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Zelle Ochoco,
Associate Director,
Procurement Shared Service,
Johnson & Johnson

Over the last decade, Zelle Ochoco has worked for some of the biggest
brands in the world, honing her expertise in setting up, developing, and
driving added value through shared services models.

Today, she is part of the key pioneering team that is leading Johnson &
Johnson's new venture, which is reinterpreting the shared services
model for the digital age. It's an extraordinary job for an extraordinary
individual. In a candid interview with SSON's Barbara Hodge, Ochoco
outlines the 4 key stepping stones of her career. Each stage has
leveraged her improved and expanded personal skill set to provide
differentiated leadership. At each company, she was able to base her
input on what she had learned before. No matter what stage you are at,
her experience offers a valuable template for furthering your own
career.

Stage 1:
Setting Up Shared Services with Little
Background
2006-2009, Philips Semiconductor, now NXP Semiconductor
Global Purchasing Shared Service Center Manager

Starting up a shared services center in Manila in 2006, in what

was then still predominantly a call-center environment, the
challenge was to communicate the message that a brand new
career was opening up for the marketplace and that shared
services represented a gateway to a successful future.
__________________________

Culture 101: Teaching and Modeling Honesty and

Good Intention
Any individual tasked with building a new shared services
model from scratch will, at some stage, find themselves in an
uncomfortable situation. While they believe in the model, they
may have little experience to show for it, perhaps having
proven themselves through functional expertise. For Zelle
Ochoco, the solution was to tackle this head on, with honesty:
"In my introductory meeting with my new team, I emphasized
that the most important attribute I wanted from them was to
show good intention toward each other and our customers.
This was important because, in the early days, I needed their
help as much as they needed mine," she explains. They were
process experts and many of the initiatives came from them.
But they needed to feel safe enough to engage with our
customers and test different approaches. We were making a
lot of things up as we went along!
Ochoco leveraged honesty as a disarming mechanism. The
last thing she wanted, she explains, was to represent another
source of stress for her new team. The work we did was
stressful enough I wanted them to know that when they
turned around and saw my desk, I had their back, she
explains. I promised to be their executive champion
but they needed to bring their best game to each and every
moment and help each other wherever possible." That marked
the culture of the new center.

Setting a North Star

In the early stages of setting up the SSC, the actual targets or metrics were still unclear, but Ochoco
recognized that it was important to engage the team by setting a North Star in their sights, to guide
progress. This common goal aligned the team in everything it did and also supported budding careers.
The North Star was defined by performance or more specifically, performance standards, explains
Ochoco. While we all shared the same fears and ambiguities in the early days, I was able to paint a
picture and set a target that they could focus on. That was our North Star.

Building a Laboratory
In the early days, work was very stressful and with little to no shared services training on offer, there was
also little tangible support. Because of the culture Ochoco had instilled, however, the team thrived on
supporting each other, often gladly staying overtime because of the good relations that existed between
them. Ochoco consciously defined the center as a Laboratory, meaning: It was okay to try something
new, to make mistakes, to shift the goalposts.
We were all in a learning phase and the curve we faced was a steep one. But the shared services center
was a safe environment for everyone. People were encouraged to try different ways of doing things,
she explains. We were defining and redefining processes as part of our day-to-day. The main message
to the customer was: Show me how you want this done and we will figure out how to do it. That's what
the Laboratory was about.

Looking Beyond Technical Skills and Leveraging What You Have

In interviewing potential team members, Ochocos first question was inevitably about interests or
hobbies. And while it helped the interviewee to relax, her intentions were to discover what additional
skills the individual could bring to the team.
"I wanted to know what they share outside of their work skills Were they an actor, an illustrator, a
creative writer? All of these skills are valuable to us as a team, Ochoco explains. For example, during
our internal awards ceremony, our actor acts as a host. Because we have someone on the team with
illustration skills our presentations are outstanding. And our creative writers help craft communication
messages that support customer engagement and buy-in. The end result was a multiplier effect: Our
team was always able to deliver above expectations.

Stage 2:
Changing the Prevailing Mindset
2009-2011 Henkel Asia Pacific Service Center
Purchasing Process Head & Country Purchasing Head

By 2009, the Philips shared services had stabilized, and Zelle

accepted a job at Henkel to set up a new shared services there, now
with the benefit of having some real experience under her belt. The
challenge she ran into was that some of her new team also had
shared services experience, and therefore had pre-established ideas
around services delivery and how it should work. Her challenge was
to form a successful team by changing their mindset.
__________________________

Shifting Mindset: Eyes on the Prize

By 2009, the local market had started to build up a talent pool for
shared services so that some of the new recruits for Henkels SSO
already had some experience with shared services. All had different
sets of exposures of course, so Ochocos challenge was to blend
these together to work harmoniously. "Its one of the hardest things
to do well, she explains Once someone has an idea about how
shared services should work, its really tough to shift this. The trick
is to show them the prize, or the target.
While Henkels shared services started with Asian scope, Ochocos
eye was on global delivery, from the start.
"Because I had gained confidence through my prior experience, I
was able to walk the talk, she explained, "but now I plugged my
passion into encouraging the others on the team to buy into this
vision".
Wielding influence as a respected leader is important to get team
members to evolve their mindset. Ochoco reinforced this by
spotlighting the teams ability to pinpoint what else could be
improved by incorporating this into performance reviews. "It was
part of my human development strategy pushing the team to
identify areas for improvement."
The strategy proved itself: Within two years the shared services had
shifted from supporting just Asia to global delivery. Eyes on the
prize worked, explained Ochoco. You are effectively trying to
multiply you, so you need to help them see things as you see
things. Performance review targets are very helpful in achieving
this.

Stage 3:
Building a Dream Team in Record Time
2011-2014, Citibank N.A.
VP, Head of Procurement Operations for Asia Pacific
In 2011, Ochoco accepted a new challenge to build a shared
services team for Citibanks Asia-Pacific operations within a
very short timeframe.
__________________________

Leveraging Industry Connections

"Citibank was under significant pressure to deliver
improvements and had to show results quickly. Part of the
reason they hired me was not only because of my experiences
building shared service operations but also of the broad
networks I had built-up over the years, explains Ochoco.
Numerous of her team members had dispersed across the
shared services and BPO landscape of the Philippines as well as
further afield. It's a testament to her inter-personal skills that
she was able to pull together an experienced team within just
three months.
"I have always maintained good relations with my team
members past and current, explains Ochoco. As a result, I
was able to leverage these connections effectively to recruit a
dream team in a very short time. The advantage was that I was
able to access key talent, and effectively plug and play
immediately. There was no need to adjust to anyone's
individual style and there was no delay as the team members
adjusted to mine. We all knew each other and could get straight
to the core of the business."

Stage 4:
Reinventing The Shared Services Model For
The Digital Age Defining a Global Process
September 2014present, Johnson & Johnson
Assoc. Director, Procurement Shared Service
__________________________

Back to Platform Zero: Reinterpreting Shared

Services for Todays Markets
As of the end of last year, Ochoco is greatly involved in Johnson &
Johnson's reinterpretation of shared services for the digital
landscape that now surrounds us. The time of 'lift and shift' is most
definitely passed, she explains. Today's shared services are being
exposed to entirely new kinds of processes. This requires a blanksheet-of-paper approach to work out what kind of model is most
effective for the new status quo, rather than tinkering around with
a 20-year-old model, she explains.
"It's a bit like suddenly playing a part in designing a 'prequel' for
shared services. I'm working with key people across the business,
trying to figure out where we are headed. We are all learning
together about how the digital age is impacting our business and
our processes. And while we are applying lessons from the past, we
are being selective about which ones are valuable to input into the
new design processes: Purchase orders are a thing of the past. We
need fewer people in operations that need different skills the
kind of skills that support centers of expertise.
The new model will be a primarily knowledge-based center,
Ochoco explains. Transactional know-how is not a priority. The
model that is now being designed is leap years ahead of what
passed as acceptable just a decade ago. Identifying key talent to
be part of this new stage is, once again, key.
"Oddly enough, I find that I am again at a place where there's a
certain ambiguity around how to define and design processes.
We've reached another 'level zero' platform, and the challenge is
to figure out not just how to do it, but also how to set ourselves
apart. I've been here before, though, and I'm excited about being
part of a team that's taking shared services into the 21st century.
I know it wont end here," Ochoco closes. Shared services are an
ever evolving part of the shifting business landscape.

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