B2BiQ

UNICEF’s Budapest Global Shared Service Center's Chief Service Quality Management Luis Suarez joins us. He notes that he and the organization benchmark against the private sector. Luis shares that’s the comparison, the organization is still unique: "I remember one time, out of all the events, we had a group of nationals that went to accompany a convoy that was delivering supplies for children. The convoy was stopped by IS and they were taken, the national staff. They were taken, kept for about eight hours or so. One of the guys, when he came back, they asked him, "How was your experience?" He said, "It was very difficult but I'm happy I'm doing it, and I'll do it again, because if I don't do it, who else will?" So that was his spirit."

From Google, Yuval Dvir joins us and notes that beyond the scope of his job, he's interested in things that are happening out there. He’s interested in discussing how executives are implementing AI solutions. He’s also interested in learning about the challenges of the different industries and the segments where he does see similarities: "On the one hand, everyone is facing, in a way, the same thing, which is how we deal with the avalanche of technology. On the other hand, there's the nuances and the slight differences actually where everything matters. Taking an off-the-shelf product that works beautifully in one company and trying to implement it in another company won't work. You need to be very, very aware of those subtle differences in the specific DNA of each organization."

The VP and MD of International Markets for Harley Davidson, Marc McAllister joins us and shares that he’s responsible for a good portion of the globe. Recorded at CEM Asia in Singapore where Marc is based, he shares that the company is reinventing itself while remaining true to it’s storied brand roots. He notes that Harley Davidson Motors Group was the original social network. So he sees his job as ensuring that all of the tools and social networks of today support the original brand vision and purpose.

From Amer Sports, Herve Hachet joins us, shares his background and how he’s changed since coming to Krakow. His first three years was focused mainly on managing a team and setting up the capabilities to build up the retention ground and operational pillars. Now the center, after five years, is stabilized. He’s now focused on process, continuous improvement and recently, automation. He also takes us through the Amer Sports change committee. It's a body who  meets every month with 80 people from around the world where the shared services team proposes changes, specifically process changes and organization changes. Generally, there are two or three changes per month. 

Roberto Mancone joins us and shares that as the global head of disruptive technologies his background is not in digital, it’s not in IT. He comes to the position with 25 years of corporate banking and corporate finance. And he’s done just that for major Fortune 500 companies. He went through the banking consolidation of trying to combine several assets in one location. He’s been on all sides of the table. And so when it comes to automation he sees it as simply leveraging a tool to understand how to use that tool to develop different and better processes.

Citi’s Director of Customer Listening and Engagement, Michelle Brigman joins us from CCW where she shares that we all know that we need to listen to the voice of the customer to understand that we’re bringing the right solutions to them. Michelle and her team realized that they had an opportunity to not wait for customers to provide information. They’re now tuning into customers digital behaviors through the company's real-time listening command center. That means that Michelle is able to key into how folks are interacting with digital solutions to understand how the organization can better serve the customer.

Glen Skarott joins us from SSOW and shares that he’s the head of finance shared services within the financial management group and he also leads corporate reporting- which makes him responsible for all of Macquarie’s external reporting for the 1,500 entities around the world...and the position includes regulatory reporting in 40 odd countries. Although he’s based in Sydney, he does obviously oversee the two shared services hubs in India and Jacksonville, FL. The Florida location has been open for over two years and was established after Glen and his team toured South America, Central and Eastern Europe. Jacksonville is where they felt skill set met the level service they need to supply.