The recent International Association of Contracting and Commercial Management report on  contract terms has got me thinking of the terminology we use to describe how an outsourcing contract should operate over time. As we move to the Vested Outsourcing world of cooperative, mutually-beneficial, performance- and outcomes-based contracts based on the transforming power of the Five [...]

If it seems like I’m a little stuck lately on Oliver Williamson’s Nobel Prize-winning research on Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), and specifically how he has tied outsourcing contracts and supply chain dynamics to his TCE research, it’s because I am. Stuck may not be the right word actually, it’s more like really impressed and fascinated [...]

If there’s one thing that the economic woes of 2008 and 2009 taught us, it’s that collaboration – that oft-used (and often over-used) word in supply chain and outsourcing circles – must be more than lip service and feel-good fodder for slick annual reports. It’s fair to say that collaboration is an essential key to [...]