making corporate decisions in other countries. For example, if a company is headquartered in New York but has an office in London, the company may assign a specific location in London to act as the London headquarters and to perform the tax function and legal compliance function within the United Kingdom. Roles of corporate headquarters Public company functions Most of the multi-business firms have their corporate headquarters performs obligatory functions. It represents all businesses legally in respect of the regulator(s) and aggregates the financial, tax, and legal data. Similarly, the corporate headquarters can also function as the company's face to the customer and build reputational value. Shared services Shared services are services provided by the corporate headquarters for various business units. Owing to the aggregation of demand for these services, the headquarters can realize scale effects and provide them at lower total costs. Typical shared services are HR, IT, and marketing services. Value creation In contrast to the first two roles, the "value creation role" of the corporate headquarters is more entrepreneurial in nature. It is considered the major source of corporate advantages and key in justifying the configuration of diversified companies. It comprises various horizontal and vertical coordination activities, such as the leveraging of the synergy potential and the application of management innovation. Control The “control role" of the corporate headquarter guides the operations of the individual businesses toward the corporate goals. It can either focus on the financial outcome, or the operational behaviour, with both options implying very different approaches and requirements in terms of data and operations. Consequences brought by scaling corporate headquarters See also Head office Lists of corporate headquarters by city References External links