The eWorld Radar

Marry me – A very short guide to outsourcing

I attended a very interesting breakfast seminar on outsourcing hosted by AT Kearney.

A number of key points emerged including the importance of treating the relationship between the buyer of the outsourcing services and the supplier as a marriage as opposed to a purely commercial arrangement.

This clearly requires a great deal of trust and continuous effort to ensure that both parties remain committed. 

The big challenge I see with this is that whilst I, the buyer, might pledge my heart to you, the supplier, you are happy and even motivated to have a more polygamous approach. Thus this feels a little one sided.

Another model might be that the supplier is the parent and the buyer is the child. Like many parents the ability to make each child feel that they are the ‘special one’ is the key skill.

The Coalition Concept model of outsourcing as presented is nonetheless very comprehensive and inclusive. Click here to view the associated white paper.

Digital willpower

Willpower is the ability to keep a focus on what is best for you (broccoli) in the face of what you want (cake).

In the digital world the cost of communicating with clients approximates to zero, so the temptation is to bombard them with your sales messages (Click here to buy one). Or at least make every communication one that takes the suspect / prospect closer towards the rim of your sales funnel.

Given that most people are now exploiting digital technology in this manner, most recipients have developed a refined sense of who is abusing their trust. And once that trust is lost, it is difficult to regain it.

So in the digital world willpower is required to hold back the urge to push your agenda. Instead we need to communicate in a manner that is centred on the interests of the recipient. This necessitates abandoning traditional clumsy mass marketing techniques.

So ironically in the digital world it is more necessary than ever to adopt the personalised approach used in bygone times. Who knows, it may not be long before we even start to use digital ink to handwrite our letters.

Tech Sector Review - April 2012

Judge Java

This month saw the launch of Oracle’s attempt to claim circa $1 billion of damages from Google. Allegedly Google has infringed Oracle’s Java copyright in building the Android operating system for mobile phones. Whether this has merit or not, Oracle needs to brace itself for the reality that its enterprise applications and databases may over time be increasingly reliant on Android to reach its user base.

High society

It would appear that as far as shareholders are concerned Indian software giant Infosys has been entertaining ideas above its station. The trend for Indian IT service companies moving out of the grubby world of technology into the refined world of business process management makes a lot of sense when increasing labour costs coupled with an impressive education system create an upward pressure in terms of delivery expectation. However short term focused shareholders are nervous that Infosys may be abandoning its core business.

BYOD – Bring your own data centre

The race to manage consumers’ data online is a fast growing market. Apple’s iCloud is already well known. Dropbox is another high profile example. Google who is no stranger to this space with its Google Docs offering is making a more explicit play into this space with its Google Drive offering. The service has the capacity to scale and so could well become the storage platform for other service providers. This is food for thought for the established enterprise data centre players.

Patent arms war

There appears to be a patent arms war brewing with the big players stacking seemingly random patents high so that others will think twice before muscling into their patch. Microsoft recently took delivery of over $1 billion worth of AOL patents. Given that AOL was one of the early players in the Internet space it wouldn’t be surprising of Microsoft discovers it now owns the rights to ‘the hyperlink’. It certainly does own Netscape which became Microsoft road kill in the early days of the browser wars.

Market buzzing

Apple performed well in its most recent quarter. Its results flagged that there is still some growth left in iphones. Microsoft topped analyst expectations and demonstrated that the PC is not yet a museum piece. Intel is bullishly entering into the smartphone market in part to offset the arrival of rival ARM, which has made a foray into the Windows smartphones space. IBM kept on an even keel with a drop in hardware and services business offset by a growth in its software business.

Ade McCormack

Worker as athlete

The new normal dictates that we in the West will need to work harder to maintain our quality of life. Improving worker performance will be an ongoing exercise; much like athletes continually striving to improve their PB (Personal Best).

And what the workers will be judged on is changing as well. Intellectual capital and relationship capital will become increasingly important in the digital economy.

Thus the role of HR moves from ensuring people are sufficiently trained to be competent enough to fulfil their role to performance coaches focused on driving the work force to world class mastery.

Engagement will be a major theme. Keeping staff engaged won’t be the issue. Disengaged athletes will just be left behind and if they don’t step off the track they will get run down eventually. So that is self managing.

The challenge is how the HR function will improve its engagement with the workforce to create the intimacy needed for a coaching role and to have the influencing and technical skills to drive the ‘athletes’ towards mastery.

Sooner than you expect, you will be managing a stable of top flight athletes. All of whom are high maintenance. And given their new found discipline, when they come looking for tea and sympathy, biscuits will definitely not be an option.

Ade McCormack

Clients or relationships?

Most people think of marketing as the pre-funnel opportunity creation specialists. All initiatives lead to the sales funnel. It makes a lot of sense given that businesses need sales to survive.

Or does it?

Certainly this model of marketing worked well in the industrial era when the name of the game was to automate where possible. Seeing consumers as homogeneous, give or take a few socio-economic variables, helped in the formulation of big marketing initiatives.

But we are no longer in the industrial era. And clients, whether they are business or consumer in nature have choices and power. Thus the marketing game has changed into one that needs to be highly personalised.

The goal now is not to create an opportunity but to secure the relationship. The understanding is that sales will follow in due course. And assuming the relationship is good, ie trust and relevance are in place, the sales will keep coming and coming.

So whilst the creation of broad brush value adding marketing assets (eg. white papers, social media and events) are important, the measurement and improvement of the organisation’s relationship capital needs to be the number one priority.

Would you prefer to enter the next recession with 1,000 relationship-free transactional clients or with 100 influential individuals who personally care about your economic survival?

Ade McCormack