Reduced costs and increased business focus are some of the key advantages that companies experience when centralising activities in a shared business function, e.g. a Headquarters, Distribution Centre or Shared Services Centre.
Eli Lilly: Success with Danish Shared Service Centre
INTERVIEW WITH IBEN LAQUIAN
Iben Laquian (currently in maternity leave) works as a Business Development Manager with responsibility for the foreign companies located in Copenhagen. Iben has been with Copenhagen Capacity for more than five years.
You have worked with retention and development of international companies on Zealand for a good many years. Please tell us how Copenhagen Capacity assists internationally owned companies.
The exciting thing about working with Growth is that you come very close to the strategic decisions of the companies. I often work with large cases in which many jobs are in play. We have prepared many analyses of the labour market, salary levels, access conditions etc. in Denmark and compared them with Sweden. Fortunately, Denmark very often ranks best. Consequently, we often win the case in favour of the whole of Denmark – in spite of the fact that Sweden is a larger market than Denmark.
Which services do you usually offer companies?
We prepare a great number of different analyses for companies. It all depends on each individual company’s needs, which we fulfil either directly with our own analyses and benchmark tools or through our network by establishing contacts with the appropriate experts who can assist the company. However, most of the time we help by comparing different countries with Denmark. Maybe the CEO is not familiar with the many areas in which Denmark offers significant advantages and the importance of these compared with, for example, Sweden.
Is there a difference in how you work with different companies?
Yes, it differs a lot! Each company has specific needs and consequently we give individual advice and service to each company. With small companies, which do not carry out major restructuring so often, we often help prepare relevant data and set the strategic process in the right order. Larger companies sometimes restructure more often and may well have their own strategy departments, in which case we can assist them in collecting and validating data.
How do you find the companies which are preparing to go through this process?
Our task is to ensure that as many international companies as possible know about us and remember us. We send out invitations, newsletters and reports to the companies and we are very active in a great number of networks, including a small group of companies with which we are in very close contact. However, the challenge is always to evaluate when each company’s ‘window of change’ is open. Therefore we hope that our Scout initiative can assist us with our evaluations by utilising their networks and having their finger on the pulse.
