"Acme Outsourcing Provider…we’re no worse than anyone else!"

"Acme Outsourcing Provider…we’re no worse than anyone else!" Not too long ago I was speaking with an outsourcing leader who was trying out his latest and greatest corporate message on me, extolling the virtues of his value proposition. "We can take out 20 percent of cost year one," he expounded. "That’s pretty valuable to a (CFO)/(business leader)/(HR leader). Clients should be beating a pathway to our door." "Cost savings are sooo yesterday," I quickly interjected. "What’s so special about that?" And his face fell to the floor. Now I try not to make it a habit of deflating someone’s balloons, but in the outsourcing world, cost savings are no more than table stakes. Business process improvement is now a commodity with definable benefits and measures—cost savings of X, efficiency creation of Y, SLA adherence of Z, for about every function and process. And outsourcing is not the only key to business process nirvana—shared services, outsourcing, and internal reengineering can all deliver cost savings. Re-engineering processes—it’s on ongoing task in most organizations. Labor arbitrage—an established approach. Smarter technology—open the purse strings and implement. Move to the cloud---what’s the big deal? So what’s an outsourcing provider to do to stand out in the crowd? Today, providers need to raise their game just to stay in place, finding their "extra" – unique value, skill, contribution, commitment, or way of doing business – that sets them apart. Go to any outsourcer’s site and you’ll see the same menu of benefit: cost savings (naturally), client-centric, operations excellence, domain specialists, business value creators … and don’t forget partnership approach or end-to-end delivery, with a side dish of innovation and transformation. In short, our market is overflowing with services that are expected, or dare I say, adequate. What client would not expect operations excellence from a provider? Or that they wouldn’t have a grasp of their business challenges? Or be client focused? – after all, it’s a service business. What’s unique or amazing about any part of this value proposition? For those of you who have time on your hands, read the book Tough Cookies, by Kathy Cloniger, the woman who made the mainstream Girl Scouts of America cool again. She argues that if most organizations were honest with themselves, their mission statements would read "Acme Widgets: We’re no worse than anybody else." So what might a provider do to stand out in the crowd? Most provider value propositions are designed to be safe, playing "me-too" with regards to what the competition are saying, rather than breaking any eggs. How would buyers react if suddenly a provider said that its value proposition was to improve processes, get to steady-state, then move them back to buyers, who are deathly frightened about losing tacit knowledge? Or if a provider actually was willing to take on some level of reporting or compliance risk? Or promised no change orders unless the work increased by a quantum? Buyers, how would you like to see providers raise their games? Add a comment!

"Acme Outsourcing Provider…we’re no worse than anyone else!"

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