The next step for the CEO: Moving IT‐enabled services outsourcing to the strategic agenda
Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal
ISSN: 1753-8297
Article publication date: 23 February 2010
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to distill research findings that will influence CEO and top team behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The findings are based on case study research into 650 plus organisations and their outsourcing arrangements in Europe, Asia Pacific and USA.
Findings
CEOs have five reasons for ensuring IT‐based services outsourcing is included in their strategy discussions. IT outsourcing impacts upon a firm's market value. The sheer size of outsourcing expenditure merits senior management attention. Getting outsourcing wrong can seriously damage corporate health. At the same time, the evidence shows examples of outsourcing playing a strategic role for many businesses, and only the CEO has the real bargaining power to make outsourcing deliver this strategic dividend.
Research limitations/implications
The research was carried out by the LSE's Outsourcing Unit and uses in‐depth longitudinal case studies to identify outsourcing practices that work, in terms of achieving superior business results.
Practical implications
The paper spells out the reasons why CEO and top teams should be engaged in their outsourcing decision making and management.
Originality/value
The paper establishes well researched grounds for why CEOs and top teams need to act differently if more effective outsourcing is to be achieved.
Keywords
Citation
Willcocks, L. (2010), "The next step for the CEO: Moving IT‐enabled services outsourcing to the strategic agenda", Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 62-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291011023089
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited