Supply Chain
Delegation (Outsourcing) and Keeping a Focus on Strategy and Results
Posted in Integrity, Operations Improvement, People, Productivity, Strategy/Planning, Strength, Supply Chain on December 7th, 2009 by Mark Orton – Be the first to commentYesterday I was scanning through the Tweets from my friend Bruce Peters and came across a reference to a blog posting by Bernadette Doyle, “Discern Your Strengths – Delegate The Rest“. Its always good to return to these complementary concepts – strengths and delegation (outsourcing), so I read on.
Ms. Doyle’s concatenation of “delegation” and “outsourcing” is a very productive idea. Delegation is normally seen to be a personal act by a manager. A manager delegates certain tasks or responsibilities to someone else in the organization. Outsourcing is most frequently the retention of a third party, external to the company, to perform a function or tasks. Setting these two side by side provides an interesting example of the overlap between the personal skills and attributes of the manager and the larger practice and processes of the organization.
Podcast: Outsourcing – not a strategy that is as simple as a make or buy decision
Posted in Business structure, Podcasts, Strategy/Planning, Supply Chain on November 5th, 2009 by Mark Orton – Be the first to commentOutsourcing is sometimes seen as a panacea, especially for startups. However, a sound knowledge of business practices is required to make outsourcing really work.
Outsourcing – not a strategy that is as simple as a make or buy decision
Posted in Business structure, Organization Level, Strategy/Planning, Supply Chain on November 5th, 2009 by Mark Orton – Be the first to commentOutsourcing functions is a key element of every business’s strategy. Richard Mammone, Rutgers University BEST Institute, has written a brief article, “Humility and the Successful Startup: Every skill required to form a business should be judged on make-or-buy grounds. If you don’t have it, outsource it”[[1]] .
Mammone’s argument is captured in capsule form here: “Every skill set required to form a startup should be subjected to a make-or-buy decision process. In other words, if you don’t have it, outsource it. Let me just stop here for a moment and mention that outsourcing is the strategic entrepreneur’s solution to most problems.”
Outsourcing is a great strategy. In fact, outsourcing is a fundamental component of every business strategy. Outsourcing decisions reflect the fundamental values of the organization.
