When events such as terrorist attacks arise, what is often brought to light is the vulnerability of targets, together with the ineffectiveness of governmental authorities, both of these contributing to the large number of victims and to alienating entire nations and governments. What remains is the bitter taste of defeat, of mistrust, increased insecurity and fear.
Considering the fast emerging markets of nowadays, companies are constantly focusing on how to produce higher qualitative products, with less costs, and in a shorter period of time. Hence, organizations have started to focus increasingly more on product development processes.
After revolutionizing the world of baseball, Billy Beane, the General Manager of Oakland Athletics, who inspired the book and the Oscar-nominated movie “Moneyball,” has now accepted to become an advisor for the Dutch football club AZ Alkmaar.
All organizations, from big to small, undergo fundamental changes at some point of their existence. What drives companies to put themselves at risk is the determination to cope better with new demands and challenges of the market environment. The expected outcome is for them to climb higher on the staircase of success. However, too often, the obtained outcome is a period of utter chaos, governed by confusion and financial losses, with little or no gain in return.
Most companies have no formal outsourcing process and make short-term decisions based on cost-reduction, and risk mitigation, rather than securing added value alongside continuous improvement. In spite of the intense research activities, there are few frameworks depicting the actual stages and the layout of the overall process of outsourcing.