“Everything is changing” How do we address our cost base to ensure we deliver a quality product at a reasonable price? That’s the challenge for British Gas and that’s what John Dickens is working hard to resolve. John is one of those rare individuals who truly has ‘seen and done’ it all when it comes to shared services. A 20-year veteran of this industry he says he is in the “fifth or sixth” iteration of the shared services model. And with the threat of price capping in that sector looming large, there is a certain pressure to set things right, right now.
The biggest opportunity, says John, is to move away from the federated model that has defined much of British Gas operations in the past. “There’s a real opening there,” he says, “namely for all services – and Finance is only one of 19 services – to operate on a much lower cost base.”