Comment by chiph

The problem I've seen is that you define your corporate entities, but then you have these systems in other divisions which need to extend it. Whether their division's special attributes get promoted to the corporate entity for everyone to use brings in politics and optimism. And making an update to a corporate-scoped entity then means you need solid change management.

IMO they can be very valuable in terms of reduced friction and costs, if you do it right and have enough rigor/discipline in the organization. Netflix might.