Future of Sourcing - Consulting http://futureofsourcing.com/tags/consulting en Get “360” Feedback from Key Suppliers, Partners and Customers to Up-Level and De-Risk Your Relationships http://futureofsourcing.com/get-360-feedback-from-key-suppliers-partners-and-customers-to-up-level-and-de-risk-your <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/360_Feedback_624x325.jpg"><a href="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/360_Feedback_624x325.jpg" title="Get “360” Feedback from Key Suppliers, Partners and Customers to Up-Level and De-Risk Your Relationships" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1432-3R1eUVJ4Crg"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/360_Feedback_624x325.jpg?itok=jT6OzM_R" width="624" height="325" alt="" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>As a business leader you get 360s, so why doesn&rsquo;t the business you lead?</p> <p>Individually, you benefit from 360s exposing blind spots and unintended consequences of your &ldquo;default&rdquo; way-of-being. Your company has blind spots and default ways-of-being, too&hellip;and they undermine the success of critical relationships with outsourcing providers, product and channel partners, and anchor customers &ndash; the vital &ldquo;360&rdquo; space around your company.&nbsp;</p> <p><em>Are partners &ldquo;nickel and diming&rdquo; you? Do you worry their best people aren&rsquo;t on your account? Are quality or speed issues cropping up? Do you wish they&rsquo;d invest more in innovation or expansion?&nbsp;</em></p> <p>These are symptoms of a misaligned partnership with low self-awareness on one or both sides. That&rsquo;s where the value of an &ldquo;Enterprise 360&rdquo; comes in, helping you achieve stable, co-prosperous relationships rather than the drama- and disappointment-filled ones that are all too common.</p> <p>Imagine the value you can unlock if you deeply understand where a relationship is today, clearly see the forces affecting it and have a concrete plan to realize the thriving partnership you envisioned when you signed the deal.</p> <p>With this as your&nbsp;<em>why</em>, let&rsquo;s consider&nbsp;<em>what&nbsp;</em>characterizes strong relationships and then discuss&nbsp;<em>how&nbsp;</em>to move in this direction with an Enterprise 360 approach.</p> <div> <h2>Dimensions of Thriving, Co-Prosperous Relationships</h2> </div> <p>You know that motivating and managing your people is only partially about financial incentives. Shared purpose, values and culture, behavioral norms and a sense of long-term opportunity are also incredibly important.&nbsp;</p> <div> <h2>Holistic Success Dimensions for High-Stakes, High-Complexity Partnerships</h2> </div> <p><strong><img alt="" src="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/Holistic_Success_Dimensions.png" />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</strong></p> <p>Let&rsquo;s take a holistic look at the deeper less-visible dimensions&mdash;beyond the limited impact of financial/legal terms&mdash;that drive success in highly-complex partnerships.<strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p> <div> <h2>Incentives Created by Terms</h2> </div> <p>As a business executive, you feel economic pressure, which feeds the instinct to &ldquo;win&rdquo; a negotiation. Your partner faces similar pressure, but in response, it may willingly enter into an arrangement even when the economics squeeze its ability to acceptably perform. This is &ldquo;the paradox of the willing partner.&rdquo; Sometimes, the other side just needs that deal this quarter or that revenue this year, or to keep its factory or workforce utilized. And even when you have an initially-fair and balanced deal, it can easily be knocked out of balance by changing market conditions.&nbsp;</p> <p>That&rsquo;s why the landscape is full of partnerships that are bad for one side. But over time, what&rsquo;s bad for one side is bad for&nbsp;<em>both</em>. Imagine a landscaper you don&rsquo;t pay quite enough, so he hurries on to the next job and doesn&rsquo;t clean up thoroughly in your yard. It&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>you&nbsp;</em>who steps on the rake.</p> <p><em>You may object: &ldquo;But suppliers, partners and customers always say they deserve more of the financial pie within your relationship. I can&rsquo;t always respond to this. That&rsquo;s business.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s an understandable and fair point &ndash; and a good Enterprise 360 approach helps determine when there is a real wolf, or the other side is just crying wolf. &nbsp;</em></p> <div> <h2>Impact of Culture and Organization</h2> </div> <p>Your business culture and the way you&rsquo;re organized impact the partnership, too.&nbsp;</p> <p>For example, do you have a culture of invention or operational precision? These strong suits probably helped get you where you are today. But they may also make you overly prescriptive in third-party relationships. Maybe you&rsquo;re not just telling them&nbsp;<em>what&nbsp;</em>you need&hellip;you&rsquo;re telling them&nbsp;<em>how</em>. Many partnerships exist specifically because the other side has expertise and capabilities you don&rsquo;t &ndash; so over-prescriptiveness limits your upside.&nbsp;</p> <p>Maybe your structure burdens partners, too. Think of a contract manufacturer with a global customer organized around regional P&amp;Ls, for instance. If all territories are involved in managing outsourcing, then supplier personnel do everything three times (with the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific). Wondering why your key contact isn&rsquo;t getting to the root cause of that issue or helping drive innovation? Maybe it&rsquo;s because she&rsquo;s doing everything &ndash; calls, email and reports &ndash; in triplicate&hellip;or maybe she can&rsquo;t get a timely straight answer when she needs one from you because there&rsquo;s no clear process owner on your side.&nbsp;</p> <p>You may say, &ldquo;But culture or organizationally-driven issues are not 100% under my control.&rdquo; While this is certainly true, unless you&rsquo;re the CEO &ndash; where relationship outcomes are critical &ndash; it&rsquo;s not a good enough excuse. The question becomes: how will you lead and influence inside your company? An Enterprise 360 provides powerful data here.</p> <div> <h2>Relationship and Trust</h2> </div> <p>Even if you ensure incentives are aligned and you are aware of the impact your culture and organization have on partners&hellip;problems periodically arise.&nbsp;</p> <p>To deal with them, is there an authentic and empathic relationship between partner company executives and, based on that tone-setting, between the working teams? Only this type of relationship supports a shared view of current reality and a productive &ldquo;shared contribution&rdquo; approach (instead of blame) to problem solving.&nbsp;</p> <p>And is there mutual trust &ndash; in each other&rsquo;s capabilities, reliability and motivation?</p> <p><em>Authenticity</em>,&nbsp;<em>empathy&nbsp;</em>and&nbsp;<em>trust&nbsp;</em>may sound &ldquo;soft,&rdquo; but imagine if they were absent within your company. Wouldn&rsquo;t cross-functional problem-solving and pursuit of new opportunities be severely hamstrung? That&rsquo;s not to say these things are easy, but inside your company there are (hopefully) degrees of flexibility, resilience and improvisation based on the presumption of good will and capability among colleagues &ndash; and the willingness to act accordingly.</p> <p>Just because you rely on a third-party, these qualities are not any less important. In fact, they may be even more critical. That&rsquo;s why your Enterprise 360 approach should listen for this dimension with equal emphasis as the others.&nbsp;</p> <div> <h2>Degree of Strategic Alignment</h2> </div> <p>What if your strategy and your partner&rsquo;s create different views on what&rsquo;s worth investing in, what&rsquo;s worth bending on and what the future looks like? Sometimes, even when everything else is going well, this is a hidden inhibitor.&nbsp;</p> <p>Imagine a corporate tech reseller/integrator and an enterprise software company whose solutions it distributes. Economic incentives may be aligned, culturally- and organizationally-driven inefficiencies may be under control, and relationships may be strong. But if the software company&rsquo;s strategy is to increase emphasis on direct sales and become part of solution suites with &ldquo;platform&rdquo; partners (de-emphasizing reseller-type channel partners), then a growing headwind will affect the partnership.&nbsp;</p> <p>That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s critical to keep using Enterprise 360-style listening not just to gain self-awareness, but also to assess the ongoing fit with partners. Without this, you&rsquo;re implicitly counting on your partners&rsquo; strategic priorities to remain frozen in a world where nothing lasts forever.</p> <div> <h2>Enterprise 360 for Deep Systemic Listening Across These Dimensions</h2> </div> <p>OK. If all this motivates you to gain broader perspective on how your company shows up in critical third-party relationships, here are suggested next steps.</p> <ol> <li>Invest time and energy to&nbsp;<strong>get a&nbsp;</strong><strong>clear baseline understanding&nbsp;</strong>of where relationships are today. I&rsquo;m not talking about a &ldquo;conducting a survey.&rdquo; To get what you want here, you need thoughtful and customized 1:1 discussions with partner executives, account leaders and operational people.</li> <li>Prioritize bringing your internal stakeholders together to&nbsp;<strong>get oriented around what you&rsquo;ve learned</strong>, what the implications are and what your options are for action where that&rsquo;s warranted. Often, the first key step is to get aligned on the fact that your partnership success relies on the dimensions discussed here.</li> <li><strong>Develop or update your guiding vision&nbsp;</strong>for the partnership. What will a long-term, excellent relationship feel like and deliver &ndash; and what&rsquo;s your company&rsquo;s part in achieving it? This step isn&rsquo;t always about positive aspirations&hellip;an effective process sometimes leads to purposefully de-emphasizing or ending relationships, too.</li> <li><strong>Make aligned action plans&nbsp;</strong>to target the things that &ldquo;must be true&rdquo; for achievement of the vision. These could include evolution on any/all of the dimensions detailed above. Since there are often collective blind spots and deeply-ingrained ways-of-being at work here, treat this as a concerted transformation effort.</li> </ol> <p>Often, for high-complexity, high-stakes relationships, you&rsquo;ll get the most out of this Enterprise 360 approach by using an objective third party to engage with partners and facilitate your company&rsquo;s orientation and action-planning around what you&rsquo;ve learned. Find one who understands your business&nbsp;<em>and</em>the critical human/partnership dimensions in play, and who has the ability to credibly engage and draw out relationship-sponsoring executives and key day-to-day relationship managers alike.&nbsp;</p> <p>Remember that individual 360 we started off referring to? If you&rsquo;ve gone through that process, you know it can be uncomfortable&hellip;but you also understand that the information you get from it is invaluable. With an Enterprise 360 effort, you can lead that same powerful learning and growth for your company.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/consulting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Consulting</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/strategy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Strategy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/partnership" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Partnership</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/alignment" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Alignment</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/goals" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Goals</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/enterprise-360" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Enterprise 360</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Get &amp;ldquo;360&amp;rdquo; Feedback from Key Suppliers, Partners and Customers to Up-Level and De-Risk Your Relationships - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="http://futureofsourcing.com/get-360-feedback-from-key-suppliers-partners-and-customers-to-up-level-and-de-risk-your"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Mon, 29 Apr 2019 17:45:08 +0000 Mark Teitell 1432 at http://futureofsourcing.com http://futureofsourcing.com/get-360-feedback-from-key-suppliers-partners-and-customers-to-up-level-and-de-risk-your#comments Women in Global Sourcing: Celia Landesberg http://futureofsourcing.com/women-in-global-sourcing-celia-landesberg <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/WIGS_Landsberg.png"><a href="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/WIGS_Landsberg.png" title="Women in Global Sourcing: Celia Landesberg" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1371-3R1eUVJ4Crg"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/WIGS_Landsberg.png?itok=4FPEAIhv" width="624" height="325" alt="" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>Future of Sourcing Digital is excited to bring you a new series titled &ldquo;Women Global in Sourcing.&rdquo; This series strives to highlight, celebrate and acknowledge women who are pioneers and leaders in the industry and who have been influential in moving the industry forward. It is with great excitement that we feature Celia Landesberg this week, of EcoVadis.</p> <p>Celia is an advocate and energetic implementer of sustainable behaviors. A LEED Accredited Professional, Celia executed corporate sustainability strategies and performance analyses for some of the largest real estate companies in the world while working at Goby, a leading energy management and sustainability reporting company for the commercial real estate industry.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <div><strong><em>Tell us about your career path. How did you get into this field? Was it purposeful or by accident?&nbsp;</em></strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>I created my mission and vision early on and use it as a guidepost for my career choices. My career goal is to ensure that people understand the value of <a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/node/658" target="_blank">sustainability</a> when making financial decisions. Whether I&rsquo;m dealing with one person, or hundreds of people, I strive to have a positive impact. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>As a freshman at University of Richmond, I saw the opportunity to improve sustainability practices on campus. I sought an internship with the new Director of Sustainability and, four years later, I had created or worked on virtually every campus sustainability initiative or policy. In my coursework and internships, I focused my research on supply chain sustainability. Seeking a job after graduating tested my resolve. &nbsp;Did I want to work for a big company or a start-up? What was the right industry for me? I remained true to myself and chose real estate sustainability and technology for my first post-graduate job. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Sustainability is not a destination; it is the journey to a better future. My journey began in real estate. It was a wonderful landing spot given its intersection with every sector. I want to take on new industries and new challenges through reaching the world&rsquo;s largest organizations. My quest is to enable global organizations to use purchasing power as a force for good. The opportunity to drive planetary and economic improvements through procurement is real, and it enables me to continue on my less traveled path. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong><em>Would you follow that same path again if you had the choice?&nbsp;</em></strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Yes. If I were to change one thing, it might be to spend more time on self-reflection. I get wrapped up in my work, so I have to force myself to stop and smell the proverbial roses. It&rsquo;s important that I evaluate my thoughts, feelings and interactions with others through a work lens. Sample self-reflection questions: How could I have done that differently? How did my decision affect others? Was I a good listener? What did I learn from my mistake?&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong><em>What has been the single most significant development to impact your profession or area of business during your career and why?&nbsp;</em></strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Becoming a salesperson. I never imagined myself in sales, but my CEO saw something in me and encouraged me. I&rsquo;m so glad he did. It&rsquo;s hard work, but rewarding. &nbsp;My job is both an incredible challenge and an absolute privilege. I&rsquo;ve worked together with hundreds of leaders and teams to learn their world, share perspectives and design successful strategies for change. The skills I&rsquo;ve learned as a salesperson are critical components in my career pursuits. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong><em>What&rsquo;s the biggest challenge facing your industry today - and how to you plan to solve it?&nbsp;</em></strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Misalignment of expectation and reality. We have successfully increased the speed of practically everything, meaning we have created a system that puts more and more pressure on individuals in charge of delivery. It takes shape in a lot of ways, but from where I sit, the biggest impact is misalignment between what is expected and what is required to achieve that vision. We&rsquo;ve amassed more data in the past few years than in the prior centuries; yet so many times it&rsquo;s stuck in disparate places. For procurement, the way you use information determines the value it brings; information on its own rarely has a voice. With access to reliable data, teams will focus time answering the hard-to-reach, high-value questions, rather than grappling with low-value data collection exercises. Engaging with your stakeholders (suppliers, customers, other business units) early and often will increase effectiveness in the long term. I can&rsquo;t solve this alone, but I hope to equip teams with the frameworks and tools to recognize a path forward to their desired speed. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong><em>What do you consider to be your greatest achievement career-wise?&nbsp;</em></strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Improving lives and environments of people around the world. I have a few personal milestones that I&rsquo;m proud of. In college, I received a leadership award, and, later, I was published in a scientific journal. But my fulfillment comes from my job. I&rsquo;m grateful that I work in a field where I can help others. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong><em>What&rsquo;s your biggest (as yet) unfulfilled ambition - and what are you going to do to achieve it?&nbsp;</em></strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>My ambition is to leave the world a better place than I found it. I know that with a balance of unrelenting commitment, a healthy dose of realism and access to the right channels I can do it. I&rsquo;ve already begun. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong><em>What three words do you think your colleagues and peers would use to describe you?&nbsp;</em></strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Curious, loyal and energetic.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong><em>Finally, what piece of advice would you give to young women starting their careers in the field of sourcing, outsourcing and procurement?&nbsp;</em></strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>I would offer women the following advice:&nbsp;</div> <ul> <li>Invest in yourself. You&rsquo;re worth it! Also, by dedicating resources to your own development and improvement, you&rsquo;ll make it simple for others to invest in you too, thus multiplying your return.</li> <li>Seek out people that lift you up: leaders, mentors, friends, coaches.</li> <li>Authenticity and compassion are more important than ever in our rapidly-evolving internet-driven world and workplace.</li> <li>Play to your strengths. You will see proportionately better results from getting better at strength areas than trying exhaustively to make small strides in your weaker areas.</li> <li>Operate from a mindset of possibility. This has been instrumental for me both personally and professionally. Instead of operating within the framework of scarcity and limits, explore your opportunities. &nbsp;</li> </ul> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/leadership" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Leadership</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/sustainability" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sustainability</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/sustainable-sourcing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sustainable Sourcing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/career-building" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Career Building</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/consulting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Consulting</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Women in Global Sourcing: Celia Landesberg - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="http://futureofsourcing.com/women-in-global-sourcing-celia-landesberg"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Thu, 14 Feb 2019 19:03:24 +0000 Celia Landesberg 1371 at http://futureofsourcing.com http://futureofsourcing.com/women-in-global-sourcing-celia-landesberg#comments How to be a Coveted Consultant with Jeff Amsel http://futureofsourcing.com/how-to-be-a-coveted-consultant-with-jeff-amsel <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Podcast_Sourcing_Industry%20Landscape_9.png"><a href="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Podcast_Sourcing_Industry%20Landscape_9.png" title="How to be a Coveted Consultant with Jeff Amsel" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1487-3R1eUVJ4Crg"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Podcast_Sourcing_Industry%20Landscape_9.png?itok=HBlY7VMq" width="624" height="325" alt="" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p><strong>Are you ready for the next wave of disruption in procurement? Join Sourcing Industry Group CEO and President, Dawn Tiura, for conversations on The Sourcing Industry Landscape with innovators who embrace technology to improve, influence and inspire procurement professionals.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p><strong><span style="font-size: 13.008px;">Check out&nbsp;</span><a href="https://sig.org/sourcing-industry-landscape?__hstc=215510152.344406f4865c40604cf6029be7e958e0.1543422516683.1560384261223.1560386358147.373&amp;__hssc=215510152.2.1560386358147&amp;__hsfp=726271731" style="font-size: 13.008px;" target="_blank">all episodes of The Sourcing Industry Landscape</a><span style="font-size: 13.008px;">&nbsp;to date and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can listen to the podcast in iTunes, through your favorite podcast app or&nbsp;</span><a href="https://sig.org/sourcing-industry-landscape?__hstc=215510152.344406f4865c40604cf6029be7e958e0.1543422516683.1560384261223.1560386358147.373&amp;__hssc=215510152.2.1560386358147&amp;__hsfp=726271731" style="font-size: 13.008px;" target="_blank">on our website</a><span style="font-size: 13.008px;">.</span></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><em><strong>In&nbsp;<a href="https://sig.org/how-be-coveted-consultant-w-jeff-amsel" target="_blank">this episode of the Sourcing Industry Landscape</a>, Dawn Tiura interviews Jeff Amsel. Jeff Amsel began his career in accounting, earned an MBA in marketing and then was recruited to work with procurement teams. With experience working as both a consultant and within corporate consulting companies, he has a unique understanding of the needs of clients, especially when it comes to alignment with C-Suite stakeholders.</strong></em></p> <div>Dawn Tiura: Hi everyone! This is Dawn Tiura from Sourcing Industry Group, also known as SIG. Now today, we&#39;re going to have a very interesting conversation with someone I&#39;ve known for a number of years&mdash;we go way back. His name is Jeff Amsel, and Jeff is the Vice President of Global Sourcing and Real Estate, corporate facilities at HERE Technologies. So Jeff, I want to welcome you to today&#39;s program.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Thank you Dawn. So excited to participate in this with you.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: This is great. So I have known you for a number of years and I know, now you&#39;re at a company called HERE Technologies. Let&#39;s start with just finding who HERE is, and it&#39;s H-E-R-E, because a lot of people don&#39;t know that brand and yet it&#39;s everywhere.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Correct. Absolutely. About 30 years ago, our company actually started as NavTeq. Many people might be familiar with that name. We started by building maps for most of the cars on the road today about 30 years ago under the name of NavTeq. We were then acquired by Nokia and in 2015, we actually spun off to form HERE Technologies, and today we&#39;re owned by six investors. They consist of Daimler, Audi, BMW, Bosch, Intel and Continental AG.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: That&#39;s some big guys, yeah.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Absolutely. Most of the German OEM&#39;s there. Originally we started with Daimler, Audi, BMW and just in the last year, those other three saw the value of some of the data that we sit on and they wanted to invest in us as well so we just took on three of those other investors in the last year.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: That&#39;s exciting. What is that-</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: I&#39;d say we have about-</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: -you do at HERE Technologies, then? What is the company producing since they&#39;re not doing the navigation, or are they still doing the maps and navigation?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Absolutely. So that&#39;s still core to our business. We&#39;re just about a billion in revenue and the map making business is still the majority of our business but our future is on location strategy, and what that means is that we&#39;re trying to use location data to support a lot of different initiatives that you hear about in the news today. Whether it&#39;s autonomous vehicles, or in the B2B space, we&#39;re trying to use location data with customers so that they can better track their fleet, supply chain needs, and even on the B2C side, we&#39;re also developing a platform to support mobility needs of customers. So, if you think about it&mdash;sort of a one place to shop for whether you need airlines; hotels; rental cars; you want to understand traffic patterns of what&#39;s happening. We&#39;re working out of our office in Israel to develop this mobility platform for B2C customers.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Wow. So a lot of cool stuff going on there. And you joined&mdash;when did you join HERE?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: I joined about, almost a year and a half ago. Early January of 2017 and I&#39;m based in our Chicago office where we have about 12 hundred people here. We&#39;re located in the Boeing Building. We have about nine thousand employees globally, and about 140 offices spread out in about 55 different countries.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Wow. Wow. So, before we jump into what you, yourself, are doing at HERE, let&#39;s take a journey, because you&#39;ve got such an interesting background. You have had forays into consulting, and then back into the buy side as in-house, and then back to consulting, and then on top of that you&#39;re a board member for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. So why did you go&mdash;why do you go in and out of consulting occasionally during your career?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: It&#39;s been interesting, I would say, so to take folks on a quick journey over my experience over the last 25 years: I started off in accounting and joined a pharmaceutical company right out of school as their accountant, and was then working after that in their sales support area. And after getting my MBA in Marketing, in the evenings, I was actually approached by a recruiter to join Allstate Insurance, headquartered here in Chicago, to help build up their procurement team. So, I didn&#39;t know much about insurance other than having renter&rsquo;s insurance and car insurance like most young 20-year olds, but I decided to take a risk and jump into it and that really launched my career in procurement.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: I then took on roles, building upon my experience over the four years at Allstate to then go on to work for another insurance company here in Chicago called CNA Insurance, and then eventually becoming the Chief Procurement Officer at Discover Credit Card when they were owned by Morgan Stanley, and that then led me to a role leading Procurement and Real Estate for North America for a large, global insurance company called QBE, headquartered out of Sydney, Australia, and as you&#39;ve mentioned, for a few years in between, I did work at some of the leading consulting firms which was a great opportunity to experience the life of a consultant, right?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: And develop some new skills and relationships that a lot of these folks bring to the table, and so that was a great opportunity to get experience on both the corporate and consulting side.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: That&#39;s neat. So your last position, though, before you were at HERE, you were at Smart Cube and a very different type of company as well. So, it sounds, at least by looking at your journey, that the technology seems like it&#39;s a really strong attraction for you.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Absolutely. I think a lot the roles that I&#39;ve developed, first of all, I&#39;d be remiss to say that over the last 15 years in the different roles that I&#39;ve been in, a lot of that has been due to really networking and with the invention of media&mdash;social media tools&mdash;like LinkedIn that started roughly in 2002, I believe, these have really been critical to help me get introduced to some of these other companies that I&#39;ve had the pleasure of working for over the years, and there&#39;s obviously a number of differences between consulting and corporate that I&#39;ve learned and I can, maybe, just highlight a couple of those if that works?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: No, I&#39;d love that because I think that&#39;s a really great nuance.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Okay. So I&#39;d say in the consulting world, it&#39;s interesting because all of us, I think, work with consultants at some point in our career, but not many of us actually get to actually be a consultant and work for a consulting company. Obviously there&#39;s a few of us that have, sort of, the hybrid experience but I&#39;ve had the pleasure of doing both and what it&#39;s&mdash;I guess the consulting side has taught me is that, first of all, you obviously get trained, I&#39;d say, in a different type of tools and skill set that you bring to help&mdash;for tools like PowerPoint, right? It really helps enable you to tell your story and convey a message to your stakeholders, right?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Consulting helps you manage a very hectic schedule. You&#39;re in, typically, meetings all day and then, typically, with consulting companies your working until the late hour of the evening, so really managing your schedule during the day and into the evenings is very important.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Culturally, I&#39;d say, working for a consulting company is a lot different, from my experience, than working corporate&mdash;but again, it&#39;s good to experience both. As a consultant, it&#39;s critical that you understand, obviously, your stakeholder needs and also the vision of what Senior Management, because a lot of times as a consultant, you&#39;re bring brought in by the C-Suite teams so really getting aligned to what the C-Suite team is looking for is really important.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: I&#39;d also say in consulting that politics exist just like they do in corporate. So understanding that the politics happen regardless of where you work these days is just part of the nature of the work that we do. I think one of the big differences, and you could probably experience this, too, from your prior days in consulting is that they like to use the phrase &lsquo;Cash is King&rsquo;, right? Producing revenue is so important for consulting companies and for consultants to really be focused on not only delivering, but also on developing further relationship to keep those, as we like to say at some of the places where I worked, we like to say that they&#39;re &lsquo;clients for life&rsquo;.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Right, right.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: So, you&rsquo;re exposed to a lot of different industries, a lot of different clients in my experience in consulting which is great. You&#39;re surrounded by, obviously, a lot of talented partners to learn from, and so it was a great experience.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: That&#39;s awesome, because I like the fact that you have to pick up these different skill sets because I think if you always stay on the consulting side, you get a reputation, sometimes, of someone who tries to push change without accepting the culture. But having been that you&#39;ve been internal, you understand the politics side of it so when you consult, you&#39;re probably much more savvy about getting things to stick from a consulting engagement.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Right. I think that balance is absolutely critical because I think we&#39;ve all seen, right, where some people from consulting go into corporate and it doesn&#39;t always work, and vice-versa, and so what corporates taught me is that you have to operate and you have to understand very quickly the culture that you&#39;re operating in to be successful. I think it goes a long way in corporate to be a strong listener so that you can understand the needs of not only your team, but also your stakeholders so they truly feel that you&#39;re hearing their perspective.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Yeah.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: I&#39;ve learned, what I&#39;ve learned in corporate, too, is as much as I can to, especially managing teams, is you want to constantly try to reward and recognize your team and</div> <div>celebrate wins as often and frequently as possible. And just recently I was talking to my leadership teams about this that we&#39;re doing a little bit of this today, but we need to make it more formal and really elevate the program to really celebrate all the good work that we&#39;ve been doing over the last year and a half because we&#39;re driving a lot of change.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: You know what, and I think so many people forget to celebrate at the end. They go onto the next project instead of stopping and saying, &quot;Hey, we did a great job and let&#39;s celebrate this success before we move onto the next project.&quot;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Absolutely. I think it really helps with the employee morale and, obviously, different folks get&mdash;want to be recognized and rewarded in different ways and understanding how to set up your program, is just as important as well.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Yeah, I absolutely agree.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: I think other things I&#39;ve sort of experienced on the corporate side&mdash;because that&#39;s where most of my career has been, obviously, in corporate&mdash;is you&rsquo;re obviously working with a team of lot of diverse backgrounds and that inclusion and diversity effort is really important. In corporate, it continues to grow, from what I see at the different companies that I&#39;ve been involved with, which is exciting. I also think that while we&#39;re working really hard, just like consulting, you have to have that balance of&hellip;I&#39;ve always believed in sort of the work hard, play hard philosophy. You have to build a good team, a good chemistry, but also have fun while you&#39;re at work because we&#39;re all spending so many hours in the office these days and if you&#39;re not having a little bit of fun while we&#39;re doing it, I feel like we&#39;re missing something as a team.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: I love that. That&#39;s probably why I&#39;ve always enjoyed talking to you for all these years. I think I met you back in the CNA days, and you&#39;ve always had such a wonderful outlook and I like that.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: So you have had an amazing career and it&#39;s obviously not even half over but if you were to look back at your younger self and gave yourself a lesson that you wished you had learned or something that you wished you had known, what would you have done, possibly, differently, or wish you had known when you younger?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: I think, if I were to give my younger self some advice, I would say that take more time to learn about the organization and the different business segments because the more you can understand, holistically, about the company and how it operates the better off you&#39;ll be.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Back when I started working, I don&#39;t know if the environment of working in teams was as prevalent as it is today and I think a lot of people recognize just the great outcomes that you can have by working in teams so I would say, also, try to be more collaborative and try and work more so in teams where it makes sense.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: I would also say, partner closely with the consultants. A lot of times, right, the consultants are brought in and, again, as I mentioned, they typically are brought in by the C-Suite so that they have, there&#39;s an idea out there that there&#39;s some opportunities to make improvements in the organization, so I think the more you can align with consultants and get on board to what they&#39;re trying to do, I think it&#39;ll benefit you. And the other thing I thought about, too, as I look back is, and again, this program, I think, has developed over the years where maybe when I first started working it wasn&#39;t as prevalent, is try to find yourself a mentor in the organization who&#39;s senior enough and well-respected, who you can learn from and grow and bounce ideas off of and-</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Now do you think your mentor has to be at your existing company or could it be a mentor from another company, or do you try and look for one at each new company?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Yeah. It could be from another company but I&#39;ve often found that if you&#39;re trying to, especially starting off early in your career, if you&#39;re trying to grow within a company, it&#39;s great to find those leaders and who you really look up to, the organization looks up to, they inspire, they motivate, so it doesn&#39;t have to be at the same company but I&#39;m just thinking about early on in my career.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Yeah, I guess it sure wouldn&#39;t hurt if you had a mentor in your organization that could help you avoid some booby traps and quicksand and things like that, as well.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Absolutely, absolutely. I think the last point I&#39;d mention is that of advice that I give myself is be more receptive to feedback and just be open; learn from it. Everything&#39;s a learning opportunity and perception is critical, right, because perception is reality, as they say, so I think I would tell my younger self just to think more about that, learn from it, and support it and grow from it.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Well, you know, you have an interesting background though because coming out of college and going into accounting, and then getting an MBA in Marketing, usually those two&mdash;bean counters and marketing people&mdash;and I can say it because I&#39;m a CPA, recovering CPA, those two don&#39;t usually go together so I find that so interesting that you, you&#39;re not a typical bean counter at all. You&#39;ve got a fabulous personality and you&#39;re saying the right things about people and process and rewarding and celebrating and that. So, what made that jump? How did you go from Accounting to Marketing to Procurement? I just find that such an interesting balancing.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Yeah, it was actually when I was at the pharmaceutical company, I realized after several years in accounting that I didn&#39;t want to do accounting the rest of my life and I wanted an opportunity to do something different and with my personality, I had formed some good relationships with our sales support team and they supported the U.S. sales force so an opportunity opened up to join that group and I made that jump and back in the day, that was a very significant change, right, to take somebody out of accounting to the sales organization. But again, if you have the right personality and the skill set, which we all look for as we&#39;re recruiting people to our teams, we want those people that are really well-rounded that can not only be&mdash;call it here at HERE Technologies, we call it the &lsquo;what&rsquo; and the &lsquo;how&rsquo;, right? We don&#39;t want people that are just really good at what they&#39;re doing but we want people that know how to do it as well, how to engage with the stakeholders and interact and have a good dialogue and build relationships and trust and that, that, I think, skill set is important. And I think I had it early on in my career which is why I was able to jump to the sale organization and do that type of work.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Yeah. That&#39;s really neat. Are you available if people would like to reach out to you after this podcast airs and have conversation about their careers? Are you open to mentoring, perhaps, a person or just providing some sound advice?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Absolutely. I&#39;ve done it in the past and I actually am part of a coaching program here within our company as well and happy to have those conversations.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: I thought you would be, so thank you. So folks, I&#39;m going to make sure that you have the contact information for Jeff. Make sure you LinkIn with him and get in and be part of his network.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: And that&#39;s the power of SIG is that we want to keep people networking and growing and just keep elevating the industry. And Jeff, I can&#39;t thank you enough for everything you&#39;ve done to help us elevate the industry by being forward thinking, by recognizing that you can&#39;t just have hard skills, you need to have the soft skills, and demonstrating that through your career. You&#39;ve just been somebody that&#39;s been so fun to watch and to learn from and I think everyone could benefit from knowing you.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: I appreciate it, Dawn, and obviously it&#39;s been great being a part of SIG over the last 10 or 12 years that I&#39;ve been part of the organization, and I enjoy all the networking and the default leadership that&#39;s produced out of it and, like I mentioned early on, that networking is so important in our industry, right, because we&#39;re a tight-knit community ,and everyone knows everyone, and it&#39;s just a great resource that SIG provides to on-fault leadership and the ability to promote different topics in the procurement space, so thank you so much for thinking of me for this discussion.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Yeah. So I just have to let you know, Jeff, that I ask our team to send in nominations and when it triangulates, so for that, that means three different people have nominated the same person, I go, &quot;All right, that&#39;s somebody that I have to have on this program,&quot; and so that&#39;s how you got here. Not just me wanting you&mdash;but you came in with three nominations to be on the podcast, so you&#39;ve got to feel good about yourself. Because to be on Art of Procurement with Dawn Tiura I have to have people raving about you, and so that&#39;s why you&#39;re here today, so thank you for your time. I know we&#39;re going wrap this up. Jeff Amsel, with HERE Technologies. Vice President of Global Sourcing and Real Estate, Corporate Facilities with an amazing background, and I encourage everybody to add him to your network if you don&rsquo;t already know him. If you do, then just reach out and say congratulations. And with that, I&#39;m going to wrap up today&#39;s call. So, thank you Jeff, thank you for your time today.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Jeff Amsel: Thank you so much, Dawn.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Dawn Tiura: Bye-bye.</div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/leadership" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Leadership</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/consulting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Consulting</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/stakeholders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Stakeholders</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/strategy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Strategy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/career-building" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Career Building</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="How to be a Coveted Consultant with Jeff Amsel - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="http://futureofsourcing.com/how-to-be-a-coveted-consultant-with-jeff-amsel"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Wed, 15 Aug 2018 03:25:56 +0000 Jeff Amsel 1487 at http://futureofsourcing.com http://futureofsourcing.com/how-to-be-a-coveted-consultant-with-jeff-amsel#comments Contracting for multi-supplier DevOps http://futureofsourcing.com/node/748 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><em>Just when multi-supplier (also known as SIAM) contracting is starting to get under control, DevOps emerges. This article looks at the interaction of the two for the design of retained and sourced IT operations. The implications for service contracts are profound and largely un-tested.</em></p> <p>The pages of management journals have been liberally sprinkled with fads for many decades. Some react with naive credulity; instantly tacking from one to another as each article appears in the press. Others ignore all trends and emerging thought, dismissing all as fluff and yesterday&rsquo;s news. The smart look for the essence of new tools, seeking to understand which are applicable where to deliver what. If these match their strategies and visions, they are pursued. If not, they are passed over. In this spirit, this article regards multi-supplier operations and DevOps as approaches that are serious, fundamental and useful for some but not all organisations.</p> <p>In the period between the 1970s and 2010 contracts may generally be characterised as &ldquo;monolithic&rdquo;. A customer would have few, large, long-duration (10-15 year) contracts. Each would address a large element of their service requirement or even contract a whole class. There may be one IT supplier, a second buildings facility manager, a third processing Finance &amp; Accounting with HR. The interactions between these were light and few. The mode that the supplier chose to operate their service was its own internal affair, minimally disclosed to the customer and jealously guarded. The retained organisation withered and was ruthlessly cut to permit little beyond the approval of change and periodic performance review, which senior managers delegated wherever possible.</p> <p><strong>Multi-Supplier So Far</strong></p> <p>The growth of the cloud and the arrival of new service providers contributed to the emergence of a new model that engaged multiple suppliers and fragmented services between them. There needs to be a unifying function for services to operate effectively end-to-end and across suppliers, so the &ldquo;Service Integration and Management&rdquo; function (SIAM) was defined and implemented. This replaced the integrative function that had previously been supplied by the monolith. Sometimes elements of service integration are sourced, sometimes provided in-house: part of the skill is in drawing the boundary in a manner that is appropriate to the strategy and circumstance. The demands on the retained organisation were inevitably heavier than under monolithic contracting.</p> <p>Whilst the high-level model has many attractions, contractual and operational difficulties quickly emerged. Multiple modes of collaboration agreement, incentives and cross-supplier obligations were tested. Customers found it difficult to staff their functions and differentiate between dispensable overhead and essential oversight. The result has too often been a dog with rubber teeth. The CIO ordered a highly-trained Alsatian; the organisation delivered a Chihuahua with a high-pitched yap and nasty suck. Impotence flows not from a weakness of the model, but from neglect of critical factors. These include robust and attentive governance; clear and enforced architectural standards; consistent and applied operating processes and roles; attentive financial, service and contractual management. These are a part of the price for making SIAM work. If you are not prepared to attend to these, you may do better with a monolithic contract. Do not even think of in-sourcing if the ability to divert management attention is your driver.</p> <p>It has long been known that multi-supplier operation is heavily dependent upon effective collaboration between suppliers. In years gone by, the UK trades unions practiced &ldquo;work to rule&rdquo; as a superbly effective way of inflicting destructive effect. Customers did not have to mediate in the days of monolithic contracts, or were trained over years of glacial performance to expect months and multiple revisions to effect the simplest of changes across organisational boundaries. In these times of digital clock-speed and fickle customers, such practice is incompatible with market success. There are well-established service providers who have grown wizened and ugly in protected markets. Some such providers cannot be trusted to cooperate. This is so central to effective performance that it has to be weighted heavily in supplier selection, including assessment of incumbent performance. Get this wrong and marketing will simply continue to ignore IT in buying shadow services without any control or economy.</p> <p>The leading customers and suppliers are just now getting to grips with multi-supplier operations and service integration. Some of the contracts formed appear to be sensible and if the operational difficulties and critical factors are not yet performing, there is some hope that eventually they will. Attempts to define what should be done to support integration have diminished, sometimes being no more than obligations to exchange data, work to common process and sign up to non-contractual Operating Level Agreements. What then is this DevOps fad?</p> <p><strong>What is DevOps?</strong></p> <p>&ldquo;DevOps (a clipped compound of &lsquo;development&rsquo; and &lsquo;operations&rsquo;) is a culture, movement or practice that emphasises the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information technology (IT) professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes. It aims at establishing a culture and environment where building, testing, and releasing software can happen rapidly, frequently, and more reliably.&rdquo;&nbsp;<em>(Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps</a>)</em></p> <p>DevOps is a perspective, an approach. You cannot buy it, but you can do things in a DevOps way. Some describe it as the application of lean and quality techniques to IT. DevOps proponents hold that IT suffers from many of the failings that bedevilled engineering and manufacturing; ineffective hand-overs between design and production; repeated re-work; testing in unrepresentative environments; bottlenecks that are overloaded whilst other resources lie idle; inconsistent manual operations where automation could be applied. Many similar techniques can be brought to IT that were first developed for manufacturing/engineering.</p> <p>DevOps seeks to accelerate the capture of value across the end-to-end delivery lifecycle. As such, it roots-out delay, ineffectiveness and waste. A strong feature is unceasing and energetic focus on operational analytics and the application of automation. There are few that would object to such a proposition. What has changed to make it possible is the widespread availability of tools and environments that allow the dream to be realised in action. The warning that all readers should heed is that practice is evolving at such a pace that everything should be regarded as unstable. If you seek to draft reliable contracts in such an environment, this is a nightmare. As in any emerging market, there is real insight and progress, there is also re-branding the old with a dusting of creative terminology. Beware the charlatan.</p> <p><strong>Contracting for DevOps Delivery</strong></p> <p>There has been little written on this subject that has come to my attention. If you have examples, please share.</p> <p>At the time of the emergence of the SIAM model, it was notable that the leading outsource suppliers studiously avoided the role of Service Integrator. The fear was that as the SIAM had to hold tower suppliers to account, demanding independence, this left the SIAM supplier with the integration risk (and associated penalty) without the juicy revenues that come from the much larger towers. With DevOps the picture moves on. Several large integrators have developed cloud brokerage services and have packaged associated tooling as a service. They will host the marketplace for your infrastructure, allowing you to fulfil from multiple cloud providers. You can also engage multiple applications development and maintenance suppliers, all of whom use the same cloud brokerage services. The contracts for services are simple, being pass-through of associated infrastructure charges with a defined mark-up and a fairly short minimal engagement. The real prize for the supplier is often capturing Applications Development &amp; Maintenance work.</p> <p>For some customers, engaging such a supplier is an answer to prayer. Having looked at the tooling required, stitching it together rapidly emerges as a very difficult, time-consuming and expensive activity. Those who have got as far as exploring the ability to resource the delivery project find it desperately difficult. Tool developers with relevant experience, let alone the architects and service developers are rare and expensive. It would seem to make sense to use a portion of a tried and tested platform under a SaaS contract, rather than build one. Where is the catch? For some, particularly seeking to avoid vendor lock-in, the role of cloud broker and DevOps integrator is so strategic that they would never outsource it. The early and famous proponents of DevOps (Google, Facebook, Amazon) regard their systems development capability as a source of competitive advantage to be controlled and owned in its entirety. They may consider a build-operate-transfer contract whereby a service provider is engaged to construct a captive (in-sourced) operation faster than it could be built.</p> <p>The effective application of DevOps demands the tight integration of many elements over multiple organisations, spanning the service lifecycle and every party involved in delivery. Such tight integration is hard to achieve, harder to maintain, and immensely disruptive to replace. Integration is hard to do, harder to measure and difficult to contract for. It requires an effective working environment and set of relationships. Trust is essential. DevOps is currently changing so rapidly that if you have contractual certainty on the day of signature, you have an inoperable straight-jacket a week later. Think Agile without a well-developed Scrum approach. Getting the governance and coordination model right will be challenging and will require a contractual annex defining the current architectural, tooling, data interchange and operational methods. This will change frequently and sometimes fundamentally. This can only ever be done under revision control, accepting that there will be costs of change. The salvation is that if you have multiple suppliers, the costs of change should be broadly similar for all within a category. Those seeking to exploit change will therefore be quickly identifiable.</p> <p>The implementation of DevOps requires an extensive range of skills and disciplines all at once. Such transformation is challenging to achieve in any environment. Some start with tooling, only to discover that whilst necessary, this is far from sufficient and can lead to some dangerous weaknesses. You should be led by your strategy and business requirements, assembling services to support them and deliver these through tooling, contracts, processes, skills and staff. Get a good guide!</p> <p>The prizes that make the application of DevOps worth pursuing include:</p> <ul style="list-style-type:square;"> <li>The ability to accelerate the introduction of new functionality (combined with Agile, expect release schedules to go from months to days or even hours)</li> <li>Reduced operation support costs from automation (NoOps is an emerging line of practice)</li> <li>Increased application availability resulting from higher quality automated service testing and migration</li> <li>Increased commercial effectiveness from the ability to switch suppliers.</li> </ul> <p>Of these, the key element is that of competing on time. The greatest take-up is seen in digital-driven strategies where there is the requirement to make frequent and rapid releases to test and exploit consumer preference. Some CIOs pursue it to exploit the cost advantages of automating work that requires highly paid systems administrators to do repetitive tasks.</p> <p>DevOps is not the one source of all IT truth. It does have much to offer. Building it is difficult, costly, time-consuming. It does however offer radical improvement in the time to deliver new functionality that is&nbsp;valuable&nbsp;for anyone who competes in a time-critical market. It may not immediately be cheaper, but ultimately the elimination of delay and rework should pay dividends on the cost and revenue side too.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/multi-sourcing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Multi sourcing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/contract" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contract</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/advisory" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Advisory</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/consulting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Consulting</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/strategy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Strategy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/transformation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Transformation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Contracting for multi-supplier DevOps - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="http://futureofsourcing.com/node/748"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Wed, 27 Jul 2016 14:44:32 +0000 William Hooper 748 at http://futureofsourcing.com Avoiding the gotchas of outsourcing transition http://futureofsourcing.com/node/967 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>The transition period of bringing a new provider into an environment is critical to the success of an outsourcing initiative. An effective transition sets the stage for a long-term partnership, while a poorly managed one can damage the relationship beyond repair.</p> <p>Under the best of circumstances, managing the transition is no easy task. From the client&rsquo;s perspective, the fundamental challenge is to keep up with the pace of change surrounding transfer of knowledge and resources and putting infrastructure and process in place. Given all that has to be accomplished, transition periods are often overly ambitious, and sometimes ridiculously short. Clients sometimes agree to short transition times to achieve savings targets in the sourcing business case. Moreover, under a typical contract, invoicing commences only upon completion of the transition phase. This gives the provider a powerful incentive to speed up the process and keep things on schedule &ndash; and if the client gets steamrolled along the way, so be it.</p> <p>The pace and complexity of the transition process, coupled with the financial and operational stakes involved, sets the stage for a number of potential problems. For one thing, the client who fails to engage on an equal footing from the outset and keep up the pace risks falling behind and never catching up. If the provider dictates the transition process, critical decisions on how to do things will default to the provider. Over time, the client can become increasing disengaged, and ultimately abdicate responsibility for managing the relationship. This can lead to a related risk of provider lock-in. If the client lacks the competencies to manage the relationship, they lose oversight of the service delivery model as well as the ability to evaluate the provider&rsquo;s performance and to assess potential alternatives.</p> <p>Staffing shortfalls are another common complication of sourcing transitions. When a provider wins a major deal, they rarely have adequate resources on the bench, and typically have to hire large numbers of new staff to deliver the work. In many cases the provider can&rsquo;t staff up quickly enough to meet the client&rsquo;s requirements. But again, given the economic pressure to keep on schedule, providers will often backfill the new positions post-transition and conduct training behind the scenes. This scenario can have a negative impact on service quality and compromise the foundation of the delivery model over the long term.</p> <p>Effectively transferring knowledge between the client and provider teams also presents a challenge. Because a significant portion of the provider&rsquo;s resources are typically located offshore, connectivity between the client and provider teams is essential to conduct training and share information. However, in many cases ordering and establishing a network connection that enables high-bandwidth video conferencing and screen sharing can take 90 to 120 days. Similarly, acquiring licenses for new applications and tools takes time. If these seemingly minor details aren&rsquo;t anticipated and addressed in advance, the transition process loses momentum.</p> <p>So how can clients level the playing field and effectively prepare for a transition? Philosophically, the transition needs to be approached as a massive exercise in project management. To execute, a Transition Management Office (TMO), operating as a virtual organisation, can be structured to address high-level sourcing strategy considerations as well as the in-the-weeds details essential to keeping the transition on track.</p> <p>A TMO generally convenes in advance of the transition process &ndash; ideally six weeks or so &ndash; to assign roles and responsibilities and define key to-dos. Typically comprising a core team of 10 to 12 members representing different stakeholder groups (business users, IT, HR, communications, procurement and finance), the TMO&rsquo;s tactical responsibilities include orchestrating internal governance meetings that convene on a monthly or weekly basis, depending on the responsibilities of each team. A key focus is to identify potential pitfalls &ndash; both large and small &ndash; and how to avoid them; this often requires thinking through unanticipated scenarios in rigorous detail.</p> <p>Through this exercise, the TMO can prepare the internal organisation for the breakneck pace of the transition process. By identifying critical tasks in advance, the TMO can create its own transition plan that includes milestones and &ldquo;hooks&rdquo; that enable oversight of what is being done &ndash; and what isn&rsquo;t. This plan identifies all the things that the client has to do to fulfill its transition obligations in support of the new provider. For example, a weekly status report requiring specific updates on staffing can provide the client with transparency into the provider&rsquo;s progress. If, in fact, the provider is struggling to onboard staff and is attempting to obfuscate, the client has documentation to justify pushing back until the problem is resolved. Outcomes of these meetings can include a red/yellow/green status to prioritise follow-up actions.</p> <p>An effective TMO can also develop a plan to address the minutiae surrounding the acquisition of new tools and licenses, providing access to servers and applications and resolving security issues &ndash; minutiae that frequently snowball into complications that bedevil transition programs. Indeed, a proper transition plan typically states requirements and addresses contingencies down to the level of where client and provider team individuals will sit during training sessions. While that may seem like overkill, attention to detail &ndash; within the context of a broader strategy &ndash; truly is the key to success of managing a sourcing transition.</p> <p>Service providers conduct outsourcing transitions essentially on a full-time basis. As such, even clients with significant outsourcing experience are potentially at a distinct disadvantage. Effective planning and rigorous preparation &ndash; through a project management structure that leverages sourcing expertise &ndash; are key to bridging the gap.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-company field-type-entityreference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><article about="/company/alsbridge" typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document" class="node node-companies node-published node-not-promoted node-not-sticky author-steveg odd clearfix" id="node-companies-979"> <header> <h2 class="node-title"><a href="/company/alsbridge" title="Alsbridge">Alsbridge</a></h2> </header> <span property="dc:title" content="Alsbridge" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span><span property="sioc:num_replies" content="0" datatype="xsd:integer" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span> <div class="content clearfix"> <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>[EDITOR&#39;S NOTE: In December 2016 Alsbridge was acquired by Information Services Group (ISG). To avoid confusion and for the purposes of historical integrity, Outsource has kept all references to Alsbridge in place, on all content published prior to the date of acquisition.]&nbsp;<a href="http://www.alsbridge.com/"><span style="color:#b22222;">Alsbridge</span></a>&nbsp;is a management consulting firm that helps companies improve operations, reduce costs and optimize service provider relationships. With over 300 consultants globally, Alsbridge has worked with over 40% of the Fortune 500 and currently advises over 200 clients a year on over $11b in spend. We apply operational data and market insight to help clients align sourcing strategies to business requirements, negotiate contracts at fair market prices and improve governance and vendor management. Services comprise Sourcing Advisory, Network, Transformation and Cloud, IT Asset Management, Benchmarking, Vendor Management and Governance and Intelligent Process Automation Advisory.&nbsp;<a href="mailto:info@alsbridge.com"><span style="color:#b22222;">Contact us</span></a>&nbsp;to learn more.</p> </div></div></div> </div> <div class="clearfix"> <nav class="links node-links clearfix"></nav> </div> </article> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/advisory" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Advisory</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/governance" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Governance</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/consulting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Consulting</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/strategy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Strategy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/project-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Project Management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Avoiding the gotchas of outsourcing transition - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="http://futureofsourcing.com/node/967"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Fri, 17 Jun 2016 13:09:56 +0000 Beth Anderson 967 at http://futureofsourcing.com