Corporate Services holds the key to unlocking untapped potential – delivering value creation, preventing value erosion, and mitigating risks amidst growing competitive, regulatory, and sustainability pressures. To realize this potential, functions such as procurement, human resources (HR), finance, information technology (IT), and legal must take on a more prominent role in driving enterprise-wide value.
But is Corporate Services fulfilling its potential?
A recent KPMG International survey of over 250 senior executives worldwide reveals four strategic imperatives that can unleash the untapped superpowers of Corporate Services: design Corporate Services to support value creation, harness the power of data, radically embrace Gen AI, and incentivize and enable change.
This report shares the survey’s findings and KPMG’s insights from clients across diverse markets and industries, highlighting how organizations can build digitally adept, collaborative, people-centric and value-driven Corporate Services.
Strategic imperatives
Despite ongoing performance improvement initiatives, Corporate Services have yet to unleash its full potential.
A connected enterprise needs connected Corporate Services, with a common goal of driving, enhancing, and preserving value. This means supporting middle and front-office operations with timely services and actionable data, enabling a deeper understanding of the business, enhancing customer service, and improving operational efficiency. It also means elevating business capabilities by integrating AI and Gen AI to boost performance.
To achieve this transformation, Corporate Services must address these four strategic imperatives:
Shifting the focus from functional objectives to broader, enterprise goals – and measuring its contribution to value creation and risk management – can help raise the Corporate Services profile and build trust among leadership.
Almost two-thirds of survey respondents believe alignment between Corporate Services goals and those of the enterprise “only meets expectations.” Yet, the survey suggests that leaders are in favor of a collective approach to value across functions – even if they haven’t worked out how to achieve this.
Corporate Services are the natural custodians of data. Yet, the group function is not set up to share timely data, let alone use data to deliver actionable insights. At a time when strategic decision-making demands upon the fast flow and seamless access to data, this can hold companies back.
Only one in 10 survey respondents rating their organization’s digital maturity as “high.” KPMG professionals suggest Corporate Services streamline data products and resources (i.e., technology, people or processes) to support business and value streams.
Generative AI can profoundly reshape Corporate Services. But it will only reach its potential when paired with human expertise and ingenuity.
In the survey, over one-third of respondents say their organization should apply Gen AI rather than reorganize their functions. The move, they anticipate, will increase their value to the organization by seven to 10 percent.
The survey shows that Corporate Services’ functional executives are more included to seek improvements within the current, siloed model rather than look for a more connected way forward.
To shift this thinking, Corporate Services’ leaders – and their teams – should be incentivized to break down inter-functional boundaries, collaborate with other functions and align their goals with those of the wider business.
Discover the power of Corporate Services
Based on the global survey of senior executives, as well as KPMG professionals’ experience and capabilities, the report explores how companies can aim to unleash the full potential superpower of Corporate Services to help deliver essential services, while continuing to evolve.
Future of Corporate Services
Is Corporate Services your untapped superpower?
Transforming for a future of value
The KPMG suite of business transformation solutions help clients get to a more productive and sustainable future. The solutions are designed to address different client challenges and different parts of a business or a operating model. Each one contains rich insights and is underpinned by our leading transformation methodology.
Contact us
