A Step by Step Path to Vested Outsourcing Vested outsourcing replaces the often adversarial relationship between service provider and customer with a “win win” agreement in which both sides share the benefits achieved by outsourcing. In this case study, researcher and author Kate Vitasek explains the role time and trust play in developing a vested […]
5 Rules
Vested Implements Collaboration
I often comment about how outsource and supply chain companies talk the talk about “alignment,” “partnership,” “win-win,” “visibility” and “collaboration,” but often will fail to walk the walk on those terms once priorities or personnel shift, or the going gets tough. The Vested model requires true collaboration as the starting point for achieving all of […]
Santa Claus: The Ultimate Vested Outsourcer!
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 […]
The Psychology of Outsourcing, Part 5: B.F. Skinner and Behavior, Incentives, Consequences
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 […]
Outsourcing: Collaboration is More Than a State of Mind
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 […]
Spend Outsourcing Time on Outcomes, Not SLAs
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. […]
Tap into the Power of And By Avoiding Either/Or
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 […]
Scrap the Purchase Order Mentality
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 […]
Vested Outsourcing Makes the Innovative Impulse Real
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 […]
Costing Out the Cost of the Contract
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 […]
