Professionalism and sourcing

Last week during our TPI conferences in Asia-Pacific, I found myself discussing the concept of professionalism of sourcing with a number of people. The main things that I noticed were that people were aware of the relatively short history of sourcing as a key management tool yet were also adamant that there is a growing need to create a concept of professional sourcing.

One key element that has started to emerge in that vein is the eSCM models (eSourcing Capability Model) from Carnegie-Mellon (I need to note that one of my TPI colleagues was a co-author of this material). I am not going to discuss the details of eSCM here, rather what is interesting is that it represents an attempt to bring a degree of professionalism to sourcing.

I'm intrigued as to whether readers of this blog believe (a) that professionalism is necessary at this stage of the evolution of sourcing as a management tool and (b) what would define professionalism?

I�'ll look for some feedback (either as comments to this blog or e-mail directly to Michael.Rehkopf@tpi.net) and then talk about this more in the next blog.

• Talkback
• Print
• E-mail
• Share
• Alerts

Slashdot

Digg

Facebook

Twitter

Delicious

reddit

Google

StumbleUpon

close this

Talkback 0 comments

• Are telcos new drivers of outsourcing industry?
• Deciding to outsource: Is it cultural?
• Outsourced or not, demand must be managed
• Competition heats up for outsourcing industry
• What do we mean by 'outsourcing'?

• Have we started to turn the corner?
• Outsourcing and value for money improvement--incompatible?
• Who cares about sourcing?
• BPO, the unfulfilled promise
• What do we mean by 'outsourcing'?

2009

2008

2007

2006

• Ultimate 2012 recovery site: the moon
• Amendments to empower Copyright Tribunal
• Don't CC me, I'll CC you
• M'sian broadband wars heat up
• Where have all the bosses gone?

Michael Rehkopf

Michael has more than 20 years of experience in operations, strategy and sourcing covering all major parts of the globe. He has also worked for Australian, Canadian, German and Japanese companies in both business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing.
Michael's industry experience includes the financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications and travel sectors. He leverages this diverse industry experience and his university background in accounting, IT and his Master of Dispute Resolution, to assist clients in the development of business strategies and the implementation of sourcing strategies. These include the associated evaluation, negotiation and organizational change.
Michael is currently a partner at TPI, the world's oldest and largest sourcing advisory firm. Prior to joining TPI, Michael held leadership positions with Siemens Business Services, OpenPlus International, Mitsubishi Electric and Netron.