The Outsourcing Enterprise: From Cost Management to Collaborative Innovation

Evidence shows that organizations with both a CEO and a team involved in sourcing strategy and supplier configuration make more effective decisions. If the wrong supplier is chosen, performance can be negatively affected. Here the authors look at how companies can improve their outsourcing capabilities.

LESLIE WILLCOCKS is Professor of Technology, Work and Globalization and Director of the Outsourcing Unit in the Information Systems and Innovation group, Department of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on outsourcing and has an international reputation for his research and advisory work on the management of information and communications technologies and organizational change. He is co-author of 33 books and over 180 papers in journals such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, MIS Quarterly, MISQ Executive, and Journal of Management Studies. In February 2001 he won the PriceWaterhouseCoopers/Michael Corbett Associates World Outsourcing Achievement Award for his contribution to this field. He is a regular keynote speaker at international practitioner and academic conferences, and is regularly retained as adviser by major corporations and government institutions.

SARA CULLEN is the Managing Director of The Cullen Group, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a former National Partner at Deloitte (Australia). She has a leading international profile in contracting and is one of Asia Pacific’s most experienced sourcing advisors. She has consulted to over 125 organizations, spanning 51 countries, in over 150 projects with contract values up to ＄1.5B p.a. Sara is a widely published, internationally recognized author having written over 110 publications, conducted 7 government reviews, and presented in over 300 major conferences. Her recent books include: Toward Reframing Outsourcing, The Contract Scorecard, Contracting for the Outsourcing Lifecycle: A Practical Guide, and Intelligent IT Outsourcing (with Leslie Willcocks). She holds a PhD (Outsourcing), Masters (Technology), and BSc (Accounting) in addition to being a Chartered Accountant, Certified Mediator, and Certified Trainer and Teacher.

ANDREW S. CRAIG heads the IT Leadership and Governance team of Craig Ltd and is also a Director of Board Coaching Ltd. He is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK working in the Outsourcing Unit. He has coached executives, teams and boards in the Defence Procurement Agency, the UK Border Agency, the leisure industry, Balfour Beatty, HSBC and finance and fund management companies. In his professional Army career, as Brigadier, he directed the recruiting operation - an annual requirement of 16,000 people - and was responsible for Human Resource planning for a workforce of 120,000. He commanded engineering operations worldwide, including in the first Gulf War and Bosnia, and led the UK’s planned military response to nuclear, biological and chemical terrorism. He was awarded an OBE in 1998.