How does a company maintain and expand its core competence in the face of rapidly changing technologies, increasing competition and shrinking R&D budgets? The short answer is to forge a Vested Outsourcing relationship with a service provider that will add innovation and value over the long haul. That thought came to mind as I read […]
outsourcing
Happy Birthday Vested Outsourcing!
Today is very special for Vested Outsourcing: It was exactly one year ago on this date that Vested Outsourcing: Five Rules That Will Transform Outsourcing was published by Palgrave Macmillan. To say that this experience has been a wonderful, exciting and mind-expanding journey is a total understatement and I want to thank everyone who made […]
Shared Value: The Path to Success
The concept of shared value is difficult to understand and implement in a society, economy and business climate where sharing is not necessarily a prime motivation or even much in evidence. In the Vested Outsourcing approach to doing business shared value is an important step on the way to true collaboration and getting to the […]
Negotiation, Economics and Outsourcing
Negotiation is on my mind a lot lately as I finish The Vested Outsourcing Manual with three colleagues and friends. It also apparently is much on the mind of Tim Cummins in his excellent “Commitment Matters” blog, where he writes about the “economics of negotiation” and the “purpose of negotiation.” It’s on my mind because […]
Lawyers: Can’t Live with Them, Can’t Live without Them?
I’ve been thinking about the global economy, outsourcing, lawyers and trust lately, and no, that is not as crazy-making or schizophrenic as it may sound. I often talk about the mindset changes that Vested Outsourcing brings to the forefront in the world of business and outsourcing. For many companies the Five Rules require huge changes […]
Don’t Blame Outsourcing for Lack of Jobs (Part 2)
Last time I talked about how blaming outsourcing for the ugly U.S. jobs situation is misguided and just plain wrong. I promised to share a letter I prepared to President Obama in response to Monster’s Keep America Working Project, so here it is: Mr. President, I feel your pain. The American people have spoken. About […]
Don’t Blame Outsourcing for Lack of Jobs (Part 1)
Outsourcing often takes it on the chin as the reason for job losses and the sorry employment picture in the U.S., even by President Obama. But that formulation, which makes for an easy applause line during a speech, is way too simplistic and mostly wrong. Here’s the situation: A recession—now known as the Great Recession—began […]
Outsourcing’s Wrong and Right (Part 2)
Last time I talked about how Armstrong’s outsourcing of transportation functions to a 3PL in 2007 was probably the wrong decision at the time and one that was destined to fail mainly because it was based on non-vested premises. Eventually Armstrong brought back that function—something it historically was very competent at—in-house and then went on […]
Outsourcing’s Wrong and Right (Part 1)
As with most everything else in life there’s a right and a wrong. It’s no different in outsourcing. Unfortunately the lines of demarcation can get a little blurry, as when doing what seems to be the right thing in the beginning fails miserably and then you win an award for it. Let me explain. […]
Umair Haque: Value Through Thick and Thin
The economist Umair Haque, who writes prolifically and provocatively on economic and business issues in his Edge Economy blog for the Harvard Business Review and in his own blog, Bubblegeneration, thinks that many companies just don’t get it when it comes to creating sustainable profitability and value. With the near collapse of the financial system […]
