Who cares about sourcing?

When was the last time your CEO got excited about sourcing?

If you're like many others out there, you probably can't recall the last time that happened, we should stop and wonder why. Some of the reasons likely include:

• It's an operational issue best dealt with by my C-suite colleagues (CIO, CFO, CHRO, CPO, COO, etc).
  
• I disagree with outsourcing; we need to control our own destiny (notice how "sourcing" became "outsourcing").
  
• What does this have to do with boosting our business growth and market position?

Yet, if we dig a little, we can find companies where the CEO is, if not excited, at least interested in sourcing.

For example, Bharti is a company where I bet the CEO is quite excited about sourcing, and in their case outsourcing. By engaging a third-party to deal with the many operational issues associated with keeping sufficient capacity available to keep pace with growth, the management team is free to focus on maintaining and building that growth.

P&G is another company where building a shared-services group (definitely a part of the sourcing spectrum), recognizing its limits, then identifying elements that could benefit from additional scale--all done over many years--continues to provide a strong foundation for a company well known for its long term thinking--something that starts with the CEO and Chairman.

Many companies will focus more on the cost element of the 3Cs--cost, capacity and capability--resulting in less interest from the CEO. Others, like the ones mentioned above, balance all 3Cs in building a sourcing strategy, gaining substantial benefits in the short, medium and long term.

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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.