Discover corporate center value
Add value and efficiency with a tailored corporate center structure
In today’s fast-changing business environment, companies face continuous challenges and opportunities that require them to reassess the role of their corporate center. These may be internal events such as a new shareholder structure, rapidly growing business units, a new strategy or cost pressure. External factors, including new clients, changing market dynamics or shifts in customer demands, can also trigger change. Companies sometimes review their main content priorities during periods of major transformation to maintain clarity and alignment or to boldly rethink how they create value across the value chain.
A corporate center is the central unit that sets direction, manages portfolios and provides shared services that support the business. Some companies also use the term “corporate place” to describe the physical or virtual setting where this work takes place. The term “corporate office” is often used in a narrower sense to refer to the primary physical location where headquarters teams sit and where corporate functions are coordinated. Some refer to these locations collectively as corporate headquarters.
No one-size-fits-all model exists, even within industries. The corporate center defines roles and governance, while the corporate office and broader corporate place act as the operational hubs. In practice this can be a single headquarters, a distributed set of offices or a hybrid setup that mixes onsite and digital collaboration. On the other hand, companies with more decentralized operations often use multiple hubs for coordination.
Corporate consulting refers to the advisory work that helps companies shape, redesign or strengthen their corporate center so it can steer the business effectively, allocate resources, support strategic direction and enable long-term performance.
Whatever setup the company chooses, success lies in balancing value creation with cost efficiency within a tailored corporate center structure that is aligned with the company’s strategic goals. An effective structure also supports value-adding activities that strengthen the competitive advantage of the firm, helping the organization build a more sustainable and resilient operating model for the long-term. Our consulting services help companies master this complex balancing act.
The need for greater flexibility
In the search for the right corporate center structure, two key questions arise: How does the corporate center add value? And is it growth-ready or too costly? These questions drive the trend toward flexible, differentiated structures such as hybrid models that merge roles for adaptive business steering. Business units prefer dedicated roles and strategic communities over rigid structures. Autonomy combined with central steering enhances performance and innovation. Digitalization in shared functions boosts productivity, reduces costs and improves service quality, especially in consumer goods and other fast-moving sectors. These shifts often require careful resource planning to avoid bottlenecks.
Added value and increased efficiency
"An effective headquarters structure must strike the right balance between value creation and cost efficiency."
Whatever the industry, an effective corporate center structure balances value with efficiency and is fully aligned with the company’s portfolio and strategic goals. Models vary, with centralization offering control and standardization, while empowered units provide speed and differentiation. Clear strategic imperatives guide how responsibilities are allocated and how functions are structured. This perspective is central to business strategy, especially in companies pursuing acquisition-driven expansion.
Corporate center setups differ in terms of functions, services, roles and staffing. Often, they are shaped by strategy and by the presence of legacy structures and past investments. Effective structures define clear governance to maximize synergies, manage portfolios and streamline functions. An effective corporate center supports strategic direction, enhances collaboration, fosters innovation, develops talent and facilitates opportunistic growth, regardless of whether the organization follows a centralized or more organizationally distributed model. It also enables targeted cost reduction where appropriate.
How we help redesign the corporate center
Roland Berger’s proven four-step approach helps companies redesign and build a best-in-class corporate center.
Step 1: Assess
We begin by evaluating the current setup. This clarifies the existing level of control and capabilities compared to the desired state. A step that cannot be skipped is defining the expected role and value-add of the headquarters, aligned with corporate strategy, business interdependencies and stakeholder expectations.
Step 2: Assign
We compare the target role with relevant models and select a suitable role for the headquarters. We then outline the capabilities required to deliver the target role and achieve the desired performance levels.
Step 3: Align
We cluster and allocate activities to define the desired functional scope of the headquarters. Evaluating individual functions at the holding, segment or service level helps reduce the amount of duplicated work and avoid efficiency losses.
Step 4: Adjust
In the final step, we detail the tasks of each function within the headquarters. Based on this scope and relevant benchmarks, we determine the target headcount per function. We then create a consolidated target picture and assess its financial impact, making adjustments where necessary to authority allocation, governance structures and reporting and communication interfaces between the headquarters and business units or shared services.
Success stories
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