Last night’s Tech Nation program had an interview with Rob Levy of BEA. He had some deep insights into dealing with outsourcing companies. In essence, either make them as peers or at least treat them as peers. This is a refreshing change to what I’ve seen, not only when outsourcing, but when purchasing companies outright to be “business units” within the greater company. In the words of one friend who works at one of these subsidiaries, they feel like the “red-headed step child”. It definitely puts the sub in subsidiary!
Rob Levy made the point that once these places become free-standing entities, with enough work and resources to work independently, then its perfectly normal for them to treat the company headquarters as an outsourcee instead of a parent. I can’t imagine a lot of C-level executives (especially in my company) giving this type of free rein.
Whether you agree with him or not, its worth a listen…
[editor's note: when jotting down my initial notes for this post I found myself writing that they were treated "as if they were peers" - which just goes to show how deeply engrained this sort of thinking is. The headquarters has the illusion of control, but its only a offering from the employees - if you make the company too difficult or unstable to work at you just may find you've lost all your employees.]