Global pharmaceutical company's finance function, supported by multiple outsourced service delivery centers, experienced deteriorating record-to-report performance.
A global pharmaceutical company's outsourced finance function had deteriorated into adversarial gridlock. Teams blamed each other for process failures in Account Reconciliation and VAT Declaration, communication had become reactive and hostile, and the partnership itself was at risk despite significant sunk costs on both sides. The relationship breakdown was jeopardizing a multimillion-dollar outsourcing arrangement that neither party could easily exit.
Rather than process reengineering, we facilitated a Design Thinking workshop that brought executives and process owners from both organizations into the same room for the first time in months. The one-week engagement focused on restoring collaborative foundations before attempting process fixes.
The workshop structured four focused workstreams: stakeholder alignment to establish shared priorities, cross-functional collaboration addressing both Account Reconciliation and VAT Declaration processes, design prompt development around first-time accuracy and communication protocols, and solution co-creation where mixed teams generated improvement ideas. Each stream explored communication gaps, divergent team perspectives, and process improvement opportunities—surfacing the cultural and organizational barriers that technical fixes alone couldn't address.
The workshop transformed a failing relationship into a collaborative partnership. Monthly joint meetings replaced reactive finger-pointing, teams established transparent change communication protocols that acknowledged cultural differences, and both sides committed to follow-up workshops to implement the dozen improvement ideas they'd co-created.
Most critically, the engagement salvaged a multimillion-dollar outsourcing relationship that had been headed for termination. The framework for ongoing collaboration—structured governance, systematic communication protocols, and shared problem-solving approaches—positioned both organizations to address future process challenges before they became relationship crises.
Success came from addressing the human relationship before tackling the technical process. Design Thinking created a neutral framework where both sides could voice concerns, understand constraints, and build empathy. The workshop's cross-organizational structure broke down silos and created personal connections that survived beyond the engagement. Most importantly, securing executive sponsorship at the start ensured decisions made in the workshop had organizational backing.