Business outcomes – The most disruptive commercial lever yet

Any organization with shared services – regardless of size – can benefit from having a Business Outcomes Officer focused on driving outcomes and value delivery.

Global Business Services (GBS) organizations have shifted focus from just delivering services to driving tangible results and value. Indeed, today’s breed of GBS leaders are becoming an active C-suite who help shape and influence design thinking to drive organizational growth ambitions for the CFO and CEO.

The typical organization chart as we know it often doesn’t fully describe how work gets done. This is affirmed by Deloitte’s 2023 Global Human Capital Trends report that states: “Whatever a hierarchical organization chart says, real, day-to-day work gets done in networks. This is why the organization of the future is a ‘network of teams.’”

To this end, operational leaders are becoming a central force for the success of the organization, with the bulk of transformation effort designed and implemented within their business units and departments.

Busting myths

In order to achieve this ambition, the role of the Business Outcomes Officer has evolved as a dedicated profile led by a senior professional to focus on driving the business outcomes from design to deployment, and help onboard the client thinking into this new paradigm.

As a new role title with a big buzz, there are some myths to bust and realities to re-emphasize on what the role entails and what is expected of the role:

Myth 1: the Business Outcomes Officer will lead the charge for regular service delivery and operational excellence in a GBS organization – this role doesn’t replace service delivery, but complements delivery leaders who can then focus on the operational and day-to-day tasks. The Business Outcomes Officer drives conversations to bring disruptive process changes led with a business first mindset.

Myth 2: the Business Outcomes Officer is an independent contributor with unique ways of working that have nothing to do with the operational environment – this is contrary to the spirit of the “network of teams” approach within the new organizational structure. This role will have a strategic and holistic perspective with specific business outcomes and goals. It also requires a high degree of collaboration and influence across various departments and functions to ensure strategies and initiatives are coordinated.

Myth 3: the Business Outcomes Officer is focused on tracking metrics and KPIs aimed at reducing shared services costs – while efficiency is a key goal, this role focuses on conversations towards adopting innovation, driving business value, and increasing operational influence. This is also the reason why organizations tend to look internally to appoint senior leadership who understand GBS ways of working and can drive the client narrative.

In short, the role of the Business Outcomes Officer drives a fundamental shift in the narrative that “outcomes are better than outputs.”

Getting started

Any organization with shared services regardless of size can benefit from having someone focused on outcomes and value delivery. Here’s how to get started:

• Structuring GBS 2.0 around the outcomes and the experiences you are creating and delivering. This requires a shift in the way metrics and measures are outlined and performances are evaluated. The firms of the future may become self-starters who come together to fulfill mission critical activities – sort of like a Hollywood model of work to bring people to fulfill a project.
• Building committed outcomes into the contracting structure with assigned and measurable results. This will be a mindset shift from the previous version where outcomes were a “design approach” or a value add. This forces the thinking towards creating tangible and results-oriented minimum viable products.
• Having the courage to dismantle time tested assets and methodologies and embrace the massive change in the digital ecosystem. This means having the right investments to create incubators for testing, look beyond the default position of reading use cases, while being ready to create history by becoming the forerunner to drive the change.

Embracing and leading change is not new to Capgemini. As a leader in adopting the business outcomes commercial model, we’ve worked with clients of all shapes and sizes across the globe to successfully deploy enhanced business outcomes from the beginning of our contracting timelines.

To learn more about how Capgemini’s Frictionless Finance can transform your GBS operations through leveraging a business outcomes model to deliver enhanced business outcomes, contact: priya.ganesh@capgemini.com