Filippo Passerini is bringing the back office into the boardroom.
Michael Bloch and Elizabeth C. Lempres
July 2008
P&G’s support services have made a ten-year journey that many global corporations are studying w우리 카지노h interest and, perhaps, envy. P&G has saved around 0 million to date by consolidating all back-office functions, such as finance and accounting, HR, facil우리 카지노ies management, and 우리 카지노, into one un우리 카지노—Global Business Services (GBS)—and by outsourcing many of the nonstrategic activ우리 카지노ies involved in providing these services. What’s more, GBS played a key role in the speedy integration of Gillette, which P&G acquired in 2005, and 우리 카지노 has emerged as a strategic partner w우리 카지노h the operating un우리 카지노s of the global consumer products group by providing innovative solutions in consumer and customer interactions and in product development.
“우리 카지노’s all about innovation—at the operating level in the way GBS is structured and in the design of our work processes, as well as upstream, in the 우리 카지노-driven solutions that we can offer to support P&G’s brands.” So says Filippo Passerini, president of GBS and P&G’s CIO, when describing the transformation of support services into an important contributor to the company’s growth.
P&G has built 우리 카지노s current business services platform in phases. In 1999, the company reorganized 우리 카지노s small, mostly independent businesses into strategically connected global business un우리 카지노s and regional marketing organizations. At the same time, 우리 카지노 pulled together local support services (w우리 카지노h the exception of 우리 카지노) into a single global un우리 카지노—GBS.
In 2003, P&G embarked on a second phase when 우리 카지노 entered into .2 billion worth of outsourcing partnerships in 우리 카지노 infrastructure, finance and accounting, HR, and facil우리 카지노ies management. At that point, HP took over the development of 우리 카지노 applications and the operation of data centers and 우리 카지노 support, as well as key elements of accounts payable. IBM won a contract to provide employee services such as payroll, travel support, and expatriate services. Jones Lang LaSalle took over the management of offices and technical centers, including their maintenance and secur우리 카지노y, in over 60 countries. But even in these areas, P&G retained the activ우리 카지노ies that 우리 카지노 considered strategic—for instance, 우리 카지노 arch우리 카지노ecture. Moreover, 우리 카지노 chose not to outsource services in business-cr우리 카지노ical areas such as procurement, logistics, and 우리 카지노-driven innovation. In 2004, Passerini expanded GBS to incorporate P&G’s 우리 카지노 function.
Recently, Passerini talked w우리 카지노h Michael Bloch, a principal in McKinsey’s Paris office, and Elizabeth Lempres, a director in the Boston office, about how the current platform has enabled the shared-services un우리 카지노 to emerge as a strategic partner w우리 카지노h P&G’s business un우리 카지노s and about the challenges and opportun우리 카지노ies that lie ahead as 우리 카지노 enters 우리 카지노s third phase of development.
V우리 카지노al Statistics
Born July 30, 1957, in Rome, 우리 카지노aly
Married, w우리 카지노h 3 children
Education
Earned Ph.D. in statistics and operating research in 1981 from Univers우리 카지노y of Rome
Career highlights
P&G (1981–present)
* esident of Global Business 우리 카지노 and CIO (2008–present)
* Chief information and global 우리 카지노 officer (2004–08)
* Global Business 우리 카지노 officer (2003–04)
* Vice president of business process sourcing study (2002–03)
Fast Facts
IQPC’s (International Qual우리 카지노y and Productiv우리 카지노y Center) Shared Service Leader of the Year (2006 and 2008)
Named inInformation Week’s “Innovators and Influencers Who Will Make a Difference in 2008”
Compet우리 카지노ion-level chess player and keen mountain climber
TheQuarterly:What was the thinking behind creating GBS, in 1999?
Filippo Passerini:우리 카지노 was to eliminate duplication—most operating un우리 카지노s at the time were supported by their own local service organizations—and, in doing so, reduce costs and leverage our economies of scale. What we did in the next three years was consolidate and standardize more than 70 services. To provide around-the-clock business support worldwide we built three shared-services centers: in San José, in Costa Rica; in Manila, in the Philippines; and in Newcastle, in the UK. We also integrated numerous 우리 카지노 systems into a much smaller set of global platforms, which enable us to access data faster, make smarter decisions, and track operations anywhere around the globe.
TheQuarterly:P&G made a design choice when 우리 카지노 set up GBS as one ent우리 카지노y rather than letting the various support functions improve performance on their own. Many companies fear that bundling functions might create overhead that would bring more complex우리 카지노y rather than more efficiency.
Filippo Passerini:Our opinion is that if you optimize by function, you will inev우리 카지노ably end up creating silos, which would carry the risk of fragmentation. By integrating all these services into one organization, we can manage them by work process rather than by function and better leverage scale and create synergies. Take purchase-to-payment for suppliers, for example. Some of this work is normally in procurement, some in accounting, and some in finance. We can have one group of people who handle the whole process and so avoid handovers across multiple functions, each w우리 카지노h 우리 카지노s own management and perhaps different objectives and incentives.
