Watching the Blue Angels do their amazing and death-defying feats in the cloudy skies above Seattle last week, I was awestruck, marveling at the fearless synchronization on display. Which lead me of course to muse about what could happen if that kind of synchronization was the rule rather than the exception in outsourcing. The Blue […]
outsourcing
Collaborate for Value
I’ve been thinking about the term “negotiation” quite a lot lately and what it means for outsourcing in general and Vested Outsourcing in particular. For instance, I’ve questioned whether negotiation is really the right word to use when talking about creating a vested relationship. In a recent post I advised that parties shouldn’t negotiate, they […]
Don’t Outsource the Leadership
A key thing to understand about any outsourcing endeavor is that once the decision is made to outsource the work, the work definitely is not done. In fact the real work at each end of the outsourcing equation is just beginning, particularly in a Vested Outsourcing relationship. Establishing a proper, flexible governance framework, setting systems […]
Don’t Negotiate! Collaborate for the Win-Win
It seems there is never a simple negotiation. The term “negotiation” itself connotes that the parties involved have differences of opinions and are sitting across the table from each other discussing positions and trade-offs. Some even view negotiations as a pejorative euphemism – something that should be approached with suspicion or trepidation. A necessary evil […]
Try A Little Transportation Collaboration
Earlier this year I wrote about courage, patience, trust and loyalty in logistics, based on a shipper’s gutsy decision on transportation rates. Adrian Gonzalez originally brought this up in an ARC Logistics Viewpoints newsletter/blog post in February. He talked about how a Fortune 500 company could have saved a stack of money in transportation costs by […]
Vested Outsourcing Trends Up
I’m often amused by yearly trend lists. For one thing, there’s so many of them in the outsourcing and supply chain sector. With all those trends trending along and multiplying each year, what happens to the previous year’s trends? Or the trends from the year before? Are they no longer trends? Do they go to […]
Making Everyone Whole
I wanted to share some recent wisdom from Jim Womack, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, and a chief maven for the Lean concept. He sends out emails on a regular basis, and one in particular, “Making Everyone Whole” talks about the difficulty that organizations often experience in trying to create lean value […]
Getting to We Follows Getting to Yes
Many of you probably remember the bestselling book Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William L. Ury, and its influential take on negotiation and cooperation. I’m thinking about this book today in a couple of respects. First, it was published about 20 years ago at about the same time that modern outsourcing began to […]
Citizen Times, June 2010
Western Carolina University Professor Hollye Moss recently reviewed “Vested Outsourcing: Five Rules That Will Transform Outsourcing.” Professor Moss described the books as “well-written, easy to read, and thought-provoking. It just may change the way you do business.” in her her review titled “How To Outsource Your Business To Success.”
The Gorilla vs. the Elephant, Part 2: The Elephant
Last time, I talked about those 800-pound gorilla companies that can and do use their market position to browbeat their outsourcing partners to get the lowest-cost contracts and to otherwise achieve their own strategic objectives. It’s a classic case of Vested Outsourcing’s Ailment 1, Penny Wise and Pound Foolish, which might gain some short term […]
