UPS loves logistics. And at this time of the year their jingle (sung to the tune of “That’s Amore!”) is really apt — UPSers really have to love their job! They work extended hours seven days a week to make it happen. Warehouses add seasonal workers. Stores open early and close late. Moms are frazzled [...]
While B.F Skinner’s groundbreaking work on “radical behaviorism” is not quite the same as behavioral economics, they run in same crowd: mainly the conditioning, incentivizing and tracking of certain actions. Skinner, often a controversial and polarizing figure, developed a philosophy of science he called radical behaviorism, and founded his own school of experimental research psychology—the [...]
The true test of collaboration occurs when you really have to collaborate, say during a crisis or when the powers that be ask you to do more or to do something radically different. In short collaboration is a nice word but it’s only truly effective and real when what you’re collaborating on is difficult, uncomfortable [...]
If you’ve been involved with outsourcing long enough, and if you’ve paid attention to the basic message of Vested Outsourcing, then then you probably know that service level agreements—SLAs—are somewhat lacking when it comes to forging collaborative and transformative relationships. That’s mainly because task-oriented SLAs generally are too one-sided in favor of the company outsourcing. [...]
In outsourcing and in the business world the mind-set regarding ideas and innovation is often too full of ‘buts’ and ‘either/ors.’ Vested Outsourcing’s collaborative approach to driving supplier innovation and flexibility depends on inclusiveness and eliminating the either/or. Filippo Passerini, P&G‘s CIO and president of Global Business Services, is a big proponent of avoiding the [...]
Don’t mistake a transaction, even a friendly and efficient transaction, as true collaboration. If someone arranges to purchase widgets from a widget-maker that’s the essence of the make-buy decision but it’s not the crowning achievement of a real partnership. Or as Ben Gomes-Casseres puts it, “a partnership is not a purchase order.” Writing this week [...]
We all talk about the need for innovation to energize, grow and add continuous value to outsourcing relationships. Innovation is easier said than done however, and a recent article by Stephanie Overby in CIO magazine underscores this. A survey of European CIOs found that 67 percent of IT leaders rely on outsource providers to turn [...]
I’ve talked recently about the need for outsource contracting in a transparent and flexible Vested environment, but what about the actual cost of establishing a business contract? While there is obviously no standard cost template for contract negotiation services—contracts can vary from the exceedingly short and simple to the immensely long and complex and you [...]
Whether operating in the cloud or not, one thing software providers and their customers should consider is a shift in the way they deal with each other – a shift to value-based discussions. In the article titled “Five Rules for Software Sales Discussions”, lead researcher Kate Vitasek discusses applying the Five Rules of Vested Outsourcing [...]
By now it’s clear that anyone who follows my blog knows I am passionate about win-win thinking. Today’s blog is a history lesson in playing nice. Radiolab recently featured a fantastic podcast titled “One Good Deed Deserves Another” that showcases Robert Axelrod’s famous findings about the prisoner’s dilemma. The podcast is a highly entertaining history lesson in [...]
