Action: Are your management practices ad hoc or systematic? Peter F. Drucker
Probably, the most critical of these replaceable management practices are those which are critical to your competitive differentiation. If your "schtick" is market presence (sales), you had better have replicable processes that are better than the competitors. That's pretty much facile, and even then, many companies don't reach that level of execution (more later).
More difficult to do extremely well, and maybe even more of a competitive edge when executed flawlessly are what I would call "feeder" processes. The ones which make you efficient in your eco-system (I hope to cover this important topic in the future...maybe on a day when I don't get what Dr. Drucker is saying).
Example: Although CISCO's strength is in sales and marketing, their acquisition process is know to be best in class. In reality it is an extension of the product development process.
Example: Fluor supports it's excellent knowledge work in numerous fields with a People promotion/Succession process bar none. It is world class at feeding the right people at the right time into the most complex management jobs.
Example: Citi Banks risk management processes in sub prime were not what they should be, and management did not have the expertise/knowhow in that side business to assess the growing risk levels. They had not put management practice into place in a critical "feeder" process.
So, yes if you are excellent in product design, customer intimacy, or operational excellence it is not enough, you must also be excellent in the critical feeder processes. Does this mean they shouldn't be outsourced?
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