Global Head of Shared Services at Anglo American. Sandy is a business leader with 25+ years of experience in transforming organizations into next-generation enterprises and GBS organizations.
CEO and Founder of HighRadius, a Fintech enterprise SaaS company which leverages AI-based Autonomous Systems to help companies automate Accounts Receivable and Treasury. Sashi’s leadership has secured the trust of 200+ Global 2000 companies.
Podcast Summary: Six Million Dollar Questions every GBS Leaders want to Know
Million Dollar Question #1:In the past, you’ve been more inclined towards outsourcing compared to captive models. For deploying shared services, which model would you suggest and why?
Key Points
This world, especially in the GBS space, is increasingly growing into hybrid models.
An ecosystem of partners is critical in most industries. Why?
They can underwrite investments and commit to outcomes.
They can leverage talent pools in ways that can offer career pathways that perhaps captive can’t do.
They can provide shared investment in technology and deeper R&D budgets.
The choice of the model is not just about the time, it’s more about cultural adoption and maturity.
Whether you are captive or outsourced, this hybrid world needs to have strategic assets as a natural extension of the organization.
Million Dollar Question #2: There is a lot of debate on what companies should do. Should you do the lift and shift the process first or standardize first and then move it?
Key Points
It is critical to ask “why would you not realize bottom-line savings as soon as possible, and then use that saving to fund elements of the transformation”
Centralizing your processes will give higher sustainability with a safer experience than trying it in several business units in the world.
What is going on in Anglo American?
We’re deploying the full end-to-end finance transformation.
We’re reimagining how we leverage and scale shared services to new levels.
I lean towards doing it once in a central place, embedding the controls, making changes happen with the people who will be involved in the long term.
The key to this question is Lift & Shift, take your money, embed the controls, and make the transformation happen!
Million Dollar Question #3:There is a lot of confusion from a technology point of view. There are ERPs, there is RPA, foundational cloud platforms; what is your general viewpoint as you’re going through this transformation?
Key Points
GBS organizations should be the home for the continuum of process excellence and automation.
Let’s not chase technology for technology’s sake.
It is not just about digitizing the end-to-end process and managing transactions but also about monitoring and controlling the automated execution of these transactions.
With the right set of technology, you can become the digital command center that can leverage a variety of technologies and function as the center of excellence.
Million Dollar Question #4: You’ve built and managed so many global businesses and generated significant revenue and growth. Could you share your secret recipe for transforming GBS from a cost-cutting focus to a revenue growth strategy?
Key Points
It always used to be about the cost and labor differentials, but once we have saved the code, we can move to efficiency.
Terms like effectiveness, quality, and control came into the picture when we started asking the question, “what were we actually delivering?”
Actionable insights are where we demonstrate that our future is more around helping our respective organizations to drive revenue
The key to this question is developing talents. That is the biggest asset to our business – in addition to cost & growth, we also need to retrain, retain and reinvent the people skills.
Million Dollar Question #5: Everyone is confused between core ERP versus modern SaaS platforms today. In your view, what is the trade-off?
Key Points
A few years ago, it seemed many on-prem ERPs were waning.
Meanwhile, many enabling tools & technologies emerged during the last few years which have become the core of the ecosystem.
To create a sustainable solution and not just a short-term fix, you need to leverage the best-of-breed products and partners – you’d be extraordinarily short-sighted not to leverage this ecosystem.
You should have your core first and then you should use the right ecosystem to help you develop what you’re looking to deliver.
