The journey towards building the next generation Business Services
Sumit Mitra, CEO of Tesco Business Services & Tesco, India, reflects on the organisation's journey towards becoming the Top 20 most admired GBSs in the world for 5 years in a row
Tesco was one of the early adopters in terms of leveraging India as a shared services location of choice. In 2004, it opened its operations in Bengaluru, India, where some of the key processes like Finance and Payroll were transitioned to create labour arbitrage benefits for the Group. In 2017, the Group took a decision to leverage more out of India and create a global Business Services organisation to help transform its business model. I had the privilege of leading Tesco through this journey and laying the foundation. Our first two-year strategy, Vision 2020, was about that. For a bullet train to go fast, we first need to build the tracks. These were "culture" and "process." We devised the "service model" framework, which refined 100s of Tesco processes into 10 key processes, forming the bedrock and simplifying how we work. We defined end-to-end accountability with clear handoffs, with Tesco Business Services taking accountability for the performance. No more "watermelon" metrices where the GBS is green, and the business is red. Our next focus was culture and we needed to build a culture that was ready to adopt and adapt to the change.
Being global was critical at this juncture. By leveraging the right culture and service model framework, we expanded our operations in Budapest, Waterford, and Dundee to support our customers, colleagues, and suppliers across all markets. The second chapter of our strategy, Mission '23, was all about digital enablement and leveraging data. We built a foundation of continuous improvement upon which we drove the digitalisation strategy, which looked at automating our end-to-end processes. Starting with leveraging cognitive automation to take away rule and task-based processes to leveraging AI and ML to drive intelligent automation, thereby creating value. Data being the new oil, it was logical for us to trap, harness, secure, and leverage data to help deliver insights to create value for the business. It's been an evolution rather than a revolution in the last 4 years or so.
2. You have been ranked among the top 20 most admired GBS in the world 5 years in a row. What gives Tesco Business Services an edge over its competitors?
COVID-19 has been an inflection point for organisations globally. We have been on a journey of creating differential value for the last few years, and for us "having a seat at the table," gave us the edge to influence decision-making.. As an organisation, we have been driving the concept of owning end-to-end with an ability to think and behave as "one office." The focus is never on labour arbitrage or efficiency like a traditional GBS but primarily on how much we can contribute to increasing Tesco's profits and revenue and improving cash generation through a culture obsessed with creating value for its customers, shareholders, and communities.
This recognition from SSON is a testament to our unwavering commitment to excellence, unmatched eye for innovation, and an unparallel sense of community. Tesco Business Services is the only GBS in the retail space that sits horizontally across the Group's retail, bank, and mobile business. We own the group-wide capability for continuous improvement, which helps us connect to our purpose to serve our customers, communities and planet a little better every day. We became the edge that is now transforming the Core of the business and the backbone to feeding nations.
Last Updated :
November 17, 22 04:53:56 PM IST