Investment center framework

This paper is about a framework that would rationalize the existence of various organizations within a company and their contribution to the ultimate objective of the firm which is to maximize profit while delighting its customers. The Investment Center Framework (ICF) represents the various stakeholders in a corporation and establishes their relationships. The customer, which is the most important stakeholder, has to be served by the various organizations including government regulatory institutions through the investment centers or front line organizations. The relationships between the investment center and the other stakeholders should be governed by standard processes that are consistent and sustainable yet flexible to changes and new developments in the business environment. What is unique about this set-up is that support organizations like Shared Services Centers (Legal, IT, Finance, Logistics, HR, Marketing, etc) have to compete for the services of third party suppliers to make them more efficient and competitive.