Future of Sourcing - Management https://www.futureofsourcing.com/tags/management en Q&A with Inna Koldorf – Employing Workers in Canada https://www.futureofsourcing.com/qa-with-inna-koldorf-employing-workers-in-canada <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/hiring_canadian_employees.jpg"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/hiring_canadian_employees.jpg" title="Q&amp;A with Inna Koldorf – Employing Workers in Canada" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1316-MAdiZJj3hDU"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/hiring_canadian_employees.jpg?itok=9W3upv-Z" width="624" height="325" alt="" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>With access to NAFTA and the EU, via the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, Canada has become one of the best prospects for foreign investors and growing businesses. However, while similarities exist in employment laws between the U.S. and Canada, there are minor differences that must be navigated compliantly to avoid penalties. Precision Global Consulting&#39;s Catriona O&rsquo;Kane sat down recently with Inna Koldorf, a partner at Canadian national law firm Miller Thomson and leading employment lawyer, for her advice on employing workers in Canada.&nbsp;</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <div><strong>Catriona O&#39;Kane: Inna thanks so much for lending your expertise. Before an organization has begun the process of expansion and is still researching what is involved, what key areas would you advise they look at as a starting point? &nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>Inna Koldorf</strong>: Unlike the U.S., most Canadian employees are governed by provincial law, not federal law. As a result, the first thing that an organization should consider before hiring a Canadian employee is in which province the employee will work. While employment standards and occupational health and safety laws may be similar between some provinces, they could have significant differences as well.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Once the organization narrows down the province in which the employee will work, it should look at the minimum standards in that province&rsquo;s employment standards legislation. Each province has its own set of standards that address minimum wage, hours of work and overtime, vacation and public holiday pay, leaves of absence, etc. The organization will have to provide its Canadian employees with at least the minimum standards required.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Next, the organization should seriously consider drafting written employment contracts for its Canadian employees. With the exception of employees in Quebec, most employees in Canada who are not unionized are deemed by law to be working under an employment contract. If the employment contract is not written and signed by the employee, then the common law imposes an implied employment contract, with terms and conditions that often exceed the minimum standards and provide greater benefits and protections to employees. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>For this reason, an organization should consider having written employment contracts that can limit employees&rsquo; entitlements by overriding the benefits and protections implied by the common law. To be enforceable, however, the employment contract must comply with the minimum standards in the applicable employment standards legislation. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>Catriona: What is the one difference that U.S. employers are most surprised by when hiring their first Canadian employee?&nbsp;</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>Inna</strong>: The one difference that catches most U.S. employers by surprise is that we do not have &ldquo;at will&rdquo; employment in Canada. In most Canadian jurisdictions, and certainly in Ontario, an employer must have just cause to terminate an employee without notice or pay in lieu of notice. The burden is on the employer to show that just cause existed, and the threshold is quite high. Just cause terminations are reserved for really egregious employee conduct such as theft and dishonesty. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>All other terminations in Ontario are considered to be without cause and the employer must either provide working notice of the pending termination or provide pay-in-lieu of the notice. The length of notice (or the amount of pay) would depend on a number of factors. Employment standards legislation provides the minimum length of notice. If the employee signed an enforceable employment contract which contains a &ldquo;termination without cause&rdquo; provision, then the length of notice would be limited to the contractual entitlement. If no employment contract was signed or the contract does not contain a &ldquo;termination without cause&rdquo; provision, then the common law kicks in, and entitles the employee to a notice period that is higher than the minimum standard. This length of notice depends on the employee&rsquo;s position, seniority, age and likelihood of finding alternate employment. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>In other words, most terminations attract a notice period or a payment, which can be limited by an employment contract, but in the absence of proper contractual language, terminations can get expensive for the employer.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>Catriona: A a key difference that companies find surprising is how vacation pay and public holidays are treated in Canada. Can you offer some guidance to businesses on what to be aware of?&nbsp;</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>Inna</strong>: In Ontario, vacation time and vacation pay are treated differently in employment standards legislation. An employee with four or less years of seniority with an employer is entitled to two weeks of vacation time. An employee with five or more years of seniority is entitled to three weeks of vacation time. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>In addition, employees who are eligible for two weeks of vacation time receive four percent of their gross wages as vacation pay. Employees who receive three weeks of vacation time receive six percent of their gross wages in vacation pay. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>With respect to public holidays, each jurisdiction in Canada has its own list of public holidays. Ontario has nine public holidays during which employees may have a day off and earn public holiday pay. Public holiday pay is calculated by adding all the regular wages and vacation pay earned by the employee in the four weeks leading up to the week with the public holiday pay, divided by 20. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Employees also have the option of working on a public holiday if the employer requests that they work, and they consent. In that case, an employee will earn 1.5 times his or her wages for their work on the public holiday.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>Catriona: What about absences from work? What entitlements do employees have to leaves of absences?&nbsp;</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>Inna</strong>: Ontario&rsquo;s Employment Standards Act includes a list of 12 different types of leaves of absence that employees are entitled to, at a minimum. The list includes Family Caregiver Leave, Critical Illness Leave and Domestic or Sexual Violence Leave. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>There are two types of leaves of absence which are particularly surprising to U.S. employers. The Personal Emergency Leave requires an employer to provide each employee with 10 days off from work due to a personal emergency or an emergency of a close family member. The first two days must be fully paid by the employer. The 10 days replenish annually on January 1 for each employee. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Second, parental and pregnancy leave in Ontario, when combined, entitle women who give birth to up to 18 months of unpaid pregnancy and parental leave. All other parents are entitled to 63 weeks of unpaid parental leave. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The law requires employers to continue employee benefits during all statutory leaves of absence, and to reinstate an employee into his or her previous position when the employee returns from leave. In other words, the employee&rsquo;s job is protected during any statutory leave of absence. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>Catriona: If you could offer just one piece of advice to companies moving to Canada what would it be? &nbsp;</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>Inna</strong>: Do your research. There are many different rules and regulations about minimum standards, health and safety in the workplace, and accessibility for employees and the public. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse, and the resulting fines and damages could be high. If in doubt, get legal advice from a local employment lawyer who is familiar with the province&rsquo;s employment law regime.</div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/human-resources" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Human Resources</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-acquisition" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Acquisition</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-retention" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Retention</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/nearshoring" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Nearshoring</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Q&amp;amp;A with Inna Koldorf &amp;ndash; Employing Workers in Canada - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/qa-with-inna-koldorf-employing-workers-in-canada"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/north-america" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">North America</a></div></div></div> Tue, 13 Nov 2018 20:00:12 +0000 Catriona O’Kane 1316 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/qa-with-inna-koldorf-employing-workers-in-canada#comments Your Telecom Contracts Are Ending – Now What? https://www.futureofsourcing.com/headline-your-telecom-contracts-are-ending-now-what <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/telecom_contracts.jpg"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/telecom_contracts.jpg" title="Your Telecom Contracts Are Ending – Now What?" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1204-MAdiZJj3hDU"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/telecom_contracts.jpg?itok=7FODMpYT" width="624" height="325" alt="" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p><strong>Negotiating in a Time of Rapidly Evolving Rates and Equipment</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Since the breakup of AT&amp;T in 1982, the U.S. telecom carrier landscape has evolved rapidly, sometimes in dramatic fashion. Familiar names have come and gone &ndash; MCI, WorldCom, Qwest, Cingular and Nextel, to name a few. Today, with CenturyLink acquiring Level 3, AT&amp;T completing its acquisition of Time Warner and Sprint looking to combine with T-Mobile, we see no signs of these changes slowing down.</p> <p>Meanwhile, telecom carriers have developed a new corporate mindset and are changing the ways they do business in order to maximize profits. Enterprise customers that have large or multiple contracts with these carriers need to be aware of three emerging trends that are impacting the <a href="http://outsourcemag.com/a-clear-understanding-of-outcome-based-contracts">contract negotiation</a> process: 1) technology changes; 2) changing mobile plan structures and equipment purchasing options; and 3) a drive for efficiency in contracts and billing platforms.</p> <p><strong>What&rsquo;s driving the trends?</strong></p> <p>Changes in technology are impacting customers&rsquo; sourcing and technology procurement decisions more than any other time in the last decade. Legacy technologies such as copper lines and Time Division Multiplexing-based (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-division_multiplexing" target="_blank">TDM</a>) services on the fixed side and 3G on the mobile side are being sunsetted. In their place, Ethernet and broadband are becoming the standard fixed access methods and 5G will soon become the latest evolution in the wireless space.</p> <p>These fundamental, structural network changes are fueling the rapid expansion of the use of cloud services. In addition, Software Defined Wide Area Networking (<a href="https://www.sdxcentral.com/sd-wan/definitions/software-defined-sdn-wan/" target="_blank">SD-WAN</a>) is emerging as the future of networking, offering central management of secure, dynamic, transport-agnostic networking. These transitions will continue to accelerate and put pressure on the negotiation process as both carrier and customer try to keep pace with their vision of where technology is going.</p> <p>On the mobile side, plan structures that, in the past, had focused on pooled minutes of use and unlimited data have moved to unlimited voice and text with data pooling. With T-Mobile, unlimited data options have moved back into the mix. Most U.S. mobile carriers have made international travel easier with options for international plans or daily pay-as-you-go rates that no longer break the bank. On the equipment front, T-Mobile has also moved the needle, helping to get carriers out of the device subsidization model and allowing the plan charges to reflect the unsubsidized structure. Each of these changes needs to be accounted for in the mobile contract negotiation process.</p> <p>The major carriers that grew through acquisition and inherited diverse billing systems and contract models have become more insistent on driving efficiencies by consolidating billing platforms, contracting and ordering systems. Smaller carrier support staffs shift more of the burden of ordering onto the customer. Understanding what a change in a contracting platform means &ndash; whether it is moving to the AT&amp;T Business Networks (ABN) with AT&amp;T or Verizon Rapid Delivery (VRD) with Verizon &ndash; and how that can drive savings or impact current services is an important part of the negotiation process as well.</p> <p><strong>Understanding Motivations in Negotiations</strong></p> <p>When it comes to <a href="http://outsourcemag.com/the-challenges-and-rewards-of-mobile-contract-negotiation" target="_blank">carrier negotiations</a>, the process can be lengthy and frustrating. Part of it is due to the process the carriers have implemented around contracts and renewals. The customer&rsquo;s day-to-day contact, the carrier account team, has little authority when it comes to the pricing provided. That authority comes from the contracts and pricing organization. While your account team works with pricing, each team and each member may have a very different perspective on the negotiation process.</p> <p>For the carrier account team, it means keeping the customer generally happy in order to keep revenues as high as possible &ndash; a difficult task in a market where competition and technology drive down pricing.&nbsp; The pricing and contracts groups have somewhat different motivations. They are primarily focused on margins and price points &ndash; ensuring that the deal is generally good for the carrier, ensuring that the approved pricing is as high as possible and doesn&rsquo;t go below levels previously established. Keep this in mind as you negotiate and, where possible, bring the contracts and pricing group into the process.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Key Leverage Points &ndash; Timing and Knowledge</strong></p> <p>There are several important factors in any telecom carrier negotiation. Foremost is establishing the right leverage. This involves timing, knowledge and choices. Timing is a key component of leverage. You don&rsquo;t want to enter into a negotiation too early or too late. If you still have a lot of time or commitment left on your current contract, the carrier isn&rsquo;t likely to be interested in opening up the agreement and writing down the rates unless: 1) you are offering them something they want, like new business, or 2) they are contractually obligated to conduct a negotiation mid-contract. At the same time, you don&rsquo;t want to wait until you are up against the contract end date before starting your negotiations. Negotiations take time and every month that goes by means lost savings. Waiting too long also can mean that the leverage shifts back to the carrier, with the possibility of the contract auto-renewing for a new term at your old rates or going to month-to-month with outrageously high rates.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>Knowledge is also a key component of maintaining the right leverage. This means understanding exactly what you use with the vendor, what it is costing you today and what it should be costing you in your new agreement. As a general rule, telecom pricing is declining across a broad spectrum of services, and the gap between leading-edge pricing and average pricing in the market remains wide (see chart below).&nbsp; Additionally, a strong rate in one category doesn&rsquo;t mean you have good rates across the board. You must understand the gap to market in each and every area of your spending.&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="" src="http://outsourcemag.com/sites/default/files/telecom_contract.png" /></p> <p><em>Image property of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tangoe.com">Tangoe</a></em><br />The Percentage Gap Between Market Leading Rates and Average Rates &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>(by year for various telecom products)</strong></p> <p>While you may think that the 10-percent pricing reduction your provider is offering you today sounds great, unless you get a benchmarking firm to provide you with current market benchmark data, or go through the time and expense of an RFP, you could be missing out on much more savings. (There are many reasons that an RFP doesn&rsquo;t guarantee you market pricing.)</p> <p>Choices are a key part of the leverage equation. If you are locked in with your current provider without an alternative provider or a solid secondary provider that you can turn to, your carrier will often feel safe and comfortable in making it more difficult to offer you the best rates. What is needed is a viable alternative provider along with contract flexibility to provide you with the options you need.</p> <p>Contract flexibility is determined by your commitment level, contract term, rate review language and business change provisions included within your agreement to name just a few of the key contract elements.&nbsp; Not all of the carrier offerings are equal, so establishing benchmarks for contract terms is also important to getting the best possible deal.&nbsp;</p> <p>Summarizing: With the continuing decline in TDM-based voice and data services, the increasing use of cloud, interest in SD-WAN as a networking alternative and 5G on the horizon for mobility services, keeping your options open and maintaining flexible, leading-edge contracts will be increasingly essential. Long-term agreements with the wrong provider could leave you locked in services or technology that doesn&rsquo;t work for you. Understanding the carrier&rsquo;s perspective and motivations, seeking benchmark or negotiation guidance and leveraging your position to negotiate the right deal can make a big difference.</p> <div> <div> <div id="_com_2" uage="JavaScript">&nbsp;</div> </div> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/negotiation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Negotiation</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/contract-construction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contract Construction</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/telecom" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Telecom</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Your Telecom Contracts Are Ending &amp;ndash; Now What? - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/headline-your-telecom-contracts-are-ending-now-what"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Fri, 06 Jul 2018 02:12:59 +0000 Eric Witt 1204 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/headline-your-telecom-contracts-are-ending-now-what#comments Adopt a “Two-in-a-Box” Partner for Efficient Outsourcing Governance https://www.futureofsourcing.com/adopt-a-two-in-a-box-partner-for-efficient-outsourcing-governance <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/FOS%20Digital_Kate%20Vitasek_Slider%20Graphic%20%281%29%20%281%29_62.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/FOS%20Digital_Kate%20Vitasek_Slider%20Graphic%20%281%29%20%281%29_62.png" title="Adopt a “Two-in-a-Box” Partner for Efficient Outsourcing Governance" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1135-MAdiZJj3hDU"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/FOS%20Digital_Kate%20Vitasek_Slider%20Graphic%20%281%29%20%281%29_62.png?itok=G_yS9bdN" width="624" height="325" alt="" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) is all the rage and for a good reason. Far too many &ldquo;strategic&rdquo; contracts have been developed (especially outsourcing contracts) that do not include sound SRM practices.&nbsp;</p> <p>It&rsquo;s good to see that virtually all of the major advisory firms are now incorporating solid governance frameworks into their contracts. Software companies are also making inroads, such as <a href="http://www.oldstlabs.com" target="_blank">Old St Labs</a> and <a href="https://www.sirionlabs.com" target="_blank">SirionLabs</a></p> <p>A good relationship management structure creates joint policies that emphasize the importance of building collaborative working relationships, attitudes and behaviors. The parties monitor the agreement within the framework of a flexible governance structure that provides top-to-bottom and peer-to-peer insights into what is happening, including risks. The more strategic the relationship, the more formal the <a href="http://outsourcemag.com/qa-jamie-ogilvie-smals-gep" target="_blank">SRM</a> efforts should be.&nbsp;</p> <p>Conventional thinking is to have a &ldquo;single point of contact&rdquo; with a vendor account manager and a client engagement manager as the key contacts. Our research shows the most successful deals move away from this to what is often referred to as a &ldquo;reverse bow tie&rdquo; or a &ldquo;two-in-a-box&rdquo; concept. Two in a box is a term used to describe how organizations work together/collaborate as they govern/manage aspects of the business. This includes having peer-to-peer relationships at multiple levels. It&rsquo;s an important part of what is referred to as a tiered management structure.&nbsp;</p> <p><em><a href="http://www.vestedway.com/the-vested-outsourcing-manual/" target="_blank">The Vested Outsourcing Manual</a></em> advocates for the creation of a tiered management structure with peer-to-peer alignment. A tiered management structure is a fairly easy concept to grasp and virtually all SRM methods advise the use of a tiered structure. The tiered framework commonly involves three levels and helps the parties attain vertical alignment:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li><strong>Executive Level--</strong>which provides overall sponsorship vision and goals for the buyer-supplier relationship. The executive level also makes decisions related to escalated issues. (Usually meets quarterly &ndash; but no less than annually.)</li> <li><strong>Management Level--</strong>which provides direction on service delivery, monitors service quality and the progress of the outsourcing relationship, scope of work and innovation priorities. (Usually meets monthly &ndash; but no less than quarterly)</li> <li><strong>Operational Level--</strong>which oversees the day-to-day operations at each location at the peer-to-peer level. (Usually meets weekly, but can meet daily based on the nature of the work)&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p>Equally important to having tiers, is to make sure your governance structure has horizontal&mdash;or peer to peer&mdash;alignment. This is done by establishing two-in-a-box communications protocols. Two-in-a-box peers at the company and the supplier are accountable for success, together.&nbsp;</p> <p>It is also often depicted as a &ldquo;reverse bow tie&rdquo; because communications exchanges are designed to be direct in nature, allowing box mates to work in a more collaborative and streamlined manner.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Creating Horizontal Alignment&nbsp;</strong></p> <p><img class="WACImage SCXW13946576" src="data:image/png;base64,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" style="margin: 1px; padding: 2px; -webkit-user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; border-style: none; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; width: 291px; height: 134px; white-space: pre !important; -webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important;" unselectable="on" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>A properly implemented two-in-a-box approach creates an environment for highly collaborative interaction. It improves the flow of information in a timely fashion.&nbsp;</p> <p>Problems, and ideas for improvement, are vetted together with your box mate. And when box mates don&rsquo;t see eye to eye, they should escalate together to the next tier in the governance structure in a timely manner. In this setup, the best organizations adopt a &ldquo;no blame&rdquo; mindset and encourage a quick resolution and timely escalation if needed.&nbsp;</p> <p>For those who are beginning to implement SRM practices, note that it&rsquo;s not necessarily thinking outside the box that matters, but rather communicating and aligning collaboratively with your box mate!&nbsp;</p> <p>For far too many companies, thinking about how to manage a deal is an afterthought. P&amp;G and JLL decided it was important to design governance into the agreement itself &ndash; in essence, contractually obligating the firms to manage the business, changes and relationship in a proactive manner.&nbsp;</p> <p>One of the most important aspects of the P&amp;G and JLL governance structure is that the companies live (and manage) the business following the Vested &ldquo;Win-Win&rdquo; philosophy. They do this with a two-in-a-box approach that identifies both a P&amp;G person and a JLL person as owners of a core process. JLL is not successful unless P&amp;G is successful and vice versa.&nbsp;</p> <p>Shared goals are consistent across the relationship. Two in a box encourages communication at the process level and assures that business plans and action plans are aligned between P&amp;G and JLL. &quot;It&rsquo;s our role at P&amp;G to support our JLL counterparts &ndash;not to duplicate their work or micromanage them. When JLL succeeds, we succeed,&quot; explains Lydia Jacobs-Horton, P&amp;G Global Business Services Director, Global Facilities and Real Estate.&nbsp;</p> <p>Inspired to achieve Win-Win, two in a box has the potential to be functionally Lose-Lose. That is, if one partner in the box fails, so does the other. Shared function. Shared win. Shared disgrace. It motivates folks to do everything possible to enable their box mate to succeed.&nbsp;</p> <p>The more strategic the relationship, the more formal the SRM efforts should be.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supplier-relationship-management-srm" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/governance" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Governance</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/software" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Software</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/peer-to-peer-p2p" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Peer-to-Peer (P2P)</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Adopt a &amp;ldquo;Two-in-a-Box&amp;rdquo; Partner for Efficient Outsourcing Governance - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/adopt-a-two-in-a-box-partner-for-efficient-outsourcing-governance"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Fri, 06 Apr 2018 15:41:09 +0000 Kate Vitasek 1135 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/adopt-a-two-in-a-box-partner-for-efficient-outsourcing-governance#comments Life Lessons: Ravichandran Venkataraman https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/788 <div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/node/646">Life Lessons: Kit Cox</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/node/642">Life Lessons: Gautam Singh</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/node/838">Life Lessons: Peter Dickinson</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><a data-mce-="" href="https://in.linkedin.com/in/aliveconsulting" target="_blank">Ravichandran Venkataraman</a>&nbsp;is the Founder of Alive Consulting and a former Senior VP and Head of Global Business Services for HP - as well as<a data-mce-="" href="http://outsourcemag.com/author/ravichandran-venkataraman/" target="_blank">&nbsp;a long-time columnist for Outsource</a>. Who better, then, to launch our new Life Lessons interview series: set questions aimed at bringing out learnings from the careers of professionals in the sourcing, outsourcing and business transformation community for our readers&#39; enlightenment and entertainment? Over to you, Ravi...</p> <hr /> <p><em>What has been the single most significant development to impact your profession or area of business during your career, and why?</em></p> <p>Technology and the maturing of workflows. It was workflow engines that enabled the outsourcing or offshoring business to go global in the late &#39;90s and early part of 2000. Till then, organisations were more regional with lots of documents flying around: only courier companies raked in the money. As technology improved and intelligent workflows that could take images and approvals around the globe took shape, it became easy to globalise. The disruptor for these courier companies was actually workflow engines! The importance of this was that it taught everyone that &quot;Economics is a great leveler&quot; - it took jobs from high-cost countries to low-cost ones but it also created significant possibilities for high-cost countries. For example, while we created so many jobs in India, these Indian offices had items from toilet paper to water to stationery to carpets to furniture to computing and telecom equipment all imported from various countries. I would jokingly say that at my office, only the human beings were Indian. Everything else came from some other part of the world.</p> <p><em>Similarly, what one factor has most profoundly changed the way you personally work since your first day in your first job?</em></p> <p>From Day 1 at my first job, I have always set my targets for the year. It was always ambitious and I tried my best to be better than what I was the previous year. Never once has my manager set targets for me in my entire career spanning 30+ years.</p> <p><em>What&rsquo;s the biggest challenge facing your industry today &ndash; and how would you solve it?</em></p> <p>Though I am not working for any company in the outsourcing/offshoring division, I do consult in that segment. The biggest challenge facing the industry (and has always been facing this industry) has been how to drive change within an organisation when it comes to outsourcing or offshoring. I have seen the pendulum swing wildly depending on who leads the organisation - from terrific support to absolutely none. It is not easy to solve. However, one solution that comes to mind is that the resistance to change comes from &quot;Loss of job&quot; and &quot;Reduction in the dimension of the role&quot;. For the former, what has worked for me is to give ample notice to staff and to help them find other opportunities, to re-skill them so that they can take on other opportunities. I remember that when I set up a fund to re-train, someone in my team actually took the opportunity to become a hair stylist and set up her own shop and is flourishing now! As regards the latter, let us examine it with an example. Say the organisation is asking a Vice President (VP) to offshore a part of her/his team. The VP says &quot;fine&quot; and does it. The VP knows that her/his role is at a VP level because s/he manages a budget of $xx or revenue of $xx and has so many headcount under him/her. If either of these dimensions reduce, the organisation then asks the question as to why that role should be at a VP level. Now, if the organisation does not address this, why would that VP support outsourcing/offshoring? To drive change, organisations must not only talk of benefits, but also address these two aspects.</p> <p><em>Who has been the most influential figure in your professional life, and why?</em></p> <p>Two individuals at HP come to mind for me. One is Bob Shultz. To me, he is the guru of offshoring. What he taught me in 2000-2003 still stands as some of the best things I learnt about this industry. He was able to see how this industry would take shape over the next 15 years. An amazing visionary. The other person is Juergen Reiners. He was one of the best leaders as regards execution excellence. He could deliver any crazy vision of Bob and it would get done with German precision. Juergen also taught me how to hire the right person - he took calculated risks and focused on attitude rather than just past experience.</p> <p><em>What&rsquo;s the biggest mistake, work-wise, you&rsquo;ve ever seen &ndash; and what were the consequences?</em></p> <p>Whilst I have seen few blunders made by others, I will focus on the biggest mistake I made. There was a time when things were going phenomenally well for me at work. I was seen as a superstar and there came a time when the organisation asked me to do two roles. These were full-time roles in their own right and I got carried away by the tag &quot;Top Talent&quot;. In fact, I was doing&nbsp;<em>three</em>&nbsp;roles at that time. The needs of each role pulled me all over the place and there came a time when I had to be in two different countries to do justice to the roles. It not only killed my performance but also taught me an amazing lesson that however great a talent you are at work, there are limits and you need to recognise those. I started failing in one of the roles and so I quickly gave up two roles and started focusing on only one of them. But, it took me six months to realise this and those six months were costly.</p> <p><em>What&rsquo;s the most awkward work-related conversation you&rsquo;re ever had?</em></p> <p>Honestly, none. We all get to work with the best of intentions and if everyone understands that and does not question intent, there are very few awkward conversations. But, one that could come close was when I stood in front of a team of 150+ in Sydney, Australia and told them that we are commencing offshoring and that some of them would lose their jobs a year later. After I finished talking, one lady asked me if I was making this talk so that I could wash away my sins. I knew I was doing my best to save some jobs, provide re-skilling budgets as well as get alternate jobs through out placements. But, I fully understood her position. She was in her 50s and if she was going to lose her job, it would put her in a very tight position. So, I did answer that question in front of 150+ staff in my team but it was not easy and at the end of it she was not convinced. But, the bright side was that the others appreciated the honest response I gave her. It actually turned the tide in my favour.</p> <p><em>What do you consider to be your greatest achievement career-wise?</em></p> <p>The ability to realise and understand that whatever position you reach, you are different from the seat that you occupy. The minute you are out of that seat, everyone sees you for the individual that you are and not the position. If you cannot differentiate yourself from the position, you will struggle to get out of that seat.</p> <p><em>What&rsquo;s your biggest (as-yet) unfulfilled ambition &ndash; and are you going to achieve it?</em></p> <p>In my professional career, I got to a level that I never even dreamt of in my wildest dreams. However, if I want to talk of something that I want to achieve it would be to take the not-for-profit social organisation that I work with to educate 100,000 rural children in India. We are only at 4,000+ today and have a long way to go... But, with the help of this universe, I am sure that we will get there.</p> <p><em>What three words do you think your colleagues and peers would use to describe you? And what three words would you use to describe them?</em></p> <p>Peers always saw me as a &quot;Good human being&quot;.&nbsp;My description would be &quot;Trustworthy all through&quot;.</p> <p><em>Finally, what piece of advice would you give your younger self at the very start of your career?</em></p> <p>Focus first on relationship building and then on &quot;process, transactions and achievements&quot;.</p> <hr /> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>Do you think you - or someone you know - would make a good subject for future instalments of Life Lessons? Contact the junior editor at <a href="mailto:hcorr@sig.org">hcorr@sig.org</a> for more information...</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Management</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/offshoring" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Offshoring</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-acquisition" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Acquisition</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/labor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Labor</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Life Lessons: Ravichandran Venkataraman - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/788"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div> Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:44:54 +0000 Ravichandran Venkataraman 788 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com Doing more with less https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/778 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Several times throughout my career, people have queried of me, &ldquo;How do you manage to get so much done?&rdquo; I think there are a few factors, working in concert, that have enabled me to get more done, often with less, and for less. Much of what I have done and done well, I give credit to my mentors throughout my life. Many of them did not know the high regard in which they were held by me, and others. True leaders do not do it for the praise, they do it because it is inherent to their character. If you need to get more accomplished, the following things I have learned through the years may help you to up your game too.</p> <p><strong>Early to bed, early to rise&hellip;</strong></p> <p>If we could all be Marines, it wouldn&rsquo;t be the Marines. But we all can learn some good lessons from the Marines. Back in the 1980s, there was a TV commercial for the Marines that stated, &ldquo;We get more done by 9:00am than most people accomplish in an entire day.&rdquo; Marines often start their day about 0430 (that is 4:30am for the civilian types). Some days we would start earlier, occasionally we start later (typically on Sundays). Though I ended my active duty service 20 years ago, I still wake up at 4:30am. Even if I fail to set my alarm, my &lsquo;body clock&rsquo; still wakes me within minutes of this time.</p> <p>Waking at this time gives me a little more time to get things done, often without interruption. It is also a great time for exercise, like we did regularly in the Marines, rain or shine or snow. Though, instead of leading a unit of the world&rsquo;s finest fighting force, now I run with my faithful four-legged friend. His body clock is set for this time also. If I should hit the snooze button, his wet nose will surely wake me. Getting up early enables me to exercise to get my blood circulating and endorphins flowing to face the day with a positive outlook. By exercising each morning, if I have an opportunity to be active later in the day, that&rsquo;s a bonus. But at least I met my daily requirement at the start of the day. It also gives me time to eat breakfast, make my bed and clean up around the house. I find it more mentally relaxing to live in clean surroundings. It gives me time to check my email, pay bills, read, and even run some errands (post office, grocery shopping, fueling my car, etc). It provides me the opportunity to organise and prioritise what I need to get done each day. Turns out Ben Franklin was right.</p> <p><strong>&#39;Semper Paratus&#39;</strong></p> <p>Okay, that&rsquo;s the motto for the United States Coast Guard, but it is still good advice. In the business world, being prepared today started with preparing yesterday. Earlier in my career, as the owner of a successful executive search franchise, it was standard operating procedure in our office to prepare and print your call plan for the next day before you shut down and go home. This ensured that the next morning, if for any reason you could not access your files online, you could still do your job. As fate would have it, a few times each year, we would have a power outage, or construction in our building, and our servers or the internet would be inaccessible. We also maintained a clean desk policy. You are ready to leave when your work for the day is done, activity recorded, call plan printed and your daily &lsquo;To Do&#39; list was updated, so the next morning, when you came to work, you were ready to work&hellip;to be productive. A clean desk policy also gives one peace of mind that when you go home, there is not the leftover burden of today waiting for you in addition to what you need to do tomorrow. This also helps you to face the new workday with a positive attitude that what needs to be done today is achievable. This discipline enabled our franchise to be ranked among the top 10 of more than 220 Global Recruiters Network franchises worldwide.</p> <p><strong>&#39;To Do&#39; lists</strong></p> <p>Making a &lsquo;To Do&#39; list was a habit I started in my teenage years and I still do it today. I found it was a way to bring focus to my life, both short-term and long-term. It enabled me to make the most of the time I have available to me each day, each week, and each year. I even went so far as to write down the things I want to do, be or accomplish in my life, and updated this list each year. On a personal level, I maintain focus on my weekly &lsquo;To Do&#39; lists by limiting them to what can comfortably fit on a 3x5 index card. This size also enables me to keep it in my wallet. My daily &lsquo;To Do&#39; list is broken down to specific tasks that need to be done for larger items that may take days or weeks to accomplish. This ensures progress is made every day&hellip;even the yucky or mundane things I want to postpone.</p> <p>I decided to manage my life this way as a result of mentoring I received from a lifelong friend and mentor, Jack Crabtree. Jack was the head of Campus Life, a division of Youth for Christ International on Long Island. As a youth minister, Jack helped to shape, even transform, the lives of countless young people as they wrestled with the challenges of growing up during their turbulent high school years. Long before &lsquo;time management&rsquo; was in vogue business school speak, Jack was teaching legions of youth how to make better and more complete use of their time.</p> <p>So let&rsquo;s start with a 24-hour day&hellip;and break it down in 15-minute increments. We can devote eight hours each day to sleeping&hellip;leaving us with 16 hours per day of useable time. Let&rsquo;s say we need to make and eat three meals each day for one hour per meal&hellip;that leaves us with 13 hours in the day. Subtract another one hour each day for exercise&hellip;and we have 12 hours left each day. For working adults, we can subtract another eight hours each day&hellip;for five days a week. Each of those eight hours at work should have productive activities assigned against them. That still leaves four hours each weekday as &ldquo;free time&rdquo;. Maybe twice a week you volunteer your time, or go to the dog park, or practice golf at the driving range. By adding a certain degree of structure to your life, every day, you will soon find you have the time needed to do more than those who have no structure in their lives. Conversely, for those who are unemployed, follow this same methodology and you will find employment sooner than those who do not maximise their job search time each day.</p> <p><strong>Back to the basics</strong></p> <p>As we grow in our careers and advance, in some cases, into management positions, we can at times become content and complacent, slowly separated from the day-to-day hard work of what it takes each day to deliver the desired results. Even worse is when people are promoted to positions with responsibility for managing people for whom they have no first-hand knowledge of the roles of everyone reporting to them.</p> <p>Recalling my training as a US Marine, everyone is cross-trained to be able to perform the roles of others on the team. The gun crews in my M198 howitzer battery would routinely practice by switching roles to ensure we could effectively accomplish our mission if circumstances prevented us from having a full crew, or if manpower shortages required us to consolidate. As officers, we too performed every role too. Having been an enlisted Marine before I became an officer earned me the respect of the Marines I had the honour to lead. They knew without question, that I knew what it was like to be one of them. As Marine officers, we are cross-trained in the same manner so we can perform the roles of those serving under us, as well as those serving alongside of us.</p> <p>Later in my career, when I owned a successful executive search franchise, not every day, week or month was smooth. It was about as smooth as chunky peanut butter. During those times when things are going well, it is easy to get a little lazy and not do some of the things that are tedious, mundane, time-consuming, or otherwise undesirable. But that is like ignoring the requirement to change the oil in your car. When conducting performance reviews, there would be times when my top performers would find themselves going from being &lsquo;in the groove&rsquo; to being &lsquo;in a rut&rsquo;. After discussing the individual circumstances, I would pose this question to them: &ldquo;Are you doing now what you did when you were most successful?&rdquo; After some discussion and introspection on their part, they came to the honest self-admission that the answer was clearly, &ldquo;no&rdquo;. Getting back to the basics was needed. But this time, I reinforced for them the need to stay on top of the basics. As an owner-manager, I also worked a full recruiting desk, and used my performance each day to lead by example.</p> <p><strong>Everything cannot be a #1 priority</strong></p> <p>While this relates to making a &#39;To Do&#39; list, it differs in that the &#39;To Do&#39; list normally does not prioritise what needs to get done. When it comes to business, being able to properly prioritise is an essential skill. You cannot get everything done just by sheer force of will. Some activities have dependencies, so getting things done in sequence is essential. When building a home, you don&rsquo;t pour the foundation before you lay the pipes.</p> <p>One challenge in this regard is when it comes to marketing. For some strange reason, most companies for whom I worked or consulted invariably want to focus, unknowingly, on the high expense/low ROI tactical marketing initiatives. They focus incessantly on the tactical and tangible forms of marketing because they can see it and touch it and therefore feel they can measure it. Often these &lsquo;results&rsquo; can be achieved in a relatively short time, which is also attractive. While there is some truth to this premise, the unfortunate truth is the ROI will be lower than other forms of marketing that cost less, and because of their intangible nature they can be harder to measure, and often take longer to see a result.</p> <p>Stephen Covey, in his bestselling book,&nbsp;<em>Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,</em>&nbsp;uses a 2x2 graph to aid in prioritising activities. I will not go into it at length here as he rightly spent an entire chapter to the topic&hellip;and says it far better than I ever will. But to focus on the &lsquo;Important and Urgent&rsquo; activities and putting everything into that category is non-stop fire fighting. Similarly, focusing a disproportionate effort on &lsquo;Urgent and Not Important&rsquo; activities is to get mired in busy work that adds no value but creates the illusion of progress. Focus more time on activities that are: &lsquo;Important and Not Urgent&rsquo; for higher ROI and greater business value. If you have a lot of activities in the &lsquo;Not Urgent and Not Important&rsquo; box, then you need to question the role itself and how it is valued by the company.</p> <p><strong>Be a voracious learner</strong></p> <p>Having reviewed several thousand resumes in my career, it would seem the older we get, the better we were. But high performers know they must always improve. Learning is constant. They embrace learning and do not fear trying new things. Sir Richard Branson is a great role model in this regard. Try new things. Meet new people. Travel to different places&hellip;truly different. By exposing yourself to new things, you will see new opportunities and approaches. You won&rsquo;t always be right. But that&rsquo;s okay. When leaders stumble and fall&hellip;they fall forward.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/strategy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Strategy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/human-resources-hr-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Human Resources ( HR)</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/leadership" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Leadership</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/training" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Training</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Doing more with less - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/778"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div> Fri, 02 Sep 2016 12:58:02 +0000 Thom Mead 778 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/778#comments Three steps to help IT leaders make better business decisions https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/772 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Faced with a seemingly endless cycle of disruptive technology and increasingly inflexible budgets, IT executives have their work cut out when it comes to making decisions about how to improve operations and meet demanding business needs without driving costs up. Today&#39;s heavy-handed drive for cost savings necessitates that IT services are demonstrably aligned with business priorities. Leaders must be able to show definitive and traceable correlations between IT spend and the business. Yet the speed at which modern IT is expected to respond to new innovations often leads to data collection and analytics being deprioritised, creating a vacuum of insight into the business value of investments. We know this because, when asked to report the costs and performances of their products and services, IT leaders flounder.</p> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">For too many years IT management has been stuck on a treadmill. Any progress on cost reductions has been outweighed by increased consumption and bespoke requirement costs. The challenges associated with delivering improved business alignment, reducing build-up of technical debt and leveraging emerging services are well documented:</p> <ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.714285714; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">Organisations lack transparency into IT usage.</li> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">Businesses have no incentive for business units to reduce consumption.</li> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">Business units act independently and have unique requirements.</li> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">IT accommodates bespoke requests rather than leveraging standard services and economies of scale.</li> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">Cost-saving initiatives focus on &lsquo;how&rsquo; services are delivered rather than what is delivered and how it is consumed.</li> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">IT has no influence over bespoke business processes that require unique tooling functionality and increase IT costs.</li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">There are a number of tools that can help organisations overcome these challenges and move towards best practice. Technology business management (TBM) is one of these tools, which can provide improved, automated reporting based on consistent and agreed sources of truth, ensuring that IT leaders are able to understand, compare and analyse costs and usage in infrastructure, applications and services throughout the IT supply chain. This provides the foundation from which to quantify the impact of future investments, make informed decisions and effectively communicate the value of any changes with business partners.</p> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">A thoughtful and realistic approach to implementing a tool such as TBM can be the catalyst to drive the organisational change necessary for IT to move from defending cost to demonstrating value. However, like anything, it is important to take the time to understand how TBM could work in practice for your business to get the full benefit. Before embarking upon a TBM journey, IT leaders should review the following steps.</p> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><em>1. Analyse your need.</em>&nbsp;Many organisations already run components of TBM within their control and finance functions, yet this often doesn&rsquo;t translate into a true end-to-end view of IT. To determine the need for TBM, businesses should ask:</p> <ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.714285714; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">Do we have a transparent, end-to-end connection between finances, applications and services within a common taxonomy?</li> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">Can we measure our value and demonstrate our credibility as a supplier to the business?</li> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">Can we quickly and easily generate standard reports and analytics that support our decision-making process?</li> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">Can we engage in a meaningful dialogue with the business on the consumption of IT and where/how greater value can be extracted?</li> <li style="margin-left: 1.714285714rem;">Do we know where to create distinct, client-bespoke solutions and how to fund more innovation?</li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">These functions are vital for driving improvements in cost and service and demonstrating business value. If the majority of your answers were &quot;no&quot;, you have identified a gap in operations that should be plugged.</p> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><em>2. Get to know what TBM can and cannot do.</em>&nbsp;Having identified your broad need, you&rsquo;ll need to do your research. TBM covers a broad church and touches upon the building of service catalogues, rationalising technology portfolios, defining and sourcing the IT supply chain, and understanding and managing demand. Once you understand in the abstract what TBM can do, you&rsquo;ll begin to spot a whole host of places and ways in which it could help your business.</p> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">However, it is important to stay focused on the needs of your individual business. At its heart TBM&rsquo;s focus is on financial transparency employing a standard taxonomy delivered through software. Take advantage of the aspects of TBM that are relevant to you, but ensure you address the areas of change not covered by TBM, for example how adoption and usage is driven outside of the IT Finance function.</p> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><em>3. Explore different ways of implementing TBM in your organisation.</em>&nbsp;TBM is a path to a performance-based culture for companies that seek continuous improvement and want to drive a more commercial approach to delivering IT Services. As such, it requires full buy-in from a variety of stakeholders across an organisation and it is important to understand which pieces of TBM are relevant at different times and for various stakeholders. Every organisation is different and as such requires a bespoke plan for implementation.</p> <p style="line-height: 1.714285714; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.714285714rem; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Implementing TBM will require research, consultation and collaboration across departments. However, once in place, your organisation will reap the rewards. After all, the point is to translate the data into faster, better decision-making, making it central to helping businesses move forwards &ndash; as well as in the right direction &ndash; with transformative results.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/business-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Business Management</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/innovation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Innovation</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/automation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Automation</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/communication" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Communication</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Three steps to help IT leaders make better business decisions - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/772"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div> Mon, 22 Aug 2016 13:05:57 +0000 Nigel Hughes 772 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com Contracting for multi-supplier DevOps https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/748 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><em>Just when multi-supplier (also known as SIAM) contracting is starting to get under control, DevOps emerges. This article looks at the interaction of the two for the design of retained and sourced IT operations. The implications for service contracts are profound and largely un-tested.</em></p> <p>The pages of management journals have been liberally sprinkled with fads for many decades. Some react with naive credulity; instantly tacking from one to another as each article appears in the press. Others ignore all trends and emerging thought, dismissing all as fluff and yesterday&rsquo;s news. The smart look for the essence of new tools, seeking to understand which are applicable where to deliver what. If these match their strategies and visions, they are pursued. If not, they are passed over. In this spirit, this article regards multi-supplier operations and DevOps as approaches that are serious, fundamental and useful for some but not all organisations.</p> <p>In the period between the 1970s and 2010 contracts may generally be characterised as &ldquo;monolithic&rdquo;. A customer would have few, large, long-duration (10-15 year) contracts. Each would address a large element of their service requirement or even contract a whole class. There may be one IT supplier, a second buildings facility manager, a third processing Finance &amp; Accounting with HR. The interactions between these were light and few. The mode that the supplier chose to operate their service was its own internal affair, minimally disclosed to the customer and jealously guarded. The retained organisation withered and was ruthlessly cut to permit little beyond the approval of change and periodic performance review, which senior managers delegated wherever possible.</p> <p><strong>Multi-Supplier So Far</strong></p> <p>The growth of the cloud and the arrival of new service providers contributed to the emergence of a new model that engaged multiple suppliers and fragmented services between them. There needs to be a unifying function for services to operate effectively end-to-end and across suppliers, so the &ldquo;Service Integration and Management&rdquo; function (SIAM) was defined and implemented. This replaced the integrative function that had previously been supplied by the monolith. Sometimes elements of service integration are sourced, sometimes provided in-house: part of the skill is in drawing the boundary in a manner that is appropriate to the strategy and circumstance. The demands on the retained organisation were inevitably heavier than under monolithic contracting.</p> <p>Whilst the high-level model has many attractions, contractual and operational difficulties quickly emerged. Multiple modes of collaboration agreement, incentives and cross-supplier obligations were tested. Customers found it difficult to staff their functions and differentiate between dispensable overhead and essential oversight. The result has too often been a dog with rubber teeth. The CIO ordered a highly-trained Alsatian; the organisation delivered a Chihuahua with a high-pitched yap and nasty suck. Impotence flows not from a weakness of the model, but from neglect of critical factors. These include robust and attentive governance; clear and enforced architectural standards; consistent and applied operating processes and roles; attentive financial, service and contractual management. These are a part of the price for making SIAM work. If you are not prepared to attend to these, you may do better with a monolithic contract. Do not even think of in-sourcing if the ability to divert management attention is your driver.</p> <p>It has long been known that multi-supplier operation is heavily dependent upon effective collaboration between suppliers. In years gone by, the UK trades unions practiced &ldquo;work to rule&rdquo; as a superbly effective way of inflicting destructive effect. Customers did not have to mediate in the days of monolithic contracts, or were trained over years of glacial performance to expect months and multiple revisions to effect the simplest of changes across organisational boundaries. In these times of digital clock-speed and fickle customers, such practice is incompatible with market success. There are well-established service providers who have grown wizened and ugly in protected markets. Some such providers cannot be trusted to cooperate. This is so central to effective performance that it has to be weighted heavily in supplier selection, including assessment of incumbent performance. Get this wrong and marketing will simply continue to ignore IT in buying shadow services without any control or economy.</p> <p>The leading customers and suppliers are just now getting to grips with multi-supplier operations and service integration. Some of the contracts formed appear to be sensible and if the operational difficulties and critical factors are not yet performing, there is some hope that eventually they will. Attempts to define what should be done to support integration have diminished, sometimes being no more than obligations to exchange data, work to common process and sign up to non-contractual Operating Level Agreements. What then is this DevOps fad?</p> <p><strong>What is DevOps?</strong></p> <p>&ldquo;DevOps (a clipped compound of &lsquo;development&rsquo; and &lsquo;operations&rsquo;) is a culture, movement or practice that emphasises the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information technology (IT) professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes. It aims at establishing a culture and environment where building, testing, and releasing software can happen rapidly, frequently, and more reliably.&rdquo;&nbsp;<em>(Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps</a>)</em></p> <p>DevOps is a perspective, an approach. You cannot buy it, but you can do things in a DevOps way. Some describe it as the application of lean and quality techniques to IT. DevOps proponents hold that IT suffers from many of the failings that bedevilled engineering and manufacturing; ineffective hand-overs between design and production; repeated re-work; testing in unrepresentative environments; bottlenecks that are overloaded whilst other resources lie idle; inconsistent manual operations where automation could be applied. Many similar techniques can be brought to IT that were first developed for manufacturing/engineering.</p> <p>DevOps seeks to accelerate the capture of value across the end-to-end delivery lifecycle. As such, it roots-out delay, ineffectiveness and waste. A strong feature is unceasing and energetic focus on operational analytics and the application of automation. There are few that would object to such a proposition. What has changed to make it possible is the widespread availability of tools and environments that allow the dream to be realised in action. The warning that all readers should heed is that practice is evolving at such a pace that everything should be regarded as unstable. If you seek to draft reliable contracts in such an environment, this is a nightmare. As in any emerging market, there is real insight and progress, there is also re-branding the old with a dusting of creative terminology. Beware the charlatan.</p> <p><strong>Contracting for DevOps Delivery</strong></p> <p>There has been little written on this subject that has come to my attention. If you have examples, please share.</p> <p>At the time of the emergence of the SIAM model, it was notable that the leading outsource suppliers studiously avoided the role of Service Integrator. The fear was that as the SIAM had to hold tower suppliers to account, demanding independence, this left the SIAM supplier with the integration risk (and associated penalty) without the juicy revenues that come from the much larger towers. With DevOps the picture moves on. Several large integrators have developed cloud brokerage services and have packaged associated tooling as a service. They will host the marketplace for your infrastructure, allowing you to fulfil from multiple cloud providers. You can also engage multiple applications development and maintenance suppliers, all of whom use the same cloud brokerage services. The contracts for services are simple, being pass-through of associated infrastructure charges with a defined mark-up and a fairly short minimal engagement. The real prize for the supplier is often capturing Applications Development &amp; Maintenance work.</p> <p>For some customers, engaging such a supplier is an answer to prayer. Having looked at the tooling required, stitching it together rapidly emerges as a very difficult, time-consuming and expensive activity. Those who have got as far as exploring the ability to resource the delivery project find it desperately difficult. Tool developers with relevant experience, let alone the architects and service developers are rare and expensive. It would seem to make sense to use a portion of a tried and tested platform under a SaaS contract, rather than build one. Where is the catch? For some, particularly seeking to avoid vendor lock-in, the role of cloud broker and DevOps integrator is so strategic that they would never outsource it. The early and famous proponents of DevOps (Google, Facebook, Amazon) regard their systems development capability as a source of competitive advantage to be controlled and owned in its entirety. They may consider a build-operate-transfer contract whereby a service provider is engaged to construct a captive (in-sourced) operation faster than it could be built.</p> <p>The effective application of DevOps demands the tight integration of many elements over multiple organisations, spanning the service lifecycle and every party involved in delivery. Such tight integration is hard to achieve, harder to maintain, and immensely disruptive to replace. Integration is hard to do, harder to measure and difficult to contract for. It requires an effective working environment and set of relationships. Trust is essential. DevOps is currently changing so rapidly that if you have contractual certainty on the day of signature, you have an inoperable straight-jacket a week later. Think Agile without a well-developed Scrum approach. Getting the governance and coordination model right will be challenging and will require a contractual annex defining the current architectural, tooling, data interchange and operational methods. This will change frequently and sometimes fundamentally. This can only ever be done under revision control, accepting that there will be costs of change. The salvation is that if you have multiple suppliers, the costs of change should be broadly similar for all within a category. Those seeking to exploit change will therefore be quickly identifiable.</p> <p>The implementation of DevOps requires an extensive range of skills and disciplines all at once. Such transformation is challenging to achieve in any environment. Some start with tooling, only to discover that whilst necessary, this is far from sufficient and can lead to some dangerous weaknesses. You should be led by your strategy and business requirements, assembling services to support them and deliver these through tooling, contracts, processes, skills and staff. Get a good guide!</p> <p>The prizes that make the application of DevOps worth pursuing include:</p> <ul style="list-style-type:square;"> <li>The ability to accelerate the introduction of new functionality (combined with Agile, expect release schedules to go from months to days or even hours)</li> <li>Reduced operation support costs from automation (NoOps is an emerging line of practice)</li> <li>Increased application availability resulting from higher quality automated service testing and migration</li> <li>Increased commercial effectiveness from the ability to switch suppliers.</li> </ul> <p>Of these, the key element is that of competing on time. The greatest take-up is seen in digital-driven strategies where there is the requirement to make frequent and rapid releases to test and exploit consumer preference. Some CIOs pursue it to exploit the cost advantages of automating work that requires highly paid systems administrators to do repetitive tasks.</p> <p>DevOps is not the one source of all IT truth. It does have much to offer. Building it is difficult, costly, time-consuming. It does however offer radical improvement in the time to deliver new functionality that is&nbsp;valuable&nbsp;for anyone who competes in a time-critical market. It may not immediately be cheaper, but ultimately the elimination of delay and rework should pay dividends on the cost and revenue side too.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/multi-sourcing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Multi sourcing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/contract" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contract</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/advisory" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Advisory</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/consulting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Consulting</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/strategy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Strategy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/transformation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Transformation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Contracting for multi-supplier DevOps - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/748"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Wed, 27 Jul 2016 14:44:32 +0000 William Hooper 748 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com Partners or pawns? (Part 1) https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/729 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>&ldquo;We are nothing more than a bunch of pawns on this outsourcing checker board,&rdquo; Jeanette said.</p> <p>&ldquo;I think you mean &lsquo;chessboard&rsquo;,&rdquo; I said smiling at her.</p> <p>&ldquo;You know damn well what I mean, Dean. Hey, that rhymes,&rdquo; Jeanette said, returning the smile.</p> <p>&ldquo;Sadly I do understand, and, from what you&rsquo;ve described, I have to agree with you.&rdquo;</p> <p>&ldquo;We have worked here for 13 years in a real partnership with the plant in good times when we were making engines seven days a week around the clock, and in bad times when we were lucky if we could keep one shift running,&rdquo; Jeanette stated, obviously agitated.</p> <p>The door to Jeanette&rsquo;s office opened and Alvin walked in. Alvin had been part of Jeanette&rsquo;s team for almost ten years. He was a real source of pride for Jeanette as she had hired him as a cleaner. Over the years he was promoted, and today he was the housekeeping manager responsible for the upkeep of all five plants within the facility.</p> <p>&ldquo;Hey Dean, where have you been hiding?&rdquo; Alvin asked, giving me a punch in the shoulder.</p> <p>&ldquo;Been pretty busy lately,&rdquo; I responded, getting up to shake his hand.</p> <p>&ldquo;Trying to straighten out those idiots in Detroit?&rdquo; Alvin asked, dropping some papers off on Jeanette&rsquo;s desk.</p> <p>&ldquo;Something like that,&rdquo; I said, sitting back down.</p> <p>&ldquo;Used to be the slaves were sold to the highest bidder. Today we&rsquo;re sold to the lowest bidder,&rdquo; Alvin muttered, shooting us a salute as he walked out the door.</p> <p>&ldquo;Wow, that&rsquo;s an awfully strong sentiment. Does everyone feel the same way?&rdquo; I asked Jeanette.</p> <p>&ldquo;Like I said earlier, we&rsquo;re pawns, and I&rsquo;d say Alvin speaks for how all the hundred-plus of us feel,&rdquo; Jeanette responded, not smiling at all this time.</p> <p>Jeanette worked for Wilkinson Solutions, an inside-outsourcing service provider who started providing housekeeping services to the engine plant thirteen years ago. Over the years Jeanette and her team work diligently to provide value-added services, and were especially responsive to taking on new challenges. Plant management referred to Jeanette and her team as one of the group. They had successfully become true partners, willing to take on additional services in an effort to keep the plant competitive as it struggled to stay open and competitively build engines. The plant was located in a small town, and was one of a handful of plants still open in the area. It was an important source of employment for a lot of people, including Jeanette and her team. Like many manufacturing plants in smaller towns, unions can be a true source of competitive advantage or disadvantage. Jeanette and her team worked with and alongside her UAW counterparts for the betterment of the plant. There were times of heated squabbles and disagreements, but under Jeanette&rsquo;s leadership her team always found ways to work in harmony alongside plant personnel.</p> <p>&ldquo;Jeanette, I think I have the general gist of what transpired over the past 12 months, but would you mind filling in the blanks?&rdquo; I asked.</p> <p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;re obviously aware of the initiative by Detroit to put the inside-outsourcing activities at all of their plants under the leadership of one company at each plant,&rdquo; she said.</p> <p>&ldquo;Very aware, and also very aware the initiative is not overly successful,&rdquo; I said, jotting down some notes.</p> <p>&ldquo;Exactly, and the plant management here was hopeful they would not have to adopt this new Detroit-driven model as they could not see the benefit for them.&rdquo;</p> <p>&ldquo;So what happened then?&rdquo;</p> <p>&ldquo;Easy. The plant lost and purchasing won,&rdquo; she stated.</p> <p>&ldquo;How can a company exist where manufacturing and purchasing have a win/lose relationship?&rdquo; I asked rhetorically.</p> <p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me. We don&rsquo;t get it, and the plant people here don&rsquo;t get it either. Dean, as you know, when we started we only performed housekeeping. Today we provide maintenance, grounds keeping, production support, engineering support&hellip; We are active in virtually every department of the plant.&rdquo;</p> <p>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t realise just how far your services had expanded in the plant,&rdquo; I said, looking up.</p> <p>&ldquo;Do you think the other departments would have given us opportunities if we were not performing? Not a chance, Dean. With every addition, we had to work with the union to ensure a good level of harmony while implementing our management systems,&rdquo; Jeanette stated flatly.</p> <p>&ldquo;Lot of work,&rdquo; I said.</p> <p>&ldquo;Yeah, and for what? To be sold out to the lowest bidder just like Alvin said. We all feel very unappreciated. We&rsquo;re pawns, not partners&rdquo;.</p> <p>Jeanette spent the next thirty minutes describing what they&rsquo;d experienced over the last 12 months. The process began in August of 2015 when purchasing out of Detroit announced the plant was going out for bid, and Wilkinson Solutions, Jeanette&rsquo;s company, would not be invited to participate in the bid as they were deemed incompetent. The battle began. The plant management team fought with Detroit to include Wilkinson, outlining the fact that they were successfully performing all of the duties outlined in the new bid and were fully integrated into the plant. After several rounds of debate, purchasing reluctantly agreed to allow Wilkinson to bid, more as a step to pacify the plant&rsquo;s management team and keep their initiative moving forward than anything else. Jeanette&rsquo;s team started to feel undervalued the minute purchasing refused to allow Wilkinson to bid. They could not grasp why they were excluded. After a decade of proven service, why was her team being pushed to the side lines, allowing other companies, who were all failing at other plants, to come to her plant and ruin all of her hard work?</p> <p>&ldquo;So after you were able to get included into the bidding process, what happened?&rdquo; I asked, taking notes to establish a bit of a time line to the story.</p> <p>&ldquo;In September of 2015 the bidding process began. Three bidders showed up at the plant to review the scope so they could prepare proposals,&rdquo; Jeanette said.</p> <p>&ldquo;How&rsquo;d that go?&rdquo; I asked.</p> <p>&ldquo;It was pretty much a cluster, and it was very obvious to all the service providers that purchasing did not know the scope of work. They struggled to answer even the most basic of questions,&rdquo; Jeanette said, smiling as she recalled the meeting.</p> <p>&ldquo;Then what?&rdquo;</p> <p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;re going to get a kick of of this next part. Purchasing got in all of the bids, then the service providers made presentations, and then it all stopped dead. Next thing we knew, our contract had been extended for six months,&rdquo; Jeanette said, still holding onto her smile.</p> <p>&ldquo;Why did the bidding process stop?&rdquo; I asked, my curiosity taking hold at this point.</p> <p>&ldquo;The discrepancies between the bids was so big, purchasing couldn&rsquo;t figure out one bid from another. We actually were getting calls from the other service providers to find out what we knew because they couldn&rsquo;t get a straight answer out of purchasing. It&rsquo;s like they all got back in to their space ships and went home to planet Detroit. You know they&rsquo;re really aliens don&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; Jeannette said, her smile broadening even more.</p> <p>The one thing that was becoming increasing apparent was that Jeanette&rsquo;s respect for purchasing had faded. Jeanette and her team felt under-valued, and had been put through a tremendous amount of stress for half a year only to end up in limbo. Her team members were very uncertain of their future, and their focus had moved from finding better ways to improve operations at the plant to worrying about whether they had a job or not. All of Jeanette&rsquo;s team had been solicited by the other service providers during the bidding process. The service providers had promised each of them a job if they were to be awarded the business. This just confused Jeanette and her team even more. If a new service provider was to hire her whole team, what&rsquo;s the point in making the change? They just couldn&rsquo;t shake the idiocy of the exercise.</p> <p>&ldquo;So if the bidding process was idled, how&rsquo;d did you end up losing the business?&rdquo; I asked.</p> <p>&ldquo;In their infinite wisdom, after rounds and rounds of debate with plant management who still didn&rsquo;t want to be involved in this initiative, purchasing started the entire process over again in March of 2016,&rdquo; Jeanette said, losing her smile.</p> <p>She went on to describe how three more rounds of bidding dragged on for another three months. At the end, purchasing had their winner and it wasn&rsquo;t Wilkinson Solutions. Jeanette, her team, and the plant were devastated. The new service provider was appointed and was given 30 days to transition the plant from Wilkinson Solutions to themselves. The first thing they did was start the process of hiring Jeanette and her team at lower wages and reduced benefits. By doing a bit of digging, Jeanette found out that the difference between Wilkinson&rsquo;s bid and the bid accepted by purchasing was only $200,000 dollars, roughly 4%. She then quickly tabulated the wage and benefit reductions the new service providers were implementing, and woke up to a terrifying conclusion. Jeanette and her team were going to be footing the bill for this change. The team that had given their hearts and souls to this plant was now going to have to take a wage and benefit reduction in order for the new service provider to make their cost model work. She was livid.</p> <p>&ldquo;Dean, you know what is even more frustrating?&rdquo; she asked, not smiling at all anymore.</p> <p>&ldquo;What?&rdquo;</p> <p>&ldquo;The new service provider would not accept any of our training records, so they&rsquo;ve eaten up hundreds of man hours re-certifying our teams, which has cost them thousands. Our team cannot understand why they need to go back and re-do what they&rsquo;ve already done, so they are demoralised. Last year our team submitted nearly $750,000 dollars in cost savings, better than ten per cent of our revenue. This year with all the crap we will be lucky if we submit $35,000. Why can&rsquo;t purchasing see they have not saved the plant money, but rather cost them almost a million dollars?&rdquo; she stated.</p> <p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know. Wish I did. Like you said earlier, they live on their own planet,&rdquo; I responded as the gravity of the situation hit me.</p> <p>&ldquo;Dean, I&rsquo;m at a loss as to what to do. Me and my team lived for this plant. It is one of the few good employers in our town, and we all care about our town. This pill, though, is tough to swallow. Like Alvin, I&rsquo;m struggling to get my head to a better place and see the big picture, but the more I see the big picture the more I realise it&rsquo;s not me who cannot see the big picture, it&rsquo;s purchasing. Their stupid, ill thought-out initiative has cost them more than they will ever recover. My team will never get fully back on board,&rdquo; she said, obviously feeling defeated.</p> <p>We sat for a few moments in silence. I didn&rsquo;t have one reasonable suggestion for Jeanette, who was obviously looking for direction or to wake up from this bad dream. Sadly, it was not a dream. Jeanette and her team, who were once proud members of Wilkinson Solutions, had been sold. Sadder to say, but Alvin was probably right.</p> <p><em>(To read the second part of this article,&nbsp;<a href="http://outsourcemag.com/partners-or-pawns-part-2/" target="_blank">click here</a>.)</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/engineering" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Engineering</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/facilities-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Facilities Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/human-resources-hr" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Human Resources (HR)</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/service-provider" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Service Provider</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/manufacturing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Manufacturing</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/sourcing-strategy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sourcing Strategy</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Partners or pawns? (Part 1) - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/729"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Wed, 13 Jul 2016 13:05:12 +0000 Damian Scallon 729 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com Brexit: a black swan with unexpected relevance for outsourcing contracts https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/728 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Europe is in turmoil after Great Britain&rsquo;s vote to leave the European Union. Those who now claim to know what will happen now &ndash; in outsourcing or in other areas &ndash; will make two big mistakes: First, they will show that they don&rsquo;t understand what Brexit is. Brexit is, to use the words of author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a &ldquo;black swan&rdquo;: an unexpected event with largely unforeseeable consequences, just like 9/11 or the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing. Second, they will simply be wrong. Since Brexit is a black swan, no one can truthfully claim that they know what will happen as a result of it. However, this state of confusion and uncertainty created by Brexit teaches us a critical lesson regarding outsourcing, especially regarding outsourcing contracts.</p> <p>Let me explain. The state of uncertainty created by Brexit is only apparently new. In reality, in the modern, complex, fast and global economy, we live in constant uncertainty. Black swans are everywhere and appear all the time, not least in outsourcing. The problem is that our mind tricks us into thinking that black swans do not exist. We falsely believe that we are good at planning and dealing with risks in contracts. Professor Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize-winner and author of the best seller&nbsp;<em>Thinking, Fast and Slow</em>, refers to this bias of our mind as the planning fallacy.</p> <p>Brexit therefore reminds us of the contracting paradox. Contracting is about planning for the future. But in the modern economy, we simply cannot make accurate plans when it comes to more complex deals like outsourcing. This is the paradox: we must plan but cannot make good plans. And ignore the fact that we can&rsquo;t.</p> <p>That we often fail to plan properly when writing contracts is all too obvious. Studies have shown the existence of massive value leakage from contracts in the form of budget overruns quality problems, penalties, dispute resolution costs etc. The International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) has estimated this value leakage to 9.2% of the company revenues, on average. Those are largely the costs of the contracting paradox.</p> <p>So should we give up trying to write robust outsourcing contracts? Is that what Brexit teaches us? No. Brexit teaches us to write other forms of contracts. Contracts which accept the fact that we cannot make accurate plans. The traditional, transactional, outsourcing contracts do not accept this and therefore suffers from severe value leakage.</p> <p>Outsourcing partners should abandon this contract form and instead use contract processes and forms that ensure trust-based relationships within which the deal can flexibly change, aligned interests, collaboration on risk assessment and mitigation, and a fair sharing of the costs of those unavoidable black swans. This is what relational contracting is largely about. Under a relational contract, the parties can carry out successful business while dealing with the uncertainty of the future. A number of studies show that relational contracts over-perform when compared to the transactional contract.</p> <p>So perhaps Brexit can be used for some good &ndash; in outsourcing contracts.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/brexit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Brexit</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/collaboration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Collaboration</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/contract" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contract</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/legal" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Legal</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Politics</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/relational" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Relational</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/outsourcing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Outsourcing</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Brexit: a black swan with unexpected relevance for outsourcing contracts - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/728"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Tue, 12 Jul 2016 13:08:36 +0000 David Frydlinger 728 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com Culture gaps in a shrinking world https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/944 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>In so many ways the business world is smaller and more accessible in the modern era &ndash; a place where even tiny online companies can trade globally, where people travel for work as a matter of routine and where businesses become international by outsourcing tasks across all seven continents.</p> <p>But with global business comes a new challenge: understanding cultural difference.&nbsp;It may feel like we have far more in common than in the past but the more you look into global business culture, the more apparent differences become &ndash; and the more obvious the impact these even small differences can have on working relationships.</p> <p>There&rsquo;s a rather English (and American) assumption that our culture is at the centre of the world and therefore everyone understands us. After all, most of them speak English, right?</p> <p>In fact, many other cultures find English culture and English ways of indirect communication very difficult to understand, and it can lead to miscommunication.</p> <p>That&rsquo;s a big problem because, ultimately, with third-party vendors and outsourcing, communication is the key to business success.</p> <p>The two most obvious disaster scenes are global conference calls and international meetings: the times when we all come together with a joint aim but with very different methods of getting there and very different and deep cultural influences that determine how we do it.</p> <p>We&rsquo;ve all as employees &ndash; at one time or another &ndash; had to take part in a conference call, which has subsequently been hampered by bad connections, background noise, cultural clashes and colleagues with different accents or varying levels of English. Not to mention the people who talk too much, too little, or never say a word!</p> <p>Following a global call you may well end up thinking &ldquo;Well that went as well as can be expected.&rdquo; However, is that really good enough for something so time intensive, especially when you take into consideration not just time spent on the call but also preparing for it?</p> <p>As someone who professionally coaches employees on coping with cultural differences and helps businesses succeed in global relations, I&rsquo;m often asked how to make global conference calls more productive.&nbsp;So we&rsquo;ve developed some tips to not only enable businesses to see conference calls as an opportunity to build global leadership skills, but also to deliver them successfully.</p> <p>The main thing to remember is there are two main aspects of global conference calls, which often overlap, but which are both critical to the time being spent productively.</p> <p>On the surface level there are all the obvious complications of people talking all at once and misunderstanding each other. But on a deeper level are the underlying reasons for misunderstandings: the cultural differences in the way we listen, interact and communicate. Failing to understand or accommodate those differences can make a call very difficult indeed.</p> <p>Just imagine a call between David and his team in the UK, Masako and her team in Japan and Gianni in Italy.&nbsp;Masako is finding it tough to keep up with the fast-paced English, who all feel under pressure to contribute to the call (even, perhaps, when they don&rsquo;t have something important to add).</p> <p>Meanwhile Masako&rsquo;s colleagues are waiting for their turn to speak &ndash; cultural conditioning prevents them butting in &ndash; but it never arrives. Back in the UK they are wondering why Masako&rsquo;s team don&rsquo;t say anything. Do they even have an opinion?</p> <p>Gianni, meanwhile, is talking lots &ndash; but isn&rsquo;t being understood. And, bogged down by British politeness and Japanese cultural reservation, nobody on the call is going to say so.</p> <p>It&rsquo;s a mess, right? And research shows, too, that just having global exposure is not enough to increase your global skills.</p> <p>So, here is a radical solution: see a global conference call as an opportunity. An opportunity to build your global leadership skills. Next time you have a call, choose just one specific skill from one of the two main aspects and plan an action step around it that you will carry out.</p> <p>Here are some suggestions:</p> <p><strong>1. Surface Level: Mechanics and Language</strong></p> <ul style="list-style-type:square;"> <li><em>Turn-Taking and Interrupting.</em>&nbsp;For example, if you are leading the call then perhaps set rules for turn taking. Make a rule for yourself not to interrupt.</li> <li><em>Clarifying and Confirming.</em>&nbsp;Make a point of asking if you have heard correctly; urge people to repeat complicated ideas and phrases.</li> <li><em>Understood?</em>&nbsp;Did you understand everything that was said? If not, do something about it. Acknowledge others so they know they have been understood and don&rsquo;t repeat themselves.</li> </ul> <p><strong>2. Deeper Level: Culture</strong></p> <ul style="list-style-type:square;"> <li><em>Use of Humour.</em>&nbsp;Find out how to use humour to bring people together. But be careful. British irony, word play and poking fun can be endearing &ndash; but can also be hard to understand and may even cause offence.</li> <li><em>Building Relationships.</em>&nbsp;Use the call to find out more about your colleagues and build relationships. Reveal something about yourself, perhaps. Ask people to introduce themselves.</li> <li><em>Building Credibility Across Cultures.</em>&nbsp;Share joint achievements, discuss how the previous call led to even small successes and improvements.</li> <li><em>Increasing your own Cultural Awareness.</em>&nbsp;Learn how different cultures work and take it into the next call.</li> </ul> <p>To deliver these improvements successfully I would offer these final tips:</p> <ol> <li>Keep action steps small and specific.</li> <li>Tell someone on the call ahead of time what you plan to do.</li> <li>Debrief with someone or write down a few key thoughts afterwards.</li> <li>Celebrate your successes &ndash; even if you just make it happen once on the call.</li> </ol> <p>Succeeding in global communication is all about building understanding &ndash; so make sure you plan your next step and stay curious about other people&rsquo;s influences and drivers.</p> <p>In a world which is shrinking all the time, understanding cultural differences and finding ways to communicate effectively are only going to become more and more important.</p> <p><strong>Cutural Tips for Brits</strong></p> <p>Here are some thoughts on how different nationalities may require different approaches from British professionals when in meetings or on conference calls.</p> <p><em>Germany</em><br />&bull; When giving feedback, be as direct as you can. Concentrate on what needs to be changed or improved and point that out. Instead of &lsquo;Perhaps you could consider&hellip;&rsquo; use something more direct such as &lsquo;Some of this is not right, please change xyz.&rsquo; As rude as that might sound for a Brit it isn&rsquo;t for a German. Still not convinced? Keep in mind that feedback which seems polite to a Brit might be both confusing and even seem dishonest to a German who values direct communication.<br />&bull; Be careful with using British humour. Germans use humour much more sparingly in professional situations. Also, British irony is often lost on Germans &ndash; and many other cultures for that matter! British people joke as a way to get someone on their side but sometimes they achieve the opposite when doing this abroad!</p> <p><em>Poland</em><br />&bull; Brits tend to aim on using first names too fast (or immediately) when speaking in Polish. Poles tend to be more formal and would like to be called Pan or Pani for quite some time. When speaking English, first names usage is more common but just remember to be a bit more formal initially than you would in the UK.<br />&bull; A big challenge is operating around the business calendar, which is somewhat shorter than that of the UK. Bank Holidays can often be on a Wednesday or Thursday and it is common for people to take a day or two before the holiday or even the whole week off. Always check for business holidays before planning a trip or a call and then check with who you want to meet to make sure they will be at work.</p> <p><em>Brazil</em><br />&bull; Brazilians tend to associate English-speaking people with the US, and might be a little confused when faced with a slightly with a different accent and sense of humour than they are expecting from an American.<br />&bull; Business meetings and calls are often scheduled about two weeks in advance. Also, make sure you reconfirm the meeting with a call or email a day or two before it is scheduled to take place.</p> <p><em>Panama</em><br />&bull; Panamanians do business with people, not companies. So a focus on building a network and maintaining relationships is key. This means finding ways to spending quality time with people when you visit and not just jumping to the task. Take time on a call, too, to get to know people.<br />&bull; In Panama the sense of time, urgency and deadlines can be very different than in the UK, so be very conservative in estimating how long it will take and how much it will cost to complete a project. This applies to large scale projects as well as a tasks you outsource or delegate.</p> <p><em>Indonesia&nbsp;</em><br />&bull; Indonesians may not hold back on some topics not often discussed or considered rude in the UK. These could include your weight, marital status, age and religion. Plan an answer you are comfortable with ahead of time on these topics.<br />&bull; If visiting Indonesia, you will almost certainly be offered snacks or tea at business meetings. It is good practice to wait for the host to drink (or eat) first or to specifically ask you to eat &ndash; before starting to drink.</p> <p><em>Hong Kong</em><br />&bull; Most communication, even if the person is in the cubicle or office next to you, will be done through a computer screen on an instant messages programme. Do not take it personally if people prefer an instant message or text to a phone call or face-to-face conversation.<br />&bull; Taking clients out for lunch is really important &ndash; a lot of locals are taking out clients to celebrate &lsquo;Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year&rsquo; in one meal. Going out for an informal drink after work as you would in the UK does not work well in Hong Kong. This would be seen as an official work event no matter how informal you want to make it.</p> <p><em>Australia</em><br />&bull; There&rsquo;s a more social approach to business in Australia. After meetings at the office are held it can continue socially at restaurants or pubs. Sometimes there may be even be personal invites to people&rsquo;s houses for BBQ&rsquo;s. This is just as important as the main meeting to build that relationship and get to know the client better. The same less formal approach can make conference calls fun &ndash; but don&rsquo;t fall into the trap of forgetting it&rsquo;s a business call.&nbsp;<em>Faux pas</em>&nbsp;are still possible.<br />&bull; Dress style is largely smart causal rather than full business suits. More conservative businesses will certainly still dress more formally but in many cases being &lsquo;overdressed&rsquo; will not be seen as a sign of respect as it might be in the UK.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/advisory" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Advisory</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/communication" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Communication</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/culture" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Culture</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/globalisation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Globalisation</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Culture gaps in a shrinking world - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/944"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Mon, 16 May 2016 19:23:33 +0000 Alyssa Bantle 944 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com