Operating Structure
We devolve management responsibility while providing clear direction about our objectives and values, and a common set of business controls. This means decisions, tasks and responsibilities can be undertaken by the people best placed to do so within a framework that’s fully understood.
At the top, the Group Board sets strategy and objectives for profitable growth, protecting the interests of shareholders and relevant stakeholders. The Global Management Board – some Group Board members, the divisional chief executives and other key senior executives – directs the company to achieve its strategic objectives. The Executive Team comprises five members of the Global Management Board and meets on a monthly basis to monitor and progress key operational aspects of the business.
Beneath the Global Management Board we’re organised into business divisions running a number of operating companies that deliver services to customers under specific contracts. We want contract management teams to run their operations like businesses, so we give each contract its own board, including ‘non-executives’ from elsewhere in the group. This helps to replicate the group’s governance processes throughout the organisation. It also enables us to share technical and management expertise across the group and give contract management teams a catalyst for innovation, continuing service improvement and contract review. The contract board takes a strategic role – reviewing and evaluating opportunities, strengths, weaknesses and risks, and feeding back into group strategy generation. It also has an important assurance and corporate governance role.
Our system ensures accountability
We’ve developed and refined the Serco Management System over some 40 years as the framework for all our activities. It spells out the rights and obligations of managers at all levels, so we behave consistently across our global portfolio of contracts while maintaining our diversity and devolved management style. The system is built around two principal elements:
- ‘The business we want to run’, reflecting Serco’s global strategy, core business model and the values adopted by the organisation. These reflect external influences including market pressures, regulatory demands and the expectations of investors and the communities with which we interact.
- 'How we want to run the business’, reflecting how we manage and make things happen. This is reflected within the operational strategies of contracts / business units, operating companies and business divisions. They are defined by the group operating structure, principles and core processes that explain ‘how we make things happen’. These provide a business framework setting the boundaries and expectations placed on each business division, and a common set of processes for each business to adapt and apply.