Outsource It!

Chapter 11Control Your Engagement

Managing most outsourcing engagements requires an understanding of three well-known principles. To indicate the importance of these principles, let’s call them the fundamental laws of outsourcing (FLOs, but pronounced “flaws”). These laws are as dependable as the law of gravity, and as you know, if you ignore that, you’ll end up flat on the ground with your face in the dirt. These are the FLOs:

1. Nothing is as easy as it looks (Murphy’s first law).

2. Entropy always increases (the second law of thermodynamics). In terms of organizational dynamics, an increase in entropy means deterioration of processes, performance, and environment. Peter F. Drucker said:

   The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization ...