全球中心的未来

© Getty Images Over the past three decades,global centers havebecome the preferred way for big companies toperform an increasing range of core work tasksand business processes. Concentrating theorganization’s knowledge, talent, and capacity forspecific business activities in one place providesmultiple benefits: improving cost efficiency, aidingthe dissemination and adoption of best practices,and ensuring every business unit has access to theresources and capabilities it needs.The shape of global centers has changedsignificantly over this time. Moving from shared-service centers focused on simple transactionaltasks, many have evolved to become theirorganization’s primary resource for foundationalsupport functions from finance to productdevelopment.Leading global centers have achieved that shift inthree phases. First, they earned the “right to play”in more and more complex business activities bydemonstrating the ability to deliver high levels ofservice, quality, and cost efficiency. Second, theyearned the “right to partner” by demonstrating theability to help the wider enterprise develop betterprocesses and adopt new technologies. Third, theyearned to “the right to lead” by demonstratingthat they can consistently deliver the best solutionavailable.Now leading global centers are poised to takethe next evolutionary step—becoming a sourceof strategic competitive advantage for theirenterprises by driving talent growth, customerexperience, leadership, and innovation. Here’s how:The talent headquartersGlobal talent shortages, particularly in areas suchas digital technologies, AI, and risk management,have led many companies to extend their search forskilled professionals to high-value global locations.For instance, while the US faces a shortage of15,000 tech roles, India boasts a surplus of overthree million digitally skilled workers.More thanhalf of this talent is focused on next-generation2019 Gartner Emerging Risk Report; Great Place to Work, 2020; LinkedIn.Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP); The Philippine IT-BPM Industry Roadmap 2028.The future of global centers capabilities such as AI. To put this in perspective,India already has twice the software engineeringtalent as the US.One in five Fortune 2000 companies nowhave global centers in India, and this number isexpected to double by 2030. India is increasinglybecoming the second headquarters for manyglobal enterprises, such as major investment banksand global technology firms, serving as a hub forcritical functions like transaction banking andinfrastructure leadership.Apart from India, the Philippines, Latin America, andEastern Europe have also emerged as preferredgeographies for global centers. The Philippineshosts global centers for 40 Fortune 500 companies,with around 200,000 people employed in the sector.Similarly, Mexico is benefiting from its proximity tothe US to emerge as a nearshoring hub for servicessuch as software development.The owner and integrator ofcustomer experienceGlobal centers are positioned to take on greaterresponsibility for integrating customer experienceacross enterprises, managing end-to-endcustomer journeys with consolidated ownership ofoperations, technology, and risk. This enables themto deliver and track real improvements in customersatisfaction. At one major shipping company,centralizing customer service and support at asingle global center helped to boost the customersatisfaction score by 10 to 15 percent.Global centers also provide the opportunity tostandardize and consolidate underlying processes,laying the foundation for automation. With the rightcombination of talent and technology collaboration,global centers can drive transformations that mayeven exceed the capabilities of headquarters.Co-located advanced analytics and AI talent canhelp integrate innovations such as embedded AI intooperations, creating a self-sustaining business caseby reinvesting a share of the savings generated byautomation. The leadership incubatorHigh-quality global centers serve as fertilegrounds for cultivating the next generation ofglobal leaders. As talent pools mature, we expectthat 10 to 20 percent of global enterprise leaderswill be based in these locations, making globalcenters platform hubs for global leadership.Many leaders in these centers are already takingon enterprise-wide roles, and early adoptersin industries such as consumer goods haveestablished global mobility programs to supportleadership development.The innovation epicenterGlobal centers are becoming launch pads forenterprise innovation, particularly in specializedareas such as risk analytics. McKinsey estimatesthat these centers could generate more than halfof all enterprise patents in the future, up froma quarter today. Top-quartile centers are alsopartnering with start-ups, particularly in regionslike India—which has the world’s third-largeststart-up ecosystem—to incubate innovationcapabilities such as building customized largel