INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH
INTERVIEW WITH MR. SANJEEV RASTOGI
Head GDC & Finance Operations APAC
Sanjeev Rastogi is the Managing Director of Syngenta Services Pvt Ltd, and has dual responsibility of heading the Global Delivery Center (Pune) and Global Finance Operations servicing Syngenta organizations globally. In his current role, he also manages the strategic relationships with outsourced partners especially focused on F&A.
GDC Pune is a knowledge center and supports – Business Transformation, Finance Operations, Digital Finance, IT, HR Services, Digital Lab and Strategic Supplier Management. Sanjeev believes that desire, dedication and discipline are the keys to success in whatever you do and as a leader you should always walk the talk and treat everyone the way you want to be treated.
Let us hear the evolution of shared services and how technology is playing a significant role in this transforming business
- How has the centralisation of Business Transformation, Finance Operations, Digital Finance, IT, HR Services, Digital Lab and Strategic Supplier Management all under one umbrella benefited Syngenta as an organisation?
- With shared services evolving from a transactional based environment into multifunctional models including knowledge centres making it more complex, how according to you should companies look at their current governance structure?
- Technology is a big enabler for Shared service model. What is your advice to business leaders on adoption of technology in business functions?
- With the landscape of talent demand changing in the shared services space, how should organisations gear up to this change?
- What has been your key learnings and what is your advice to other organisations and business leaders?
Yes, it has really benefited us in Global Delivery Centre Pune as we continue to leverage the IT infrastructure to deliver digital finance solutions at a much better speed and efficiency. We also leverage IT for delivering our HR services, specifically, the new HR Workday solution that we have implemented. This in turn improves speed and also creates a better stakeholder experience. The digital lab has also helped in creating solutions across the Syngenta world which is helping our commercial business. Since Syngenta follows a hybrid model of doing stuff internally while also outsourcing some services, having a supplier management team in Pune helps us in connecting better with key suppliers, being adept and also in managing key projects seamlessly.
Most of the company’s focus is on functional centre of excellence, resulting in a matrix reporting structure for shared services operations in India. This is now quite a mature model and the functional reporting and guidance is mostly outside of the centre. This in turn helps in aligning the functional priorities and delivery, building a strong governance across the organisation.
The centre structure has gradually matured and evolved to be a landlord model, providing employee engagement and community services. It provides the team necessary space and encourages aligned ways of working, resulting into a strong inclusive culture across the Shared Services Operations.
Today all key stakeholders are looking for immersive experiences and not just service delivery. Technology is going to change the way we deliver our products and services to our ultimate customer, so if one is not adopting new technologies for all the internal processes, we will not be able to deliver solutions which are innovative. Customer centricity is key these days. Adopting new technologies and being agile is not a choice but a necessity, in order to manage costs and make processes leaner and customer friendly. Hence adoption of technology is not an option but need of the hour in order to gain market share and deliver new products and services.
One needs to build a culture of openness and an atmosphere that fosters creativity. We have adopted a very open culture and created new ways of working, which allows flexibility and ‘work from home’ options. We have created new ways of engaging with employees and allow their creativity to flow unhindered. Most of the Gen X employees are engaged with CSR and other key initiatives across the organisation to bring a new perspective, which is very much encouraged. We also have implemented a robust job rotation program which has helped us manage the expectations of Gen X.
Open and transparent communication is key with employees, having regular connects and interacting both formally and informally has helped in building a cohesive team. We always focus on helping employees build business knowledge as against only the process knowledge. We are very serious on developing and following through with the individual development plans. Continuous improvement culture and employees driving these improvement initiatives has been our success mantra.
We focus on creating value rather than delivering service. We have introduced the Net promoter score to get customer feedback. We constantly connect with employees formally and informally and we also conduct a formal employee pulse survey. This enables us to become proactive and we have gained a lot of trust of our customers and employees.