Poland Warsaw
Manager’s Profile
it run your tailor-made governance that is appropriately adjusted to your business. Lastly, the cost arbitrage is still a key element of the business case but this won’t last forever so plan ahead of the value proposition to your stakeholders.
Wojciech Tatys
CEE Business Services Directory
Business Excellence & Transformation Lead for EMEA/APAC, Discovery Polska, Warsaw, Poland, Parent Company: Discovery, Inc. (United States)
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What is your company doing in CEE? Discovery GBS operations were set up back in 2017 in Warsaw as part of the wider transformation initiative. Having the right people at the right place at that time allowed us to well-define the GBS development roadmap with a focus on making it global, E2E and customer-oriented. It seems that we’ve done quite a good job as for the last two years we are recognized by SSON as one of the Top 20 most admired Shared Services Organizations. Our team is a mix of very talented individuals working in areas like PTP, CTC, RTR, Content Accounting, Payroll, Controllership, Technology and FP&A COE supporting the Discovery EMEA organization. Explain why your company set up operations in CEE. The media environment is a very dynamic one and the understanding of our customer business is critical for our operations. That’s why when setting up Discover GBS in Warsaw we wanted to be close to our core business. On the global Discovery map, Poland is our second biggest market after the US so keeping GBS operations close to it helps us in better understanding current business challenges and needs. At the same time, it’s a great opportunity from the people side as they are able to really “feel” our business which is GBS – the environment is priceless. How has your business changed in CEE over the last 2-3 years? And what do you foresee in the next 2-3 years? When setting up the GBS in 2017 it was all about “doing the right thing” and building the foundations of our future organization. We completed the first transition of our finance processes (PTP/CTC). With the Discovery acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive business in 2018 we launched our global transformation programme; part of it was further growth of our GBS center. The transition of remaining processes i.e. RTR, Content Accounting or Revenue Accounting was completed in May 2019. With these processes, we may say that all the finance transition that was planned is completed and we can get started with building value to our business on top of just cost saving. We are currently finalizing our proprietary Business Excellence & Transformation methodology based on Design Thinking, TLC (TOC + Lean + Six Sigma) and Agile that will allow us to create an ecosystem for building our future intelligent operations.
RPA/Process Automation – please tell us what your company is doing in this space. What will you be doing in 2019/2020, and what impact do you expect this to have in the next 2-3 years? The RPA topic was initiated in Discovery around two years ago. The main goal was to try out this technology and see what value it may bring to operations. Since that time, we have 12 bots in the production but the further development in this area was slowed down as a conscious decision with further development to be prepared with integrated Business Excellence approach as the core of it. Right now, we have a well-stabilized GBS center so we are coming back to the RPA topic but we rather prefer to call it simply “process automation”. In the coming months it will become an integrated element of our Business Excellence & Transformation agenda, where we enable our service delivery to make the best out of it. 2-3 specific bits of advice to other firms keen to optimize their SSC/ BPO operations in CEE. Or advice to a “newcomer” considering setting up in CEE. Firstly, let’s remember that it’s all about people, no matter how advanced your technology is or will be in the near future! Your main and most important asset will be people. Indeed, the rules of the game are changing as we are currently transitioning from managing only people to the management of people and bots under one roof. We all must prepare for this revolution and with this, we should equip our employees as well. Secondly, one size doesn’t fit it all so don’t look for “copy & paste” solutions. “Best practices” are great but the whole beauty of setting up SSC/BPO operations is to make
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Talent and Employment Issues. We had very dramatic growth in the last six months due to the transition - we hired about 40 people in a very short period. I must admit it was a great success as we recently completed the people placement assessment and all of the positions were filled with the right person. After this transition we grew to over 100 employees, mostly working in the finance area i.e. PTP, RTR, CTC, Content Accounting, Controllership and enabling functions like Financial Compliance or Technology support. People are always at the heart of Discovery, and to better support them we recently initiated a global HR transformation initiative to create a modern, digital workplace to enhance the way we work. Everything started with rebranding our HR to new People & Culture team, then implementing the reimagined ‘Performance Management’ where we have moved away from a year-end assessment program and into a new agile program that focuses on real time feedback. On top of it, as GBS we are working on the methodology that will support the development of the “skills of the future” required to run intelligent operations. From my own perspective I must say that the organizational culture is unique and working here is a real pleasure. Specific cost savings that your firm has achieved (or comment about other efficiencies achieved) by operating in CEE. The cost arbitrage is always at the base of any similar business case but for us it wasn’t the core one. For us it was always about the value that we deliver to the business. A great example from Discovery is that the GBS enabled the synergy between F&A, FP&A and the business that translated directly into positive financial results of the organization. An example of such synergy is the huge impact the GBS had in improving the company’s Cashflow - the key metric for our CFO. Wojtek is an enthusiast of Operational Excellence with the use of such methodologies as Lean, Six Sigma or ToC. Awarded by LEIP for a best case study of Lean Management implementation in Poland. Experienced Project and Programme Manager with a unique skill set based on PMI, Prince2 and Agile/Scrum that allows him delivering strategic transformation initiatives in a pragmatic and outcome-oriented way. Professional experience gathered in global corporations such as Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, CBRE and Discovery. Privately loves challenges and going through life with the rule that there are no limits and everything begins with the first step.
2019