Segmenting the market into buyers that understand sourcing and managing services globalization from those that don’t get it is a useful exercise for running a conference — or choosing where to work.
Even as our editorial teams in the U.S. and India place the finishing touches on the 12th issue of this monthly magazine, we are gearing up for our second annual Global Services Conference on Jan. 31st in New York City. Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, a professor, economist and author, weighs in as our keynoter. In programming content for our conference, we strive to assess where most buyers are situated on the learning curve of sourcing-process maturity. We set our gauges to maximize business value insights rather than attempting to boil an ocean’s worth of knowledge about sourcing and managing globally delivered services into a single day’s event.
In several years of covering this field, I still see a divergence between companies that “get” services globalization and those that still assume it’s a slightly more exotic form of outsourcing. The ones that appear a bit clueless but remain interested in the topic tend to lack the necessary executive support to establish a sustainable program to source and manage global services delivery. In terms of sourcing-process maturity these are the leading indicators that help differentiate clued-in companies from clueless ones:
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Few companies acknowledge global sourcing as a function or discipline. As a result, few executives receive necessary training and few companies bother to performance manage (that’s a fancy way of saying give bonuses to) their executives to succeed. |
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Few companies establish a formal program-management office. Oversight committees don’t impress me — they lack accountability. And careerwise, does anyone aspire to join a committee? |
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Few companies create a global workforce strategy. Transparency is a key element of this plan. Yet, for most companies, establishing a workforce strategy will be an excellent initiative even if they won’t share it with stakeholders. |
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Few companies adopt global procurement standards. Well, yes, we realize that this is easier said than done and that battles are likely to ensue. But once it is in place, an organization is ready to save serious dollars. |
Apart from commercial considerations, the reason why events such as ours exist isn’t to manufacture an excuse for professionals to network with one another (or to get out of town); rather, the key takeaways are best practices in sourcing and management of services, insights into success stories and governance strategies, and sometimes the floating of new models or ideas, too.
At our conference we will introduce this year’s Global Services 100, a listing of the world’s leading providers of business and technology services. Awards will be given to short-listed leaders in 11 areas such as regions, BPO and ITO services categories, along with a new area for us — engineering services.
To find out more about the Global Services event, visit www.globalservicesmedia.com/conference
