Jamie Liddell
From this author
Earlier today, I had the great pleasure of hosting the seventh episode of Outsource Talks, our webinar series – for those of you not yet familiar with this especially marvellous project - that brings the time-honoured talkshow model to the international sourcing, outsourcing and business transformation community.
Rather than focussing on one particular theme, one of the joys of Outsource Talks is that we try to explore a variety of topics on each show and in doing so explore...
Earlier this year, Outsource editor Jamie Liddell had the privilege of chairing a roundtable dinner hosted by Capgemini, and attended by some of the most prominent advisors in the UK outsourcing community. The evening saw a huge variety of topics covered - but took place under Chatham House Rules, meaning that the conversation did not take place "on the record". However, several of those attending later reconvened for an on-the-record discussion of one of the most prominent...
Many, many moons ago we put out a call for outsourcing acronyms, humorous or otherwise, for a future Top Ten feature – and then, as submissions completely failed to flood in, we pretty much forgot about it and moved on. Until now… An odd flurry last week means we have a full complement – and very pleased we are too, as some of these are genuinely eye-opening (not to mention extremely droll). Do you know your vodka from your ZIPPO? Your Mimi from your Batgirl? Prepare...
Another month, another great Outsource Talks webinar… This week it was my profound pleasure and privilege to welcome Vested’s Kate Vitasek, KPMG’s Don Ryan and ‘Art of Procurement’ host Phil Ideson to the Outsource Talks sofa, where the hour fairly flew by in a wonderful discussion of...
The summer sun blazed down upon London today, a raging nuclear inferno of staggering power – yet it was as a mere birthday-cake candle when set alongside the brilliance of the panellists on this afternoon’s Outsource Talks… Yes, today saw the fifth episode of our webinar talkshow, and if my introduction might be considered just a fractionhyperbolic we were nevertheless treated to a feast of outsourcing opinion and insight, wit and wisdom – and a few...
As a seasoned professional with over 25 years in the business, I possess demonstrable experience and expertise, and a professionalism which, when I recently found myself obliged to seek a new role, I expected to see mirrored in the hiring process: I believed the recruitment road to discovery to be a meticulous process underpinned by a rigorous, tried-and-tested methodology where there is due consideration for the predicament (which could, of course, feel like quite a belittling one) the...
As another working week draws to a close, I thought I’d take this opportunity to wave you off into your respective weekends with a couple of announcements… Those of you who are members of our LinkedIn group may already have seen some of these; those of you who aren’t are missing out! Come and join us at the increasingly archaically named ‘Outsource Magazine – Global Community’ group...
At a recent breakfast roundtable I hosted, one of our guests was discussing the transformation her organisation is currently undergoing, moving a significant proportion of its recruitment function into a central office collocated with a number of other back-office activities.
“It’s a shared service,” she said, “and they’re calling it ‘Global Business Services’ – but we’re not really sure what that’s supposed to mean. We...
Nearly two weeks after the UK’s vote to leave the European Union (the ‘Brexit’), very little has become clear in terms of what this means for the country and the EU itself – and the sourcing and outsourcing space in the region - and even how and when the exit process will take place. Obviously, such a momentous transition should not be rushed through over-hastily; however, uncertainty can have a paralysing economic and commercial impact and pressure is already...
The world of outsourcing is a mysterious place anyway, full of bizarre practice, obscure (even obscurantist) jargon, and technology that is increasingly indistinguishable from magic – yet some parts of our shared folklore take this oddness to a whole new level of spookiness. Look beneath the surface and one finds a repository of strange tales of enigmatic events and curious characters that...