A great example of this occurred in mid-November when Jaguar posted the highest score among all luxury brands in America in the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Sales Satisfaction Index study.

Jaguar is also ranked first among luxury car brands for customer satisfaction—for the third straight year! Could it be that Jaguar’s vested alignment with Unipart Logistics has anything to do with this spectacular result? It’s not a coincidence: It has everything to do with it!

Earlier this year I wrote about a white paper written by ARC Advisory Group’s Adrian Gonzalez on behalf of Unipart Logistics. Gonzalez, an ARC analyst, also writes for ARC’s Logistics Viewpoints blog. The ARC paper, “Shared Destiny”: Key Lessons from Unipart’s Vested Outsourcing Journey with Jaguar and Vodafone is an excellent real-life case study of the Vested Outsourcing experience.

Gonzalez wrote about the realization that the Jaguar-Unipart relationship was not working very well, even though the companies had a long relationship with each other spanning more than 20 years. Meetings between top-level executives, including the CEOs for each company, led to the creation of a shared vision statement that continues to guide their business structure today. In essence they transformed the Jaguar and Unipart relationship into a vested partnership.

This underscores the need for buy-in, active involvement and trust at the CEO level in developing successful outsourcing relationships – a hallmark of Vested Outsourcing’s Five Rules. The ideas of true collaboration, trust and flexibility are embedded in the rules, especially Rule 5, Governance Structure Should Provide Insight, not Merely Oversight, and also Rule 2, Focus on Outcomes and Rule 3, Agree on Clearly Defined and Measurable Outcomes.

The J.D. Power study analyzes the new-vehicle purchase experience and is based on responses from 25,244 owners and lessees in the U.S. of new vehicles registered in May this year. Sale satisfaction is tracked based on four factors: the dealership facility; salesperson; working out the deal; and the delivery process.

With the #1 ranking I won’t be surprised if Jaguar passes their already strong sales numbers (Jaguar sales in the U.S. are up 16 percent year-to-year through October 2010 – that’s really something in this economy!).  While Jaguar gets the kudos for designing high quality cars people love, Unipart gets the kudo’s for making sure that their supply chain is delivering parts and keeping up the Jaguar image of high quality service after the sale which drives customer loyalty. I think it’s safe to say that Jaguar has overcome the image that people who drove a Jaguar needed two cars – one to drive and one sitting in the shop waiting for parts!

Jaguar is increasing U.S. sales by double-digit percentages and sales satisfaction now extends to new model lineups.  It’s a great accomplishment and one that in the long view Vested Outsourcing helped to achieve.

NBC’s new sitcom “Outsourced” premiered Thursday night. It’s supposed to be a comedy about outsourcing, specifically about a U.S. company that outsources its call center operation to India. The problem is it gets outsourcing so wrong it’s not even funny. During the show’s 22 minutes – minus the eight minutes of advertising from the likes of Yoplait, American Express, Subway and Sierra Mist (they should be ashamed) – the needle on my lol meter never budged.  I read a review Friday that called it “horrible” and the “worst new show of the season” so  it’s not just me.

Putting comedy opinions and silly stereotyping aside, from my perspective the show does nothing to dispel the knee-jerk misconceptions that surround outsourcing; rather it propagates them.

I get really frustrated when people who don’t have a clue about outsourcing start bashing it. In a blog post earlier this year I wrote about the mistaken perceptions that people have about outsourcing and offshoring, mainly that outsourcing simply means shipping U.S. jobs overseas. The general media, along with many politicians, plays into that by bashing outsourcing exclusively as jobs being shipped overseas.

Outsourcing is actually a respectful industry. It’s not about finding cheap labor overseas – it’s about finding the best providers for the performance of non-core activities. Yes – some companies have gone about it wrong chasing cheap overseas labor – but those that do miss the point and end up with failing outsourcing deals and customers who are frustrated with poor performance. Microsoft is a company that is getting it right, winning the Shared Services Outsourcing Network  “Best Mature Outsourced Service Delivery Award with Accenture – who manages Microsoft’s back office procure-to-pay process. Jaguar and Unipart also get it right – with Unipart having a vested interest in  helping Jaguar reach top billings in the JD Powers Customer Satisfaction.

Outsourcing is not a joke or a funny human resources endeavor; NBC’s “Outsourcing” is a joke, but not the kind with laughs or that bears repeating.

More evidence of its growing buzz comes from a white paper written by ARC Advisory Group’s Adrian Gonzalez on behalf of Unipart Logistics. Gonzalez, an ARC analyst, also writes for ARC’s always interesting Logistics Viewpoints blog, including the “must-read” This Week in Logistics News, published each Friday.

Gonzalez’ ARC Brief is entitled “Shared Destiny”: Key Lessons from Unipart’s Vested Outsourcing Journey with Jaguar and Vodafone.

It’s an excellent real-life case study of the Vested Outsourcing experience, as well as a fine introduction to and description of Vested Outsourcing, which Gonzalez says is “attracting the attention of many manufacturers, retailers, third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and academics.”

The reason for the interest is simple, the 13-page paper continues: Vested Outsourcing “has the potential to transform the way 3PLs and their customers work together, resulting in greater sustained value and enhanced competitive differentiation for both parties.”

Of course those words are music to my ears and are what my book and this blog are all about: achieving mutually beneficial ‘win-win’ outcomes through collaboration at the contracting level.

Gonzalez rightly points out that while Vested Outsourcing is not a new concept – it has been used successfully by the Department of Defense and the aerospace industry, along with some examples in IT and facilities management outsourcing contracts – there are very few pure examples of it in the broader contract logistics market. This is why this study of the Unipart experience is of special interest.

ARC interviewed three senior executives at Unipart who spoke candidly about the company’s outsourcing relationships: With Jaguar in aftermarket parts fulfillment in the UK and with Vodaphone, in which Unipart managed the company’s warehousing and distribution operations in the UK. Unipart started working with Jaguar nearly 25 years ago, and it began working with Vodaphone in 1999.

In each case, neither relationship was initially based on Vested Outsourcing principles, and early on there were strains, including a lot of non-value-added activity and a lot of blame.

Eventually there came the realization that the Jaguar-Unipart relationship was not working very well. Subsequent meetings between top executives led to the creation of a shared vision statement that continues to guide their business structure today.

A similar transformation occurred with the Unipart-Vodaphone relationship, with Vodaphone deciding early in the relationship that logistics was not a core competency, leading eventually to a stronger relationship and a high degree of trust between the companies, also at the top level.

Gonzalez concludes that both cases underscore the need for buy-in, active involvement and trust at the CEO level in developing successful outsourcing relationships.

Yet an ARC survey last year of 100 logistics executives found that 62 percent of those responding said their CEO was “not involved at all in the 3PL evaluation and selection process.”

That’s a really important point because the key to a truly vested and collaborative outsourcing relationship should come straight from the top.

As the white paper states: “If the CEOs are missing from the relationship, the likelihood of it becoming more long-term and strategic is very low.”

ARC makes other valuable points about the importance of trusting each company’s expertise, having a clear “shared vision” statement with end customer focus, a contract structure that encourages independent action, flexibility and the need to “provide insight, not just oversight.”

The latter point addresses a common complaint about 3PLs – that they are not proactive enough in identifying continuous improvement opportunities. That problem is also identified in Vested Outsourcing’s 10 Ailments, including #6 – Sandbagging, and # 7 – The Zero-Sum Game. It’s addressed head-on in the Five Rules, especially Rule # 5 Governance Structure Should Provide Insight, not Merely Oversight, and also Rule # 2 – Focus on Outcomes, and Rule # 3 – Agree on Clearly Defined and Measurable Outcomes.

I also like the paper’s conclusion, which acknowledges that not all companies and customers are suited for a Vested Outsourcing relationship. CEO involvement is critical, and even then Vested Outsourcing is a long and often difficult journey. “But to borrow a phrase from the poet Robert Frost, Vested Outsourcing is ‘the road less traveled,’ and for Unipart, Jaguar and Vodaphone, that has made all the difference.”

Yes, it can all fit together; working together toward a shared destiny really can work.