Trend #6: People — still a valuable resource GBS is the hothouse for talent, finding and developing people, particularly in emerging markets, to bring into the main organization. This is redesigning career paths — rotational trainee programs include extensive GBS exposure, and future leaders are forged in its agile, innovative environment. Widespread automation is, contrary to initial doubts, actually creating more value for employees: it is facilitating a focus on accelerated, high-value work. The ecosystem model is the norm, so collaboration and networking is key; where there’s chemistry there’s differentiation. And there’s satisfaction too: an end-to-end view of the organization’s processes and performance helps employees see the importance of their own role. Trend #7: Acute awareness — risk and cybersecurity as daily considerations The most successful companies, those fully embracing the potential of GBS, get these fundamentals right from day one: all areas of risk (including digital, cyber and financial) are daily considerations. These companies take huge risks in their strategies — but decisions that are driven by intelligent analytics, and made by cognitive computers, are much less “risky”. However, organizations like this are mostly virtual, so security demands the tightest cybersecurity. Accordingly, GBS centers of excellence are developing security bots capable of automatically testing every fiber of the cloud infrastructure for vulnerabilities without downtime. SS_Dublin_infographic.indd 6 23/05/2016 12:39:18