Smarter Outsourcing: An executive guide to understanding, planning and exploiting successful outsourcing relationships

A secret shared

At this point the CEO and whoever else is initiating the ideas around outsourcing – quite probably the CFO, and maybe some other board members – tend to get together and start setting expectations about ways in which outsourcing can help them re-engineer the company, both financially and culturally. These expectations may be either accurate or half-baked, and the board may be divided between those members who are committed to them and those who are half-hearted.

Either way, the next step is that some senior executives go out into the market – often on a relatively informal basis – and start talking to potential candidates whom they think might be able to fulfil their expectations. These candidates will generally include providers ...