A recent article in Industry Week asked if today’s five disparate global sourcing objectives present a conundrum. These days, global sourcing organizations need to:
- be efficient and innovative,
- master balancing insourcing, outsourcing and captive offshoring,
- minimize risk while maximizing savings,
- transition quickly with minimum disruption, and
- accelerate results without a learning curve.
And some people might be tempted to argue that you can’t be efficient and innovative, that you can’t minimize risk while maximizing savings, that you can’t transition quickly without causing disruption, that there’s always a learning curve, and that you can’t insource and outsource and get results.
But one can also argue that true innovation increases efficiency, that true long term savings come from good risk mitigation, that good planning allows a quick transition with minimum disruption, that a learning curve can be minimized with a good training plan, and that you can insource and outsource by looking at functions, and not business departments.
In other words, it’s only a conundrum if you make it one.