Stop Waiting for a Mandate. Start Making a Case.

Most GBS leaders still talk about savings. Meanwhile, your C-suite is looking for growth. That mismatch is a signal that your GBS is stuck in the wrong frame, operating in yesterday’s mandate while being measured against tomorrow’s goals. The next evolution is already underway, from Shared Services to Generative Business Services. Enabled by AI, powered by data, and designed for enterprise value, not just efficiency. 

Here’s the reality: GBS could become a frontline player in enterprise growth. But only a few know how to activate that potential. If you're still positioning GBS as a service engine, you're leaving value on the table.

Let’s reframe.

You Already Have a Growth Engine. You’re Just Not Using It That Way.

New research from SSON Research & Analytics in partnership with Capgemini shows a turning point:

• 81 percent of organizations now view GBS as strategically important to growth.
• 55 percent report alignment with board-level priorities like margin improvement and innovation.
• And yet, 79 percent of GBS activities remain focused on cost savings.

That’s not inertia. That’s misalignment.

The opportunity is clear. To shift from reactive support to proactive growth enabler, GBS leaders must:

• Design value narratives that start with topline impact
• Prove revenue contribution with real KPIs (not internal SLAs)
• Build the muscle to collaborate beyond Finance and HR

But don’t expect a PowerPoint strategy to carry this through. This is executional. And cultural.

Stop Framing GBS as a Passenger. Treat It as a Platform.

Growth does not come from doing more with less. It comes from creating new levers.

The smartest organizations, according to SSON Research & Analytics, are embedding GBS into pricing optimization, sales targeting, and customer analytics. These are areas traditionally fenced off as core business.

Yet fewer than one in four GBS teams manage data as a strategic asset. And only 11 percent contribute to sales effectiveness in any meaningful way. What is missing is not the vision. It’s capability, courage, and executive permission. And that’s where most leaders get stuck. They wait for a mandate instead of making a case.

What High-Maturity GBS Leaders Are Doing Differently

✅ They use advanced analytics to shift from efficiency to insight.

✅ They connect GBS to growth roles: Chief Sales Officer, Chief Growth Officer, Marketing, and others beyond Finance.

✅ They retire legacy KPIs that only measure the cost agenda.

✅ They introduce AI Agents to do more than automate. These agents orchestrate.

✅ And they measure impact where it matters:

• Customer Lifetime Value contribution
• Margin improvements linked to pricing operations
• Time-to-market acceleration for internal innovations
• Revenue per GBS-supported employee

The report highlights that Agentic AI is being tested in client operations, finance, HR, and supply chain. The goal is not to replace humans, but to raise the level at which they contribute. That’s the multiplier effect. 

What separates AI automation from Agentic transformation is orchestration. Use cases include:

• Predictive work routing for smoother internal service flows
• Contract analysis using intelligent document processing
• Continuous optimization through AI-based process mining
• Autonomous decision-making for routine approvals

Culture: The Real Transformation Barrier

According to the research, the biggest barrier to GBS growth is culture, not technology. When GBS stays boxed into cost narratives, even AI adoption hits a ceiling. Experience-led organizations invest just as much in shifting mindsets as in automating workflows. This culture shift requires more than internal messaging. It needs visible sponsorship from senior leadership, skill-building around data and technology confidence, and a deliberate move away from fear-based change models.

Three areas often overlooked:

Belonging: GBS teams that don’t feel integrated into the enterprise vision will not take growth risks.

Trust: Without trust in GBS capabilities, business units will continue to bypass them.

Language: When the narrative is always about service quality, not value creation, transformation stalls before it starts.

The shift from efficiency to experience is not just about what GBS does. It is about how the organization sees it. GBS needs to move from being tolerated to being trusted. That perception needs to be designed, not assumed.

The Report You Should Bookmark

SSON Research & Analytics’ new report – GBS as a Catalyst for Growth (part of its Research Insight Report series) – is one of the most valuable resources available. Not just for its data, but for naming the silent blockers that many GBS teams avoid:

• Cultural resistance is the top reason GBS does not grow
• Executive support is still too thin
• Most impact tracking stops at operations instead of reaching outcomes

In other words, strategy is not your problem. Execution and ownership are.

📌 GBS as a Catalyst for Growth: From Cost Center to Strategic Value Driver