Job No. 1 when it comes to outsourcing is never to outsource a core competency. I was reminded of this essential fact recently when I read a TechRepublic news story about GE’s huge investment to build a state of the art “green” data center on the same site in where the world’s first commercial computer [...]
Business happening is making headlines with HP. The computer and IT giant’s share price has plummeted after announcing it would exit the PC and tablet computer business. The company’s rationale: Ability to improve focus on higher-margin cloud and business software solutions “with an emphasis on enterprise, commercial and government markets.” Exiting the PC market is [...]
Flexibility and insight when it comes to statements of work and workscope changes—and the dreaded “scope-creep!”—is necessary when crafting a properly governed and collaborative Vested Outsourcing agreement. This was brought home to me recently by Jack Everett, president – CEO at Triad Logistics Partners, LLC, who related the story of how he became known as [...]
From a very young age we’re taught about the virtues of competition, about how competing ferociously in every aspect of life leads to success and winning. From Ayn Rand we learn about the “virtue of selfishness,” a hallmark of the all-out egotistical, competitive spirit that was on display to the Nth degree in the recent [...]
More than 25 years ago Peter Kraljic published his seminal “portfolio purchasing model,” which has been both a widely critiqued and widely accepted method for assessing procurement demand, risk and profit factors for supply chains. The model distinguishes among four product categories: leverage items, strategic items, noncritical items, and bottleneck items. My take on the [...]
Monday’s Dilbert cartoon has a pitch-perfect take on one of the common problems that occur in outsourcing agreements, something that I call the Activity Trap. “I don’t want you to be more efficient. You’re working on a government contract and billing by the hour.” That in a nutshell is the Activity Trap. But it’s [...]
Yesterday I was working with a client to develop a workshop they have asked me to facilitate in order to help them turn their existing relationship into a high gear, highly collaborative Vested relationship. I came up with a title for the workshop that included the word “winning.” My client asked me to take out [...]
You may have heard the fable of the scorpion and the frog, which has some very definite lessons about trust, collaboration, self-interest and the basic nature of humans. This fable provides a wise lesson for those in the outsourcing business as well. In the story, a scorpion needs to cross a river but wonders how he [...]
Most people in this industry, me included, tend to write about what outsourcing is, or should be. That’s a natural and normal approach, especially as we develop concepts and systems and the right way to outsource—such as (ahem) the Vested Outsourcing way! But sometimes looking through the other end of the lens can bring a [...]
Sometimes it is worthwhile to go back to the future—especially when it comes to pulling Stephen R. Covey’s, The 7 habits of Highly Effective People, off the shelf for a quick review. Covey’s classic bestseller on personal effectiveness, published in 1989, has huge lessons for business and leadership effectiveness; it also has great resonance for [...]
