Outsourcing for Radical Change: A Bold Approach to Enterprise Transformation [Hardcover]

Jane C. Linder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2004

For years companies have outsourced service functions like IT and facilities management with an eye toward streamlining overall corporate efficiency But a new model - transformational outsourcing - can make big changes happen quickly throughout the organization by outsourcing not just support areas but core business functions. "Outsourcing for Radical Change", based on a major study by Accenture, reveals how this revolutionary operational model can transform an entire enterprise. With refreshing candor, the book presents startling successes (and a few notable failures) from major organizations in the U.S. and abroad.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

"Foreword by Thomas H. Davenport, coauthor, What's the Big Idea? and The Attention Economy

If you’re looking for a serious infusion of life-blood into your company, transformational outsourcing could be the answer. This new, bold approach is not just about handing off noncore functions in order to cut costs. It’s about transforming the entire operating model -- to boost a company’s stock price, increase its market share, or drive its profitability.

Take an organization like National Savings and Investments (NS&I) of Great Britain. It quickly transformed itself from an out-of-step, cumbersome, and ultimately failing institution into a lean, successful market leader in the financial services sector. And it achieved radical organizational change by employing the innovative process of transformational outsourcing.

Outsourcing for Radical Change supplies a detailed analysis of the transformation process that happened at NS&I, Thomas Cook, and others, as well as examples of companies that failed to align their transformation initiative with their strategic needs.

Based on a major study by Accenture and in-depth interviews by the author, this original, research-based book examines the entire process from a practical, real-world perspective: from selecting your ultimate goal, to mapping out a workable action plan, to navigating the often formidable challenges you’ll face on your quest for radical change. You’ll discover:

* 7 questions to help you determine if your business needs transformational outsourcing

* 0 essential leadership skills needed to spearhead a change effort

* 4 major ways that companies use outsourcing for transformation

* 3 critical components for successfully executing transformational outsourcing and building high-commitment relationships

* Guidelines for creating a working business model for fulfilling strategic goals

* Techniques to help minimize the turmoil of dislocating people

* Tips for measuring and rewarding success -- and recognizing and fixing failures

In the business world, major change efforts have an abysmally poor track record, with poor execution standing out as the major culprit. By comparison, transformational outsourcing has been highly successful in 17 out of the 20 companies tracked in this groundbreaking book. It brings larger, faster, and more lasting impacts than most people ever expect. And it can be your secret weapon in the struggle to survive and prosper in the 21st century.

Many companies use outsourcing for their backend operations. But few have tapped into the truly transformative power of outsourcing its major functions.

This groundbreaking book looks at the handful of companies that have led enterprise-wide strategic change efforts using transformational outsourcing. Executives have used it to start up new companies, drive growth, consolidate mature companies, and execute stunning strategic turnaround -- swiftly and successfully in the vast majority of cases. Find out if your company can benefit from this potent new tool!"

About the Author

Jane C. Linder is Research Director at Accenture Institute, where she also facilitates workshops and speaks on important business issues. She has been a member of the faculty at Harvard Business School. Dr. Linder earned an MBA and a doctorate in business administration from Harvard Business School and, prior to joining Accenture, held corporate positions of increasing responsibility. She lives in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1st edition (April 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814472184
• ISBN-13: 978-0814472187
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,866,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for Sr. Execs and Idea-focused Practitioners, May 4, 2004

By 

H. James Wilson III "HJ Wilson" (Dedham, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outsourcing for Radical Change: A Bold Approach to Enterprise Transformation (Hardcover)

When I first saw this book I wondered two things. First, how is the author's notion of "transformational outsourcing" any different than the time-tested, well-understood practice of handing over back-office or "non-core" business functions to a company that can perform them more cheaply. Second, why should a business leader should care?

I was surprised to learn from the author - a former Harvard Business School Prof and now a strategy research lead at Accenture - that most executives have fuzzy ideas about just what outsourcing means. Perhaps that's because there has not been a definitive outsourcing text or guru. Core Competency had Hamel and his groundbreaking Harvard Business Review article on the subject. Competitive Strategy had Porter and his opus on the topic. Disruptive Technology had Christensen and his best-selling, "Innovator's Dilemma." Dare I say that outsourcing, one of today's most popular and controversial management tools, finally has its own definitive book and guru.

Provocative, entertaining, and well-researched, Dr. Linder's brand of outsourcing has done for many firms what Bill Parcells' brand coaching has done for football teams: It creates big change fast. Parcells has taken three different NFL teams from sustained losses to playoff slots within two years of taking over as coach. Using detailed case studies of leading companies (Thomas Cook, National Savings & Investments, to name a few), Linder describes the Parcells-like influence a well-crafted transformation program can have on your organization.

But the devil is in the details, like how to execute a transformational outsourcing strategy...Linder's attention to execution and detail is precisely why executives should pay attention to the book. In my experience and research, CEOs have focused on outsourcing only insofar as it calls upon them to make four high-level calculations: determine whether the activity to outsource is core to the business; evaluate the financial impact of outsourcing; assess the non-financial costs and advantages of outsourcing; choose an outsourcing partner. But transformational outsourcing can't be done with a CEO at 30,000 feet.

Leaders need to get down into the trenches, and not leave all the dirty details of execution to middle management. Linder describes ten practical imperatives for CEOs to follow when implementing a transformational outsourcing initiative:

-Make the hard call
-Design a good business model, not a good deal
-Own the negotiation
-Allocate two full days a week of your won time for the foreseeable future
-Orchestrate a dynamic transition
-Create momentum
-Manage the relationship as if it were Chinese handcuffs
-Engineer a commitment to performance
-Face forward
-Recognize that you will underestimate the task, and plan accordingly

As these steps suggest, the book offers new wrinkles to the classic work of John Kotter (author of "Leading Change"), while also laying the theoretical and practical groundwork for a novel approach to improving business results. I recommend the book to practitioners, academics, anyone interested in the current outsourcing debate...and especially senior executives.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A real disappointment, April 24, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Outsourcing for Radical Change: A Bold Approach to Enterprise Transformation (Hardcover)

I was expecting a lot more insight into the management challenges and practice of outsourcing from someone working for Accenture.

The key message of the book that outsourcing should be seen as a transformation force is great in theory but extremely difficult to implement. The insight into how this is done in the political real-world workplace is missing. The case studies presented in this book left me with a view that the author was retrofitting the transformation story on various projects.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Tool Not To Be Missed, April 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Outsourcing for Radical Change: A Bold Approach to Enterprise Transformation (Hardcover)

Imagine your CEO came to you and said, "unless we dramatically lower our costs, improve our products, build a stronger customer base, change our image, and add professional capabilities, and do all of this in 24 months, we have no value left." Totally crushed by the seemingly impossible nature of the task, you emerge from the encounter only to meet a seasoned management consultant who approaches you and says, "I have a tool that will accomplish exactly what your CEO wants to do, and this tool has an 85% success rate." Sound pretty incredible? You bet! Worth listening to? Absolutely. Then you should read Jane Linder's path breaking book, "Outsourcing for Radical Change: A Bold Approach to Enterprise Transformation."

Unlike so many management books with pretentious claims that leave the reader wondering, "how would that actually work in the real world," Ms. Linder, to her credit, leaves little to the reader's imagination. The book is filled with example after example, and draws on an immense body of domestic and international data and case examples to support her arguments. What I especially liked about the book was that it not only addressed the questions and issues of C-level management, but it was very grounded in operations and implementation issues -- how do you make transformational outsourcing work for you, day-in and day-out and what are the implementation issues and traps to watch out for? I also appreciated the book's focus on how transformational outsourcing can be successfully applied in both the private and public sector. For those of you who thought you knew what outsourcing is all about, or who are looking new and radical ways to achieve breakthrough results, I highly recommend reading this book.