There’s obvious and growing evidence to support the idea that vesting together and closely sharing your outsourcing destiny results in continuing success.
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.