Ffulfilling the strategic promise of shared services

The downsizing efforts of corporate America over the past fifteen years have largely focused on reducing staff. While the objectives of slashing overhead and boosting responsiveness were admirable, the “meat‐ax” approach used by many companies resulted instead in lowered morale and little improvement in agility. One of the reasons why the emphasis on controlling headcount has been counterproductive is that it ignores the need to improve services, add new ones, or eliminate those that are not necessary.