Since its founding in 1990, AGCO Corporation has been a global leader in agricultural machinery, distributing products in more than 140 countries. In support of this effort is the new global business services (GBS) team, formed in March 2013 and headed by senior vice president Lucinda Smith. The new function brings the HR, IT, and shared-services functions under one global group. Profile caught up with Smith to hear about the transition and how the move is paying off for the business.
What convinced you to consolidate IT, HR, and shared services under the banner of global business services?
Lucinda Smith: The three groups are all built upon internal service, quality, and productivity improvement. When we looked at this across the group it really made sense to implement this kind of consolidated structure. This was really about people needing to focus on leadership, vision, teamwork, and collaboration. So it just made good business sense to pull it all together.