Culture of partnership and value creation
Global Business Services Consulting
We turn support functions from back-office cost centers into active drivers of business performance
For too long, Global Business Services were buried in the back office, measured on what they save, not on what they enable. Rigid processes, fragmented accountability, and outdated ways of working created invisible barriers between functions and the business they serve. When Finance, HR, IT, and Procurement operate as disconnected processors, coordination breaks down quietly, and priorities stall without a clear owner.
Our Global Business Services consulting helps organizations redesign how shared services create value. By embedding continuous improvement practices and structured problem-solving into daily routines, we help teams move from reactive execution to active partnership, shaping resilient service models aligned with strategic goals and capable of responding to business needs. By building a culture of partnership and value creation, every function becomes a visible contributor to performance. Decisions move faster, service quality improves at the source, and the teams that once absorbed cost become a reliable engine for growth.
Want to achieve excellence in GBS?
Traditional Approach
Organizational structure by function
Lean Approach
Autonomous, multifunctional teams oriented toward processes
Traditional Approach
Focus on cost reduction and resource centralization
Lean Approach
Focus on creating strategic value and providing business consulting support
Traditional Approach
Traditional talent management
Lean Approach
Continuous skills development aligned with business strategy
Impact
Average increase in service levels
Average reduction in operational costs
Average reduction in process lead time
Our Solutions for Global Business Services
How to Enhance Talent and Team Management?
- Breakdown of the business strategy to operational teams, ensuring that individual and team objectives are directly aligned with the organization’s strategic goals.
- Implementation of periodic KPI review meetings to monitor performance across various organizational levels, identify deviations, and define corrective action plans, fostering continuous improvement and ensuring effective strategy execution.
- Implementation of efficient onboarding processes, integrated with continuous development programs, to ensure employees quickly acquire the critical skills needed to excel in their roles while continuously evolving in alignment with business objectives.
- Ongoing training is essential to adapt teams to new market and business demands, fostering innovation and competitiveness.
- Developing a culture of continuous improvement that spans all teams and organizational levels, replacing the traditional reactive management model with a more proactive and structured approach to problem-solving.
- Utilizing performance indicators displayed on team boards and conducting regular meetings to monitor KPIs and define countermeasures.
- Optimizing workspaces and standardizing processes to reduce variability, ensure quality, and apply structured problem-solving methods to drive sustainable, long-lasting improvements.
How to Define and Optimize the Service Portfolio?
- Mapping the needs of business units and defining the services to be provided.
- Provide a clear description of the services offered by GBS, with a detailed view of the capabilities and solutions made available to business units, ensuring that all stakeholders have access to complete information about the available support.
- Establishment of specific Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that outline quality standards and response times for each provided service.
- These SLAs create a clear foundation of expectations and commitment, promoting efficiency and customer satisfaction while enabling transparent and objective performance monitoring.
- Analysis of costs and market prices based on service typology.
- Definition of the pricing model, considering the urgency level of requests, enabling a more efficient allocation of resources adjusted to the criticality of situations.
- This approach provides a clear view of the costs associated with each service level, helping business units manage budgets in a more informed manner.
- Clarification of responsibilities between Global Business Services and the Business Units, ensuring efficient collaboration.
- Defining responsibilities establishes an efficient partnership where each party understands its role and contributes to shared objectives.
- Implementation of evaluation mechanisms to monitor service performance and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
- These mechanisms enable the collection of frequent feedback, measurement of the effectiveness of the service portfolio, and ensure that the delivered services are aligned with customer expectations and the organization’s strategic objectives.
How to Improve Demand Management and Operational Efficiency?
- Implementation of a digital demand management system with integrated ticketing to monitor performance and respond to requests efficiently and in a structured manner.
- This system ensures a transparent and organized workflow, effectively prioritizing and resolving requests aligned with business needs.
- Mapping processes for simplification, standardization, and automation, reducing complexity and eliminating operational redundancies.
- This approach promotes efficiency and agility, creating standardized workflows that optimize resources and improve the consistency of results.
- Creation of quality indicators to measure and identify errors and issues’ origin and detection points throughout processes, providing a clear view of critical areas.
- Use of structured problem-solving methods, including root cause analysis, to effectively eliminate failures and ensure long-term, sustainable improvements.
- Adopting this approach reduces recurring errors, enhances process efficiency, and ensures more consistent delivery, improving customer experience.
- Improving the experience of internal and external customers with a customer-centric approach focused on satisfaction.
- Emphasis on resolving issues at the first point of contact, anticipating customer needs, and implementing proactive solutions that eliminate the need for support.
- Continuous analysis of customer expectations and process optimization to address problems at their source, increasing customer satisfaction while reducing operational costs.
How to Define the Operating Model?
- Definition of an operating model that optimizes service efficiency and agility, adjusting the level of centralization, decentralization, or outsourcing in alignment with strategic objectives.
- Each approach is analyzed to determine the ideal balance between central control, local autonomy, and flexibility through external partners, ensuring alignment with business goals and the organizational context.
- Implementation of a robust reporting model that defines responsibilities and efficient decision-making processes for Global Business Services.
- When adopting matrix structures, it is essential to establish clear roles, defined responsibilities, and streamlined decision-making processes. This promotes transparency and strengthens accountability at every operational level.
- Establishment of an end-to-end management approach for critical processes, ensuring full visibility and continuous optimization of process stages.
- This focus enables smooth integration across different functions and regions, reducing waste and improving overall efficiency, with the goal of delivering consistent value to the organization.
How to Transform GBS into a Center of Excellence?
- Redefinition of the role of Global Business Services (GBS), transitioning from a transactional service center to a strategic center that directly contributes to the organization’s goals.
- This new positioning involves the development of capabilities that enable GBS to support initiatives such as digital transformation, ESG, and continuous improvement while also acting as a consulting partner to leadership equipped to influence strategic decisions.
- Transformation from a transactional center to a strategic value center through creating a high-value offering that is competitive for internal and external clients with personalized services.
- Adoption of diversified monetization models to strengthen GBS’s positioning as a preferred alternative to outsourcing.
- Implementation of data analysis systems to provide valuable insights that support decision-making.
- The use of data analysis tools and artificial intelligence enables GBS to anticipate needs, identify opportunities for improvement, and propose solutions that enhance efficiency, quality, and agility—not just within their areas but across the entire business.
- Development of an organizational structure that promotes flexibility, agility, and adaptability, effectively responding to market changes and internal needs.
- Implementation of agile methodologies for project development, ensuring faster responses to the organization’s strategic demands.
Client results
Learn how to implement it in your organization
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Our Approach
The KAIZEN™ approach begins with an end-to-end
analysis. This analysis leads to a customized solution design and implementation plan. The contribution of
the teams is critical to the success of any Lean journey. We organize our customers’ teams to break
functional silos and develop continuous improvement skills.
We support our clients in implementing
the initiative’s plan, ensuring set objectives are met.
Change Management
Kaizen Institute’s approach is practical, pragmatic,
and collaborative. We work with our customers in their Gemba – where the action takes place – and observe the
opportunities first-hand.
Our experts combine deep expertise with refined
analytical and problem-solving skills, bringing an external and fact-based perspective to the industry’s
challenges and opportunities.
Want to get more insights?
We create customized solutions for every business area
Kaizen Institute works directly with the client teams, with a “Hands On” and “Teaching by Doing” approach
Kaizen Institute works directly with the client teams, with a “Hands On” and “Learning by Doing” approach
