International Outsourcing Strategy And Competitiveness

Global Outsourcing Strategies is a state-of-the-art guide to the best lessons to be learned for successfully implementing and outsourcing projects. The 22 chapters provide information on the different facets of the outsourcing process, such as contract negotiation, the risks involved in outsourcing, the need for service level agreements, the critical requirements needed to build and sustain outsourcing relationships, and ethical supply chain issues. There are also sections exploring the impact of outsourcing on organizational structures; the long term effects; legal issues; management control and inter-firm relationships; as well as case studies from both the public and private sector on the practical side of outsourcing. The book will appeal to practitioners and researchers alike.

Many companies have successfully used outsourcing to lower costs. But, unless the company's efforts are unusually good, true competitive advantage is fleeting when competitors begin outsourcing and achieve similar results. To build sustainable competitive advantage, leading companies are now using an advanced form of outsourcing, called global collaboration, to drive new revenue, quicken time-to-market, and increase innovation. Global collaboration impacts their top as well as bottom lines. But effectively adopting this approach requires adjustments to traditional outsourcing strategy, organization and processes.

offshoring opportunities is on target for today's marketplace "This book provides a much needed framework for offshoring that supports making sound business decisions in this area, and it can help guide the management of the resulting offshore relationship in an efficient and effective manner. John brings clarity and structure to this broad and complex subject." -Jim Maloney Chief Security Executive Corillian Corporation "An extremely well-written and researched book. Starts with a good background on the political and cultural implications of offshoring and proceeds to provide an invaluable guide to take the reader through the sourcing decision and how to make it." -Charly Paelinck Vice President of Application Development Harrah's Casino "We evaluate many different offshoring and site selection decisions each year for our clients, and I encourage every executive faced with these quandaries to consider the strategies discussed in this book. Offshoring Opportunities can be used as a practical review before investing millions, and it may just help you avoid several unintended consequences." -Jay Doherty Principal Mercer Human Resource Consulting

Globalization has fundamentally changed the game of business. Strategic frameworks developed for the analysis of purely domestic business necessarily fall short in the international business context. Managers and business students require alternative approaches to understand and cope with these far-reaching changes. We must learn to think globally in order to succeed. Global Competitive Strategy shows how we can do this by providing a unique set of strategic tools for international business. Such tools include the 'star analysis' that allows strategy makers to integrate geographic information with market information about the global business environment. Also introduced is the 'global value connection' that shows managers how to account for the gains from trade and the costs of trade. Aimed at MBA students taking courses in international strategy, consultants and practising managers with responsibility for strategic development, this 2007 book offers a comprehensive strategic framework for gaining competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

One of the most significant techniques to which companies and organizations have turned to improve service delivery and reduce costs has been outsourcing. Over the last 10 years, almost any process has been successfully outsourced. But during that period there have been failures too; projects that never realised their objectives or that had unforeseen impact on business. Global Outsourcing Strategies is a state-of-the-art guide to the best lessons to be learned for successfully implementing and outsourcing projects, or for revisiting existing operations. The 22 chapters explore some of the new areas for outsourcing, after traditional targets such as IT and finance. Information is provided on the different facets of the outsourcing process, such as contract negotiation, the risks involved in outsourcing, the need for service level agreements, the critical requirements needed to build and sustain outsourcing relationships, and ethical supply chain issues. There are also sections exploring the impact of outsourcing on organizational structures; the long term effects; legal issues; management control and inter-firm relationships; as well as case studies from both the public and private sector on the practical side of outsourcing. The book will appeal to practitioners and researchers alike. This is a must-have guide for any organization approaching outsourcing as a global (or local) strategy and for those organizations now reviewing or developing their outsourcing partnerships.

Companies are increasingly asking which of their value chain activities are best performed within their own company and which may be outsourced. In addition, they are also considering which pieces of their value chain may be better performed abroad. These interrelated decisions concerning outsourcing and offshoring have not only changed entire industries, they have also transformed the lives of people across the world. Hundreds of millions of jobs in emerging nations have been the direct result of outsourcing and offshoring decisions. At the same time, many people in the developed world have lost their jobs because a company has been able to find a cheaper alternative. Featuring contributions from scholars in eleven different countries, this book was the first to examine the theory and practice of outsourcing and offshoring simultaneously. It includes studies of a variety of different industries, including pharmaceuticals, automobiles, medical records, appliances, human resource management and telecommunications.

Global Competitiveness is a combination of concepts, case studies and practical ways on how to achieve and enhance competitiveness in any organisation. Achieving and enhancing competitiveness will lead companies to achieve high level of excellence. The book attempts to answer the 'What, who, when, and how' of Excellence, i.e. 'what' is excellence, 'who' are considered as excellent companies, 'when' a company is prepared to use tools/ frameworks and models to achieve excellence, 'how' strategic competitiveness can be enhanced using one of the most widely used tools, viz., Benchmarking. Business cases from across the globe of different industries have been used to demonstrate how companies have achieved competitiveness and thus enhanced their long-term competitive advantage to become excellent companies. The book has three parts, viz., concepts, business cases and tool for competitiveness. Competitiveness has been widely used in companies, but the understanding of the concept is not consistent across industry and academia. For instance, there are many models and frameworks across the globe, which generally companies use for evaluating and enhancing their competitiveness. Companies often tend to get drifted into the ocean of various models and frameworks and on one fine day adopt a model or framework, only to repent after few quarters or years, as the case may be. It follows what is called 'operation successful, but patient died' syndrome. Although all are good, the judgment of applying 'which' model/ framework and 'when' is very critical. This book throws light on how to choose and not choose various models and frameworks, which generally depends on the company's maturity level, context, and most importantly inherent culture of the company. This book has been designed in a way that it will help a reader to first understand the concept of competitiveness, get an idea of what companies have been doing across the globe to become competitive and then how it can use tools such as benchmarking and other models/ frameworks to build and enhance their own competitiveness. It has been written in a very simple language so that it can be easily read and applied as also can serve as a direction for prompting future thought processes in companies in their journey towards excellence.

Designed for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses in production-operations management, management information systems, international business, and strategic management, this text focuses on concepts, processes, and methodologies for firms planning to undertake or currently involved in outsourcing-insourcing decisions. "Outsourcing and Insourcing in an International Context" is the only available text that includes coverage of the international risk factors associated with this strategy. The book presents a balanced view of the positive and negative aspects of outsourcing, and provides essential coverage of the fundamental techniques involved in any outsourcing-insourcing decision. In addition, it discusses the ethical ramifications of outsourcing for companies and governments around the world. Each chapter includes learning objectives, discussion questions, and sample problems. An Instructor's Manual, Test Bank, and PowerPoint presentation are available to teachers who adopt the text.

Globalisation and outsourcing-based strategies have reshaped the global economy. This timely book provides a strategic analysis of both the development and macro trends of the electronics industry within the wider context of global technology outsourcing. Lucio Cassia examines the whole supply chain of the electronics industry and highlights the changes due to the effects of global outsourcing. He moves on to describe hypotheses of growth, and consider likely future developments - including the reshaping of firms' competitive strategies. The author also explains the patterns of development of new technologies and changes in the competitive positioning of the firms. This innovative book will appeal to academics and scholars interested in the strategic growth of firms and technological innovation. The insights presented in the book will also interest entrepreneurs, managers and practitioners who make decisions about competitive strategies in a global context.