> The units that serve other units internally, generally
>have a captive audience and behave in a monopolistic way. In most cases
>the internal customer does not have any other choices and can not take its
>business elsewhere. This is when I would normally recommend outsourcing
>what the internal supplier does, unless it is an essential or vital to the
>business future, security, etc. Outsourcing gives the internal customer
>the power to demand quality!
Isn't this view somewhat antithetical to the aspirations of a learning
organization? It seems to me that outsourcing is often a very
straightforward application of the short-term thinking that haunts so many
businesses. Rather than fix the long-term problem (the failure of various
functions to work toward a common goal), let's just get rid of it's
symptoms (the "monopolistic" behavior of individual units). I will
certainly agree there are many situations in which an organization might
outsource activities to gain expertise that is not essential to the
organization's core operations or to focus internal resources more
strategically; but to do so for the reasons Ivan states above represents a
fundamental failure to develop a cohesive, sustainable organizational
culture. This is a very punative message about maximizing individual,
internal customer power. Where is the encouragement to optimize the
organization's collective capabilities? Where is the learning in
outsourcing?
-- Randolph Jennings jenningr@stolaf.edu