Case Studies

BPA was engaged by the Global Head of Tax of a leading beverage company to build a new global tax department covering Europe, Asia Pacific & Latin America to support its global expansion strategy. The business was undergoing a large transformation of its Finance function which inevitably changed the structure of the Tax function. This corporate reorganisation changed the scope of the Global Tax department, giving it responsibility for tax compliance, VAT and audits. It had to become more operational and needed processes designed. 

After long detailed discussions about various models and after coming very close to opting for a hub model for Europe, the business decided to reshape the Tax department in the form of a Centre of Excellence in the Netherlands and a satellite shared service centre in Latin America.

Over the course of twelve months, BPA successfully delivered against all 14 business critical mandates in the following countries: The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Russia, China, Mexico, Brazil & Columbia. The tax roles ranged from Assistant Tax Manager to Regional Head of Tax. Each position called for specific requirements such as the location, tax specialism, level of seniority, specific international tax skills, languages, leadership skills, cultural and personality fit.

Key Challenges

• Once the location was decided, the major challenge was to find the right corporate tax and VAT professionals from all corners of Europe who could relocate to the Netherlands.
• Changing personnel at CFO and Global Head of Tax level within the organisation meant that BPA was required to keep the process moving efficiently.
• Identifying high calibre talent who had the skills and flexibility to lead the tax function in Europe & APAC, set strategy and manage the team.
• Some of the skills required were extremely niche, for example, finding the right Senior VAT Analyst with five years’ experience in VAT compliance, with good SAP knowledge, solid experience with Italian and EU VAT compliance, able to speak fluently Italian and English and willing to relocate to a small city in the Netherlands where the Centre of Excellence was based.

Overcoming These Challenges

• BPA worked closely with the Global Head of Tax and Global Head of Tax Operations to develop the role responsibilities and identify target profiles for the new leaders.
• BPA has many years’ experience in searching for candidates willing to relocate across borders, so it was a combination of working out who was right for the client from our own database, and targeting new candidates specifically for our client.
• We made sure that we understood exactly all the requirements for each position.
• BPA assisted its client through all the recruitment steps by arranging interviews, facilitating the logistics for face to face interview, providing feedback and negotiating salaries with candidates…
• We also made sure that candidates were prepared for the interview and were well aware of the business and organisational goals.
• Perseverance – that is our middle name!

Outcome

Our client now has a world class tax department with a Centre of Excellence in Europe and a Finance Shared Service centre in Central America.

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