Global implementation of shared services and outsourcing can be challenging due to cultural differences between countries. The document discusses navigating power distances, communication challenges, and differing preferences across hierarchies, decision making, and workplace relationships in various nations. Effective change management is critical to success and requires understanding national perspectives, appealing to cultural preferences, gaining trust through local representatives, and demonstrating clear benefits.

2. What is global implementation
of shared services and outsourcing
 An intercultural encounter of the most stressful kind?
 A walk in the park?
 A rerun of War of the Worlds?
 An exercise in doing it my way or the highway?
 A UN peace-keeping mission?
 A recipe for a short career?
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3. Over 500 transitions 51 countries
too many processes to count impossible to tally all the go lives
almost 12,000 FTE 33 years’ experience
32 languages untold business units 1200 focus groups
22 sponsors multi-millions of transactions per annum
unimaginable USD saved innumerable phases
not enough $$$ spent on change management almost 2
million airmiles too many sleepless nights
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4. … of
Stellar qualifications
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5. Why managing change is so critical for
global implementation
Understanding how global stakeholders think and react is a
precondition for success.*
With thanks to Geert Hofstede
 Singular corporate cultures don’t exist
 Few companies are truly global
 Technology has not made us one culture
 The way we work is not culture-free
 Differing reactions to authority
 Differing ways of dealing with conflict
 Differing conceptions of our importance
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6. Cultural differences mean navigating
 Hierarchies
 Reliance on rules
 Central versus decentralized decision making
 Power of the individual
 Being consulted versus being told what to do
 Role and power of the boss
 Tenor of relations with employees
 Status of the type of work
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7. Power distance looms large
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8. Understand
first Getting to the
core of global
principles implementation
change
 Change generally happens with compulsion
 WIIFM varies country to country
 The center is rarely trusted
 Difficult to escape national stereotypes and biases
 Communication challenges are multi-fold
 Guessing is not an approach
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9. Planning
for Battle
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10.  Appealing to cultural preferences
 Power of proof of concept
 Political considerations
 Power distance
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11. It’s all Greek to me…
cultural nuances and language
 English as the change language of choice?
 Finding the right country-based change agents
 Importance of using local terminology
 Instilling trust when language is in the way
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12. The “persuasion equation”
 Dissimilar stakeholders
 Disproportionate power of the middle manager
 Using the C-suite as persuader-in-chief
 Power of proof of concept
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13. Cultural differences mean navigating
 Hierarchies
 Reliance on rules
 Central versus decentralized decision making
 Power of the individual
 Being consulted versus being told what to do
 Role and power of the boss
 Tenor of relations with employees
 Status of the type of work
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14. 14

15. Message
received
 Battling cultural differences in sending versus receiving
countries
 Combating historical intra-Europe prejudices
 Understanding intra-country change challenges (India)
 Managing cultural challenges in Asia
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16. Change in the rest of the world
 “No worries, mate” from ANZ
 The Latin American tango
 The Southeast Asia Triangle —
Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia
 South Africa
 And then there’s China....
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17. Global hotspots
 India
for European led  US
implementations
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18.  Simplify or complicate...
provider biases
BPO…  Role of the provider—
is it any easier resources, methodology
 Staffing the change
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19. “I wish I knew this when I started this war”
Panelists’ Top Tips
 Culture is everything...being attuned is being prepared
 Intuition is not enough...don’t guess your battle
plan/plan for battle
 Forget my way or the highway...you must adapt your
execution to cultural biases
 Show me the money/results are all that matter...in the
end, no one will remember the pain of the process
 Tradeoffs are key…speed for compliance, purity for
practicality
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20. “I wish I knew this when I started this war”
Panelists’ Top Tips
 The secret sauce is repetition and intensity…say it
again and again and again
 Value is created not delivered…break through culture
to demonstrate value
 Change management is the be all and end all….or your
global implementation will come up short
 Domino effect is powerful…sequence is key
 The buck stops here…the first person to embrace
change must be you
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21. Thank you
for
participating
…
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