Philippe Gabulon, Societe Generale GSC: “We will speed up the digitization of processes with our partners at global level”

“Digital transformation will be a key global trend in 2022. The need to simplify, digitalize and automate activities, tasks and processes will be on an accelerated path, and IT will play an important role. We are looking at end-to-end transformation of a complete value chain as opposed to parts of it. New opportunities will arise, and the demand of next-gen tech expertise will increase,”  Philippe Gabulon, CEO of Societe Generale Global Solution Centre told The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“In the long run, 2021 and the pandemic context was an opportunity for us and for our industry to rethink the way we work and then the way we interact with our colleagues and partners. This means more digitization and more mutualization between our teams or processes, all in line with our customers’ expectations. And it allows us to ensure a strong ability to maintain a high standard of deliverables.”

COMMITMENT TO PERFORMANCE | BUSINESS EVOLUTION, PROJECTS, PERFORMANCE, FIGURES 

“Despite the current pandemic context, our targets and business plans have not been impacted in 2021 and I believe we have successfully adapted to this new reality we all have to face. We have taken this as an opportunity to challenge ourselves and to find innovative solutions to continue providing the same level of services. We have developed and adopted new approaches as to working remotely, without travelling, and the quality of our transitions and projects remained at the highest standards.

Last year, our company also went through a rebranding project, going from a “European” to a “global” level.

As it can be understood from our name, Societe Generale Global Solution Centre, we became a global company and continued to strengthen our position with each new project finalized for worldwide stakeholders. The services we have been providing in the past years, including 2021, help not just European entities, but also entities across the globe. And, since we have recently stepped into a new evolution phase, for this year, we will focus on bringing more similar projects and position Societe Generale Global Solution Centre as a global centre.

Digitization and automation of our activity has long been a top priority for Societe Generale Global Solution Centre, as we have been delivering services and solutions for many years to the Societe Generale Group and partners from over 35 countries and several business lines.

The pandemic succeeded however to accelerate this process in order to successfully accommodate the “work from home” option for all our employees and, for example, to redesign and automate the HR procedures, be they administrative or recruiting processes. Also, our company launched an internal HR bot, named “AMBER” – our new virtual HR Business Partner, which helps us measure the level of our employees’ satisfaction and motivation, and further think activities designed to address, whenever needed, the gathered results.”

STRATEGY & VISION | RETHINK STRATEGY & PRIORITIES

What challenges have you faced as a CEO/ leader during 2021?

“Apart from the current international context, 2021 was a year marked by adaptation and by professional changes for me as well.

I’ve been with Societe Generale for over three decades in global roles spanning Investment Banking, Capital Markets, Information Technology, Offshoring, Operations and Audit. And, since last autumn, I took the role of CEO of Societe Generale Global Solution Centre Romania.

This new mandate which has just started represents for me an opportunity to gain experience and to further develop our business, to seize every new opportunity offered by the new global context and, together with the teams, to turn them into successful projects.”

What priorities and business strategy focus do you have in 2022?

“Regarding future plans, we will speed up the simplification and digitization of the processes with our partners, at a global level, and we will continue to work on building innovative and resource friendly IT & financial solutions.

Our ultimate goal is simple: It is to be an impactful accelerator for the transformation of Societe Generale Group.”

PEOPLE & COMMUNITY | FOCUS ON SAFETY, SOCIAL APPROACH, LEVERAGE THE POWER OF COMMUNITY

What initiatives & projects did the company run in 2021 in CSR and social projects?

“CSR is a vital component for both our company and the Societe Generale Group. Therefore, for us, CSR is not just a component, but is seen as part of our DNA based on which we design our activities and business.

Despite a still difficult context marked by the pandemic, we managed to adapt our way of working, of collaborating with colleagues and of doing good. We managed to successfully transfer activities online and to overcome distance and other challenges. These aspects are not only valid for our business activity, but for the CSR initiatives as well.

And results didn’t fail to materialize, giving us more energy to do good and proving that our Group’s agility, environmental responsibility, and pledge for involvement in communities continue to stand solid despite many challenges.

Regarding our “social” projects, implemented by the Citizenship stream, one of our CSR segments, in 2021, our company has been awarded two important distinctions for “Code Hero”, an educational project actively supported by us and implemented together with one of our NGO partners.

The first award, the “CSR initiative of the Year,” was received at Romanian Outsourcing and Share Services Awards Gala. The second one, the “Business Leader in CSR” award, was received during “ABSL Awards Gala,” being the third year in a row when Societe Generale Global Solution Centre Romania is offered this distinction for its commitment to the CSR activity.”

KEEN ON GREEN | SUSTAINABLE, GREENER, COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENTALLY-FOCUS

What sustainability and green-driven initiatives & projects did the company run in 2021?

“Throughout the year, we continued to implement programs and initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint and consumption of resources, along with awareness campaigns aimed to raise visibility on company’s efforts and on what responsible behaviours could be followed at a personal level.

For example, last year “June” was entitled “the CSR month in Societe Generale Global Solution Centre Romania.” Through this month, colleagues could participate at a broad range of seminars and debates on various CSR related topics, varying from selective collection and other environmental sustainability subjects, to debates and best practices regarding the inclusion of minorities and to volunteering activities for children in need.

Also, we encourage our colleagues to care about their own digital footprint. Therefore, each year in March, we are organizing the “Cyber World Clean-up Day” during which our colleagues can dedicate some time towards cleaning up their digital data, learn about sustainable digital issues and acquire eco-gestures to adopt at work. Today, digital technology accounts for 4% of CO2 emissions and 10% of global energy consumption. It increases by 9% each year and represents the highest growth across all sectors. With this in mind, the Group signed the Responsible Digital Charter at the end of 2019 and launched a dedicated cross-functional strategy across the IS Filiere: CSR by IT.  

Another example, offered by our „Environmental Sustainability” stream, is represented by the „Hybrid Fleet” project. The initiative consisted of switching towards a hybrid car fleet by decommissioning the old gasoline cars and led to reducing our CO2 footprint with 39,4 tones. For this initiative, Societe Generale Global Solution Centre Romania recently won, for the second time during the past two years, a distinction at the „Energy Efficiency Awards (EEA)” gala organized by Societe Generale Group.”

DIGITAL DNA | GRASPING TECH, DIGITAL INNOVATION, CUSTOMER -DRIVEN, BUILDING NEW BRIDGES

Which were the major directions in your company in 2021 where digital & tech made major difference?

“One of the main expectations of our internal partners was around the resilience and ability to continue to deliver production and projects in a context still highly affected by the pandemic. As Societe Generale Group continues to pursue ambitious strategic goals in a challenging global environment, our onshore partners rely on service centers to support them in key projects and provide higher value-added services.

We have moved from a standard execution delivery model to an operating model in which we look transversally at all our offshore capabilities to build end-to-end solutions to meet different business challenges and requirements.

There are many initiatives and projects launched to reshape processes or redesign tasks that will have an important positive impact on client processes. For example, we are working on Biometric KYC to provide our partners with contactless onboarding, and we are also experimenting with VR technology so create an immersive experience for training for example.

Overall, 2021 and the pandemic context was an opportunity for us and for our industry to rethink the way we work and then the way we interact with our colleagues and partners. This means more digitization and more mutualization between our teams or processes, all in line with our customers’ expectations. And it allows us to ensure a strong ability to maintain a high standard of deliverables.”

What trends do you anticipate for this year?

“Digital transformation will be a key global trend in 2022. The need to simplify, digitalize and automate activities, tasks and processes will be on an accelerated path, and IT will play an important role. We are looking at end-to-end transformation of a complete value chain as opposed to parts of it. New opportunities will arise, and the demand of next-gen tech expertise will increase (AI, Big Data, Machine Learning, VR, etc.). In an ever-changing business environment, we need to act fast and take the best possible decisions in a short period of time and with reliable and accurate data. What was only a ‘nice-to-have’ years ago becomes a pre-condition to work within this new era.

Even if we provide the client with an automated digital experience more often, human interactions will and should remain a priority for our industry and beyond. At the same time, internal efficiency is of the utmost importance, and this translates into better use of data to better serve clients and achieve business goals, use technologies such as AI or ML to automate internal processes, and last but not least, the efficient use of hardware resources to reduce the CO2 impact and contribute to a more sustainable environment. Every new technology that is being developed and everything existing that we shall continue to use, should go through a filter of social inclusion and of environmental sustainability.

We, as a Societe Generale Group solution provider, are already engaged in projects and transformation on all these priorities. The main challenge we anticipate is the talent shortage in Romania, so even if we talk about technology and digital trends, the focus will remain on our people – through engagement and motivation, learning and development, upskilling or reskilling, and internal mobility.”

2021 IN 3 KEY WORDS OR MORE

“Continuous adaptation/ flexibility, Digitalization, Human centric/ client centric approaches”

2022 IN 3 KEY WORDS OR MORE

“Digital transformation, Next-gen tech expertise (AI, Big Data, Machine Learning, etc.), Continue to invest in our most important asset: people”

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