In an article this month for Material Handling & Logistics Magazine, I reiterated a point I frequently make, that is, outsourcing and off-shoring are not interchangeable terms and the decision to outsource does not automatically mean that jobs are lost to another country. In the article, “Don’t Re-Shore the Priceberg” I note that the decision […]
outsourcing
Material Handling & Logistics Magazine – April 2014
Don’t Re-shore a Priceberg Article by Kate Vitasek in the April 2014 edition of Material Handling and Logistics. Before deciding to re-shore business or suppliers look beneath the surface at the costs involved… Here’s the link: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/d5adc33c#/d5adc33c/16
Outsource Magazine — December 2013
Leaping to greatness December 18, 2013 column/blog by Kate Vitasek on the Outsource Magazine website. Stanford University academic, teacher and business consultant Jim Collins famously addressed the concept of making the leap to greatness in a huge bestseller, Good to Great, which I admired then and now because his solid research produced a counter-intuitive riff on the qualities […]
Area Development Online — December 2013
How to Develop a Successful Outsourcing Contract Article in Area Development online by Kate Vitasek and Joseph Tillman on December 10, 2013. Outsourcing agreements crafted according to the 10 elements and five rules of “Vested” result in truly collaborative agreements and a win-win situation for the parties involved… Here is the link to the full […]
Googling It and Outsourcing
I just got back from the Sourcing Interests Group fall summit in Ft. Worth and as usual was thoroughly impressed with the fantastic job they do at these events. I had the opportunity to chat with David Natoff, Head of Procure to Pay for Google, after his insightful presentation on the “search for outsourcing excellence […]
Outsource Magazine — October 2013
Stewart and Plotkin, the Prisoner’s Dilemma and Generous Strategies Column by Kate Vitasek published Oct. 16 in Outsource Magazine online. I’ve been a game theory fan for many years, particularly as it relates to showing that cooperative behavior indeed creates true “win-win” situations. So I was excited to read a work of University of Pennsylvania […]
General Mills, Suppliers, Innovation Strategy and the Power of We
Some interesting and encouraging insights regarding the company-supplier interface came out of the recent General Mills 2013 Supplier Summit where Tim Coats, vice president of Worldwide Sourcing for General Mills, kicked off the spring event by sharing his belief in “The Power of We” with a theme of Connect, Create, Elevate! Maerenn Jepsen, an external […]
Logistics & Supply Chain World — September 2013
5 Steps to improving your outsourcing relationships Article by Andrew Downard and Kate Vitasek in the September 2013 issue of Logistics & Supply Chain World Magazine, which is published in India. The article begins on page 5. Here is the link: http://www.kamikaze.co.in/september_issue%202013.pdf
Nobel Economist Ronald Coase, Giant of TCE, Dies at 102
Nobel laureate Ronald Coase, a giant of modern economic thought and whose ideas about transaction costs and the nature of companies are a foundation of Vested principles, died this week in Chicago. He was 102. In “The Nature of the Firm,” which was developed and written while he was still an undergraduate and published in 1937, Professor […]
China and Outsourcing: Do the Math!
There’s an ebb and flow to most outsourcing relationships as well as their locations, and China is no exception. Much has been written lately about outsourcing to China as becoming a thing of the past. I would not go that far for several reasons—including its large and still relatively cheap labor force and the huge […]
