Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

Leadership and teaming skills are front and center in times of rapid change. Meet today’s constant disruption head on with expert guidance in leadership, business strategy, transformation, and innovation. Whether the disruption du jour is a digitally-driven upending of traditional business models, the pandemic-driven end to business as usual, or the change-driven challenge of staffing that meets your transformation plans — you’ll be prepared with cutting edge techniques and expert knowledge that enable strategic leadership.

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Insight

Most Western economies are facing a recession in 2009. Organizations are downgrading forecast earnings, and stock markets around the world are at record lows. Now more than ever, boards are placing an emphasis on improved corporate governance and cost reduction. It is easy, however, to focus on short-term survival in the current market and make decisions that destroy value in the long run. Organizations not only need to weather the current storm, but also to come out of the eye in a stronger, more stable position.

Renegotiation is a fact of life for most outsourcing arrangements. Business strategies change, leaders turn over, technology and delivery models shift -- all of these changes and many others require buyer and provider to take a fresh look at their arrangement and make appropriate adjustments (whether those are captured contractually, through operating procedures, or more informally).

For the past 10 years, offshoring has been held up as the most cost-effective IT service delivery model for IT projects of all types. Now that offshoring has become well established throughout the software development industry, it is time to review the practice using real project metrics to see if it actually delivers on its promises.

Abstract

Organizations that invest in product and process projects must have a plan for investing in these projects. The human resources needed to staff these projects almost always exceed the human resources available.

Organizations that invest in product and process projects must have a plan for investing in these projects. The human resources needed to staff proposed projects almost always exceed the human resources available. How should an organization decide which projects should be staffed and which shouldn't?

This Executive Report is the second in a four-part series on the outsourcing lifecycle. The series is based on a detailed understanding of the outsourcing experiences of 107 organizations. This report focuses on the first three building blocks — Investigate, Target, and Strategize — of the Architect Phase, which is the first of the four phases of the outsourcing lifecycle. The information here provides the strategic information you need to ensure the entire lifecycle works well.

This Executive Report is the second in a four-part series on the outsourcing lifecycle. The series is based on a detailed understanding of the outsourcing experiences of 107 organizations. This report focuses on the first three building blocks — Investigate, Target, and Strategize — of the Architect Phase, which is the first of the four phases of the outsourcing lifecycle. The information here provides the strategic information you need to ensure the entire lifecycle works well.

Topic Summary

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

— L.P. Hartley, opening lines of The Go-Between (1953)