is just macros! Screen scraping and bringing that into replication. ERPs change very often, which will break the automation.
    • We brought in an audit and some of the audit companies like Ernst and Young.
    • If you do not set it up, you can fraud the company. So you need a good program in place to maintain the check.
    • We have always looked at E2E automation within one tool.

    Dead-or-Alive Question #4: What are your thoughts on AI in GBS. In 10 years, will AI be dead or alive?
    07:36
    Click to Listen

    Answer First: Alive
    • AI will be alive within GBS.
    • Proactive information that can drive business results is precisely where in 10 years, companies have to invest in technology to leverage the most significant future power.
    • You’ve got to be able to have one source of data that has captured everything to use AI to its total capability.
    • We are in that foundation-building stuff right now, looking to invest a couple of years in AI.

    Dead-or-Alive Question #5: In 10 years, given the consistent wage inflation, will India be a top choice for service centers?
    09:26
    Click to Listen

    Answer First: Alive
    • Honestly, India as a primary service center location would be dead already.
    • Inflation attrition has been an issue since, and in 10 years, India as a significant service Center will be tied to how well the BPOs for outsourcing have done.
    • India will remain an excellent hub for finding talented workers.
    • The population is highly educated and analytical, so I think it’ll still be a location to find great people.

    Dead-or-Alive Question #6: Would GBS be dead or alive as an organization?
    10:35
    Click to Listen

    Answer First: Alive
    • It would be very much alive.
    • Companies that have made the initial investment in centralization and some technology to help standardize have already seen the tip of the iceberg payback.
    • Those companies will continue to drive innovation and value by utilizing the GBS organization.
    • With so much M&A activity and competition, at least in the automotive industry, companies need to ensure that they have the best cost structure.
    • They should be able to move nimbly based on market conditions and integrate acquisitions fast without GBS.
    • Fortune 500 companies are at a significant disadvantage.
    • Companies that haven’t gone down this path may find themselves unable to respond as fast as competition to market conditions.
    • They might not have the correct data to make company-wide decisions and will either decide to move to GBS, or maybe they won’t be around in 10 years.

    Carla Sarti’s advice to you: Most of the workforce leaves colleges and they get recruited by companies like Accenture, PwC and you went from them to becoming a GBS leader. What is your career advice for peers both in consulting and management?
    13:06
    Click to Listen

    Key Points
    • Young kids are advised to follow the McDonald’s model, that you cannot own a McDonald’s without having to know to flip the burgers and do the fries.
    • It is the same in the business world. You don’t want to move on without building the proper foundation.
    • If you want a GBS career, you must have a transformational, innovative mindset.
    • You need to know how each of the different groups operates and what is required for each of these groups.
    • You’ll learn so much more and be successful in GBS.
    • You must keep your eye on the new technologies and understand what’s happening in the industry.
    • Most of us could falter by not having the proper skill set and not retaining people.
    • To move the needle up the maturity curve, we have to ensure that we have the right people with the proper skill sets in GBS.
    • It’s a mix of skill sets because you need people to do, you know, day-to-day operations analytics, but you also need people driving transformation.

    Know more about
    The GBS Masterminds

    Subscribe
    GBSHighRadius
    Corporate Headquarters
    HighRadius Corporation
    Westlake 4 Building (BP Campus)
    200 Westlake Park Blvd.
    8th floor
    Houston, TX 77079
    Available on
    Scroll-Top