Corporate headquarters is a term used to describe the entity at the top of a corporation to take full responsibility for the overall success of the corporation, ensures Corporate Governance

Corporate governance

Corporate governance is a number of processes, customs, policies, laws, and institutions which have impact on the way a company is controlled...

. Corporate headquarters

Headquarters

Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...

 is a key element of a corporate structure and cover different corporate functions such as strategic planning, corporate communications, tax, legal, marketing, finance, human resources and information technology.

The corporate headquarters includes: the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) as a key person and his support staff such as the CEO office and other CEO related functions; the "Corporate policy making" functions: Include all corporate functions necessary to steer the firm by defining and establishing corporate policie; the Corporate Services: Activities that combine or consolidate certain enterprise-wide needed support services, provided based on specialized knowledge, best practices, and technology to serve internal (and sometimes external) customers and business partners; the Interface: Reporting line and bi-directional link between corporate headquarters and business units.

The corporate services are often relocated into a separate legal entity called Shared Services Center

Shared Services Center

A shared services center – a center for shared services in an organization – is the entity responsible for the execution and the handling of specific operational tasks, such as accounting, human resources, payroll, IT, legal, compliance, purchasing, security...

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