Alternate to standard GPO model

We have been talking about the GPO model for a long time and indeed this role in vital in achieving the organization strategy. However, just like me, you would have witnessed many GPO’s fail in achieving the objectives. While failure is part and parcel of any corporate, it wouldn’t do us any harm if we started moving to a different model to drive global projects and standardization.

I would recommend three approaches as an alternate to the traditional GPO route:

i)                Identify multiple champions and empower them to drive the global initiatives. While the project teams may have a leader, there is no single person as the GPO. Rather the project leaders are supposed to drive consensus to achieve the end objective. I would suggest that we avoid RPO – regional process owners also because then the individual will get sidetracked from the global viewpoint.

ii)              Develop a group of ‘continuous improvement’ driven individuals who can jointly drive the strategic initiatives. This model will help ingrain the CI DNA into the operational backbone which is often missing even after significant effort from management. The idea is to empower the operational and managerial layer of resources to think beyond the box for achieving positive outcomes for both small and global projects. The key difference between the firs model and this one is the fact that in the latter case we need people trained in quality and Six Sigma concepts.

iii)             Create a cohort of own resources and external consultants to drive the global projects may be a bit ambitious but could be tried out for projects which do not create corporate IP related issues. This is again a very democratic form of identifying solutions and this team is responsible for end to end project.

 Note: Views are personal