Focus Area VI

Shared Services Leadership

Running the teams nobody notices until something breaks — and making the case that shared services is a strategy, not a cost centre.

12+
Years leading ops teams
190
Global headcount managed
$12M
Budget managed (USD)
The perspective

Ops Is Strategy. Act Like It.

I’ve led operational teams across four continents, managed a $12M budget, navigated a major M&A integration, and run a shared services function serving seven internal business lines simultaneously. The consistent lesson: operations is never just a support function.

The data infrastructure, the process design, the platform decisions, the training programs — these are strategic choices that shape how fast the business can move. When shared services works well, nobody notices. When it doesn’t, everyone does.

This pillar covers the leadership side of shared services — roadmap management, stakeholder alignment, platform migrations, global operations, and M&A integration. The unglamorous work that compounds.

“Shared services is a strategy, not a cost centre. The teams that prove it get the budget. The ones that don’t get outsourced.”
Global OpsM&A IntegrationPlatform Migration Roadmap PlanningStakeholder ManagementBudget Management
Three subcategories

What’s Covered

i.
Global Operations

Leading distributed teams across time zones, cultures, and reporting structures — from follow-the-sun coverage design to global performance frameworks and cross-regional stakeholder management.

ii.
M&A Integration

Running the ops workstream of a merger or acquisition — org design, people mapping, process unification, and the training that gets two organisations operating as one.

iii.
Platform Migration & Change Management

Moving a company from one platform to another — PSA migration, CRM transitions, BI environment overhauls. The change management layer that separates a clean migration from a two-year recovery project.

All Posts

From the Blog

5 published · 4 coming
Global Operations
How to Design a Follow the Sun Model That Actually Works
The coverage spreadsheet is the easy part. Reprogramming the phone system, rebuilding the reporting engine, managing the handoffs — that’s where most teams fail.
Global Operations
Once It’s Running: Optimizing Your Follow the Sun Model
Handoff quality metrics, cultural alignment, and the three optimisations that matter most once the initial implementation is stable.
M&A Integration
Running the Ops Workstream in an M&A Integration
Org design, people mapping, and communications for a 254-person merger — in 30 days. A framework for ops leaders who get handed this problem.
M&A Integration
M&A Integration Best Practices: Lessons Learned from Real Projects
What the 30-day integration timeline actually looked like — and the lessons that only emerge after the dust settles.
Platform Migration & Change
Shared Services Is a Strategy, Not a Cost Centre
How to reframe your team’s value — and get the budget and buy-in to prove it.
Global Operations
Managing Across Time Zones Without Losing the Thread
The handoff protocols, documentation standards, and management cadence that keep a global team aligned without 6am calls becoming the norm.
M&A Integration
People Mapping in a Merger: How to Do It Without Creating Anxiety
The org design spreadsheet is a document. The conversation with your team about what it means is leadership.
Platform Migration
Running a PSA Migration Without Losing Your Team
A multi-year platform migration run alongside full BAU. The sequencing, the communication plan, and what we’d do differently.