Author Archives: Larry Janis

The Human Factor in Digital Transformation Projects

By Sami Mahroum

 

How the people working in government manage tech-driven innovation.

The public sector is the largest employer in the world. In OECD countries, nearly 23 percent of the total workforce is employed by government agencies. Around the world, this figure ranges from 5 percent in Japan to much higher in countries like Saudi Arabia (35 percent), Russia (40 percent) and India (55 percent). Small countries like Estonia and Singapore – leaders in smart government initiatives – also have sizeable public sector employment (22 and 32 percent, respectively). It is surprising therefore that few, if any, studies have been done on the effect of ongoing technology-driven governmental transformation on the people who deliver it. That is, of course, unless something goes wrong, like in the case of Phoenix, the Canadian federal payment system, SKAT, the Danish tax agency or the Obamacare portal.

To shed light on this topic, INSEAD and EY teamed up to launch an in-depth study of five major digital transformation projects in five very different countries. The study began with the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD) and went on to study the Federal Tax Service in Moscow, the digitalisation foundation called BiscayTIK in Bilbao, the national ID administration AgID in Rome and the national employment agency Pôle emploi in Paris.

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Manager Global Business Services Outsourcing & Shared Service

Manager: Global Business Services Outsourcing & Shared Services (Consulting)

Leading businesses are now using Global Business Services (GBS) to create alignment among their business units. Instead of operating numerous shared service centers and managing outsourcing vendors separately, organizations can integrate governance, locations, and business practices across the enterprise to achieve transformative performance improvements. In this way, GBS serves as a single enterprise organization or network that can drive collaboration and sharing to improve delivery efficiency, effectiveness, and business outcomes.

You along with dynamic colleagues will work closely with executives to consider how an outsourcing or shared services operating model aligns with their business strategy. As a Manager, you will lead and deliver large, complex client engagements that identify, design, and implement creative business and technology solutions for large companies.

Manager level responsibilities include: providing service excellence by identifying key client business issues, determining client needs by supplementing the standard assessment techniques and tools with innovative approaches, evaluating and validating analysis and developing recommendations for the client in the context of the overall engagement.  You will be expected to implement and oversee the quality of deliverables and effectively manage the team and day-to-day relationships to ensure exceptional performance.  Managers participate in the development and presentation of proposals for business development activities. You will have the opportunity to lead small engagements or components of large, complex engagements. (more…)

The Three Principles of Wise Power

If you know how to harness the power of your mind, heart and soul, you will be wiser in the face of surprises and disruption.

One of today’s damaging and common leadership misconceptions is the confusion of power with external control. All too often, we think of power as the ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others, or to force the course of events to conform to a predetermined scheme.

But there is an equally necessary kind of power, which is exerted inwardly. It turns out that power is as much about the ability to adapt to the world around us as it is about shaping the world. As the global business landscape becomes increasingly complex, our ability to develop our presence and gravitas has become an indispensable companion of authority.

A harmonious balance of inward- and outward-directed power is what I call wise power. It is the embrace of dualities that helps us meet the world halfway: in between what we want and what is offered to us. Beyond the illusion of full control, wise power is an art of surprise.

So what is wise power? Fundamentally, it is the ability to master the deeper dynamics – not just the surface phenomena – affecting the world, an organisation, a team, an individual, a conscience. Leaders developing their wise power train their attention towards the underlying forces shaping their environment and themselves. They are not as easily blindsided by threats or challenges. As their thinking is not beholden to entrenched prejudices and patterns of behaviour, they can devise more effective and more meaningful solutions. (more…)

Sr. Manager: Global Business Services- Outsourcing & Shared Services

 

Achieve the next level of Performance!  Leading businesses are now using Global Business Services (GBS) to create alignment among their business units. Instead of operating numerous shared service centers and managing outsourcing vendors separately, organizations can integrate governance, locations, and business practices across the enterprise to achieve transformative performance improvements. In this way, GBS serves as a single enterprise organization or network that can drive collaboration and sharing to improve delivery efficiency, effectiveness, and business outcomes.

Work you’ll do

You along with dynamic colleagues will help organizations create a single enterprise organization or network of Shared Services and Outsourcing relationships.  As a Senior Manager, you are expected to contribute to the firm’s growth and development in a variety of ways.  You will be responsible for engagement management: Lead engagement planning  and budgeting; mobilize and manage engagement teams; define deliverable structure and content; facilitate buy-in of proposed solutions from top management levels at the client; direct on-time,  quality delivery of work products; manage engagement economics; manage engagement risk.  Senior Managers manage day to day interaction with executive clients and sponsors.  You will be expected to participate in Business Development, develop and maintain contact with top decision makers at key clients; organize and lead pursuit teams; participate and lead aspects of the proposal development process; contribute to the development of proposal pricing strategies.  Senior Managers must contribute to Practice Development & Eminence:  Develop practical solutions and methodologies; develop “thoughtware” and “point- of-view” documents; participate in public speaking events; get published in industry periodicals.  We invest in our people, as a Senior Manager you will be responsible for people development, performing the role of counselor and coach; provide input and guidance into the staffing process; actively participate in staff recruitment and retention activities; provide leadership and support for delivery teams and staff in local offices.

 

Qualifications

Required:

  • A minimum of 10+ years consulting and/or industry experience is required
  • Must have subject matter expertise and project experiences in Shared Services, Outsourcing and/or Offshoring industry, or multiple back-office functional optimization
  • Shared Services Feasibility Assessments, Implementations, and Optimization
  • Ability to analyze and apply outsourcing trends
  • Practical experience with the full lifecycle of functional optimization, BPO and/or shared services programs
  • Core vs. Non-Core Assessments
  • Understanding of vendor landscape
  • Ability to interact at all levels of the client organization
  • Business Development and Delivery experience
  • Bachelor’s Degree

Preferred:

  • RPA experience
  • Ability to work independently, manage small engagements or parts of large engagements
  • Strong oral and written communication skills, including presentation skills (MS Visio, MS PowerPoint)
  • Strong problem solving and troubleshooting skills with the ability to exercise mature judgment
  • Willingness to mentor junior staff
  • An advanced degree is preferred

If this opportunity sound like a great fit, please reach out to:

Larry Janis, Managing Partner, janis@issg.net

or

Jeff Bruckner, Partner, bruckner@issg.net

 

WHAT IS TOP TALENT AND HOW IS THAT IDENTIFIED?

As a part of our talent acquisition engagements, we ask our clients how they define “top talent” and how they would assess those traits in the interview process. Reflecting on the insightful comments we hear every day, we thought there would be great value in a new blog in which senior executives/thought leaders share their “Take on Talent.”

This is the seventeenth in a series of blogs/interviews with senior executives who are thought leaders in the areas of Talent Acquisition, Career Development and Leadership who will share their perspectives on this ever present question.

 

 Paul is the President of Thirdbridge, a high growth, private equity backed disrupter in the research space. Third Bridge provides institutional investors like private equity firms, hedge funds and mutual funds with the information that they need to make better investments.

Before joining Third Bridge, Paul was President of Axiom Law, the leading disrupter in the corporate legal industry, where he scaled the business and oversaw a six-fold increase in size. He also held senior roles at American Express and BCG, and has a wealth of experience across the US, Asia and Europe.

Paul has a Masters of Business Administration from Melbourne Business School.

Find out more about Paul on LinkedIn.” (more…)