Anyone that has engaged in or explored the possibility of outsourcing will tell you that there is an abundance of information on how to…
• Choose a location
• Prepare your organization for the political fallouts, and
• Pick a supplier and negotiate a sound bargain that may result in many rewards (as well as post contract transitioning, engagement administration, and contract renewals).
What they don’t tell you , and many won’t share, are some of the intricate details that de-rail and often result in a catastrophic sourcing experience. Looking back at some of the engagements that I have been involved with, many dealt with corrective recovery. Aside from being avoidable many were the result of some very fundamental flaws in processes. What is difficult to understand is how something so simple is often so difficult for people to accept and adopt.
A friend of mine in Hong Kong told me that it’s not because of misunderstanding or unwillingness to adopt, as much as it’s easier for someone to point to a 3rd party as the cause. I agree. But none the less it is so difficult for me to accept because I am flawed by taking full accountability for my actions and detest relying upon some lame excuse. It makes me feel like an unwitting idiot that cannot discern truth from reality.
The good news about a discipline is that it has plenty enough information to be called upon. Our challenge is to take this information and properly evaluate what will work and what won’t. In doing so we are expected to understand what the impact will be for the choices we make. Especially when it comes to overlooking certain evaluation points and task.
Recently, I have been trying to further the deployment of viability assessments. I took this concept and a mature framework to advisors and to the procurement sector to see what level of interest they might have. To my dismay I received no reaction even though it has proven to have profound value for buyers (as well as suppliers).
Likewise procurement groups responded in similar fashion. There were a few who commented in confidence that their process of evaluating service providers, especially those outside of their country, was too simplistic and inconsistently applied. I tried to find out if they had experienced any failures as a result of this weakness. The silence was telling.
So… if you were in our shoes what would you have done? Abandon something that you know can save companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in disruptive costs? Or would you vigilantly continue to move the service forward? You know it’s fundamentally critical and offers value. And buyers know it too. But because of the light that it sheds it presents an awkward dilemma even for companies who prescribe to continual process improvement. While I may face this challenge every company that knows the truth in their outsource ‘closet of skeletons’ also knows that hiding is a roadmap for failure.
Until next time feel free to contribute your thoughts or send me an email at jdurant@Int-IOM.org.
