Outsourcing simplified

Outsourcing is a hot buzzword in the industry these days. Few like, few swear by it.

There are still doubts on the success of outsourcing; its benefits and the problems it creates. It would be easy to understand outsourcing with these three Case Studies.

The Case of a Laundry Press

The Laundry Press business is one of the most successful businesses in India. People would rather get their clothes pressed at the laundry for a small sum than spend time doing it. The press would cost them about fifteen minutes and some change. But in that fifteen minutes, one could read about the stock market, do a transaction and make a couple of thousands. This is a thorough win-win situation, where one would use his time in a more qualitative manner. And the laundry too would be happy making money with his skills.

This would be a good case of a service industry looking after the inventory of a huge retail organization

The Case of a Car service

A total opposite of the above mention scenario, when some body wants to clean his car, he would do it on his own. But, if it required a quarterly service, He would approach the service station. He would not think of doing it. Here, one chooses to seek the specialization from outside for a higher amount of money. What would one gain from here? … Hmm … A guarantee that something as expensive as a car his well maintained and also his life. The money is worth it.

This could be well seen as a product company, seeking co product development and maintenance

The Case of a house clean up

I doubt if any body would opt to give in to have their entire house cleaned by a third party agency. There area lot of risks involved in this. One’s privacy and security is at stake. Secondly, the agency would not be sensitive and emotional about one’s house and belongings. Thirdly, this would be too expensive an offer. Not worth it.

The lessons here are quite simple

Understand the business and apply one of the above mentioned scenarios.

Understand what the client would be happy to give off for others

Understand the specialty skills that the client is look in at and sell those skills to the client.

Try to seek an opportunity in a problem or hindrance to others.

Try to ensure it is a Win-Win situation.

Disclaimer

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Adea’s positions, strategies or opinions.