Tag Archives: recession

Out-sourcing – how to be good at it!

Posted on 25 January 2011 by | 5 Comments

In the present climate the pressure to seek value for money through out-sourcing is stronger than ever.

Yes, you can save money but getting the full value from your outsourced service and making sure that it supports your business in the way you intended is complicated.

The financial benefits alone are often not properly understood.  The results of research by Warwick Business School working with IT group Cognizant showed that less than half (43 per cent) of all CIOs and CFOs have attempted to calculate the financial impact of outsourcing to their bottom line let alone determined the real value to their organisations. They don’t know the real value and it is doubtful that they are getting the outcomes they expected!

Here are some steps you can take to ensure you achieve real value from your out-sourcing activity.

1. Know why you are doing it

Don’t out-source just because the competition does it!

What do you expect from the service and what resource will be available to support it?

Can you specify what you need and will you be able to measure and monitor it when it is delivered?

Have you got experience of managing outsourced services or can you afford to buy that expertise?

How essential is this service to your business operations?

Can you afford to take the risk?

2. Be systematic but keep it simple

Work out a strategy for out-sourcing that your organisation can cope with!

If you are new to out-sourcing don’t go for a complicated strategy that involves many suppliers.

If you go for a complex supply chain, you will need to know how to manage it

If you go for multiple suppliers, you will need to know how to coordinate them

Start with a single and relatively simple business function and a single supplier and build from there.

Gain experience as you develop the approach

3. Know how you are going to measure and monitor

Many companies rely on service level agreements (SLAs)

SLAs are crucial to outsourcing arrangements but you will need more than a traditional SLA if you are interested in business improvement!

Measuring against an SLA will tell you about delivering the status quo

Most SLAs will not tell you if the service is really delivering benefits and the right outcomes to your operation!

You need to focus on business improvement rather than just service improvement processes!

Determine what evidence of success and the right outcomes really looks like and use it!

Use industry benchmarks IF they are useful to your business

4. Invest in the relationship for long-term value

Demands and expectations change over time!

This can lead to disagreements with your supplier which can erode the relationship

Agree at the start how you will recognize and respond to changes together

Share information honestly between you

6. Be an intelligent client

Don’t hand all your talent across to the supplier with the service

Keep enough expertise available so you can talk intelligently to your supplier about performance

Keep enough expertise to cope with changing your contractor if necessary in response to supplier failure or market changes

Keep enough expertise available to cope with business innovation.

Be honest with your supplier about your expectations and your customer base

But be prepared to learn from your supplier

You can find this as a slide presentation on LinkedIn at the following link  http://slidesha.re/hc0HyK

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Posted in Contract Management, Out-sourcing, performance, Uncategorized

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Outwitting the lovely Ondine, or making the right choices in hard times!

Posted on 22 December 2010 by | Leave a comment

I watched a piece on breakfast television about a small child with something that sounded sinister, Ondine’s Curse.  This is a respiratory disorder that is fatal if untreated as sufferers stop breathing during sleep. It is very rare and the name is a reference to the myth of Ondine, a water nymph who had an unfaithful mortal lover. He swore to her that his every waking breath would be a testimony of his love. He was unfaithful so she cursed him; if he should fall asleep, he would forget to breathe. Eventually, he fell asleep and his breathing stopped. Anyway the story this morning was really about the child being able to be at home for Christmas because someone had invented a ventilator that was small enough for a child’s room!

Ventilators are usually large, cumbersome and difficult to accommodate! So this invention, not only adds to the happiness of a small child and her family, it also reduces the cost of her care to the NHS. No longer will she need expensive hospital resources, even with back up at home from community nursing staff, there will be a saving!

What struck me most was the need to take a long view when reducing costs. Inventing new equipment to reduce costs (and hopefully improve quality) long-term takes time and investment. Also, it requires creativity and teamwork! None of these qualities thrive in hard and uncaring environments. To achieve a climate that can deliver long-term ‘efficiency’ improvements while maintaining (or even improving) quality takes great leadership.

Exam question for December 2010 – do you think your leadership abilities would be up to the challenge? How are you going to maintain/improve them next year?

I would like to wish all readers a very Happy Christmas and a very creative New Year in this time of challenge! I hope you will come back because there will be lots more here next year to help you manage the changes you face!

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Posted in change, Competencies, Continuous Improvement, Innovation, Inspiration, Leadership styles, Management, performance, Quality

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Alice down the rabbit hole – or customer service and schizophrenia in the downturn!

Posted on 16 December 2010 by | 3 Comments

I’m reading ‘Surviving Change – A Manager’s Guide’ from Harvard Business Press. It advises on managing in the downturn and opens with a discussion of different survival strategies – hard and soft!  In fact, most change is a mixture of the two and the strategy chosen usually reflects the underlying culture of the organisation!   How the mix works is critical because if it is not well managed it can become fraught with conflict and demoralising for people in the organisation; it can lead to a schizophrenic approach to customers.

The ‘hard’ approach to change is usually short-term and about economics  – cut costs and increase cash flow! If a unit, or an employee, cannot demonstrate how they add financial value, out they go with very little ceremony or concern for personal well-being. The change is usually hard driven from the top with little wider engagement.  Often consultants advise the magic inner circle and HR consultants deal with casualties that might cost the organisation.

Soft change focuses on developing the organisation to meet new conditions with high engagement across the piece from the leaders. Employees trust in the informal contract they have with the organisation and work towards its well being.

Sadly experience shows that neither soft or hard approaches work in isolation.  The hard approach works in the short term but with that alone you are usually left with a demoralised and disloyal workforce – your best employees probably left at a rate of knots when you started the change.  The soft approach can take years to embed and the market doesn’t stand still!

Most successful change is a combination of hard (rationalisation well managed) and soft (employee engagement and encouragement to learn new skills).  But if change is a reflection of underlying culture and that has conflicts within it, a change can put the whole organisation out of kilter.  What I’m thinking of here is an organisation that pays lip service to soft but is really hard.  I believe in the downturn this is likely to be an increasing problem, particularly in the service sector.

Clients of service companies, particularly in the UK public sector, like to hear how well the company manages its employees.  A tender panel may take great interest in training and development approaches but, of course, the final decision is usually made on the keenest price.  In the present climate the client is likely to continue to seek cost reductions, which mean lots of change to be managed.  This can lead a company into a kind of schizophrenia.  It flags up all the good things its HR team would like to do but finds itself increasingly having to make hard, and very short-term, decisions.  As a consequence, its own employees and its middle managers in particular, become confused and a little cynical!  In turn this impacts on the service delivered to the client – so the client pushes harder!

What is the answer.? Well maybe it starts with a little more honesty on both sides!   Perhaps clients should start being more realistic about how they expect their service companies to manage for the price they are prepared to pay.  Perhaps the companies should be a little more honest with clients, and  with themselves, about the real costs of delivering ‘cuts’  At the end of the day, a client gets what they pay for and it they want to see services well managed with employees committed to the services they deliver, they need to recognise there will always be a cost even in the downturn!

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Posted in change, Change Models, Competencies, Contract Management, Employment, leadership, Leadership styles, Marketing, performance, recession, Supply Chain Management

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SO THE PROJECT AND THE CONTRACT HAS COME TO AN END! 10 WAYS TO FIND A NEW ROLE

Posted on 18 November 2010 by | 2 Comments

All good programmes and projects come to an end! And so, of course, do the bad ones,  but with less happy results.    Good or bad, in due course, you will want to look for a new role!  It is imperative to pick yourself up and dust yourself off  and start all over again – or at least start looking for a new project.   Here are some tips to help you deal with the situation and to help you find an amazing new assignment.

1. Assess the Situation –  How did the project run and how did it end?  What can you learn and take with you into the future. Take a look at the big picture. Look for the good things and new possibilities that this experience might bring you and what new contacts have you made? Keep a positive attitude.   Whatever happened remember the old adage…….. it’s time to turn lemons into lemonade.

2. Consider your Finances –  Start with the practical – take stock of your finances !   This will help you to evaluate just how selective you can be in searching for a new project and help you to plan a budget for these leaner financial times.  If you see that your saving habits have not been what they should be, consider stepping up your savings once you move on to the next assignment – it is unlikely the financial climate will suddenly have improved.

3. Update Your Resume or CV – Most of us do not stay on top of keeping our resumes current, so now is the time to add new skills and experience information from your most recent work. You are likely be surprised at all of the skills and knowledge you will have acquired!  Have you worked in a new sector or run things in a new way?   If necessary,  hire a professional resume writer to help  you sell yourself more effectively  – there are plenty of people out there willing to help and it could give you the edge you need!

4. Now is the time to invest in training –  If time and funding permits, take advantage of your downtime between roles to update your skills – techniques are constantly changing in the world of change management,  project and programme management.  Awareness of new techniques and confidence in discussing them could give you the edge with a potential client, as well as helping you to deliver better!

5. Let The World Know You Are Available!  – network , network, network, with all your professional acquaintances and agencies as well as  friends and  family who just may know of the perfect position for you.  Now is the time to make use of your professional memberships – go to events and involve yourself.  Remember, often companies have project and programme roles that may not be heavily advertised and all it takes is a word from the inside to be considered. Make sure you talk to everyone you know and let them know that you are actively seeking a new role.  If you have had a recent success then talk about it!

6. Treat Assignment Hunting As A Job – Sitting around waiting for your dream programme to fall into your lap doesn’t work!  Spend what is your usual working day doing something that will help you in your new assignment!  Whether you are training, reading sector magazines and books in your field ,  searching the Internet for possible roles or managing your contacts, keep your hours filled with productive and focussed tasks.

7. Gather Positive References – If you left your role with a positive success then asking for a reference is easy – but please do it!  If things were less than perfect or at least good, you may not want to use your former client when looking for new assignment. Compile a list of people who can vouch for you as a project or programme manager and let them know that they may be called upon as a reference.  .

8. Make Your Move – If you have been considering a move to a new location, this might be the perfect opportunity to relocate. As you will be searching for a new role anyway, you won’t have the same strings attached that you would if you were in a role. Changing cities or even countries can open up a whole new world of opportunities to you. But be sure it still leaves you with good options in terms of the ability to use your contacts

9. Don’t Give Up – No matter how hard the search might seem right now, keep looking and don’t be discouraged. There is certainly a project out there for you but it may take a bit of hunting down!  This opportunity will be what you make it, so be positive and productive

10. Good Luck – make your own – follow 1 to 9 above!  And I would love to hear how you get on!

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Posted in advice, Confidence and Self Esteem, Feeling Positive, Job Search, Motivation

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MANAGING CHANGE – MAINTAINING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR SUPPLIERS

Posted on 8 October 2009 by | Leave a comment

When your organisation is going through change and specially in a time of financial stringency, a good relationship with your suppliers becomes much more important. Here is a Checklist from G&W Consulting which should help you to achieve the firm relationship you need!

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Posted in advice, Contract Management, Management, Social Skills

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