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

Hybrid culture – not bastardized culture

A further issue for customer CEOs to face is the deep cultural impact of using outsourcing on a wide-scale basis. It is a brave board that recognizes, encourages and monitors the blending – some might term it ‘bastardization’ – of its cherished corporate culture into a hybrid culture with the outsource provider.

But if the relationship is to realize the full benefits, that is what must happen. Otherwise there will be a cultural polarization between the business and the outsourced delivery function – irrespective of whether that function is delivering enterprise-wide technology or a specific business process. This cultural fusion is the single most critical determinant of long-term success, which is why ...