Why We Outsource

Companies tend to outsource things that they don’t consider important or a competitive advantage.  Contemporary Analysis takes a different approach to outsourcing. We develop close partnerships with great firms, and use outsourcing as a way to develop competitive advantages, streamline their management structure, and create an environment of innovation.  This is important because of how companies are structured at their core.  The book, Innovator’s Solution explains that:
“Rarely does an idea for a new-growth business emerge fullyformed from an innovative employee’s head.  No matter how well articulated a concept or insight might be, it must be shaped and modified, often significantly, as it gets fleshed out into a business plan that can win funding from the corporation…Midlevel managers play a crucial role in every company’s innovation process.  They decide which of the ideas that come bubbling in they will support and carry to upper management for approval, and which ideas they will simply allow to languish.”
They go on to say that their job is to sift thought the ideas and group them as either good or bad and throw their weight behind the new product whose market is assured; backed by credible data on size and growth potential.
and there in lies the problem.  Midlevel managers like their jobs.  They are not going to risk their upward growth potential on a lower level’s half-formed idea.  This means that great ideas that warrant research get squashed because they lack the market research data because they are in a new market.  (Which, by the way, is the whole point of innovation.  To define a product that has a new market).
Outsourcing solves this dilemma.  An outside company gives the autonomy needed to think up new ideas, and suggest them to high level leaders without fear of losing clout, and diminishing the need for mid-level management.
This becomes even more important when working with companies that are becoming exceedingly filled with knowledge workers.  CAN believes that knowledge workers should be treated as executives because they possess knowledge that is unique to them and they use this knowledge to make decisions every day that impact the future of the organization. Too many layers of management act as a filter for ideas and decisions.  They limit their effectiveness and reduce the velocity at which your organization can react to change.  By outsourcing, you can remove the need for layers of management and in turn remove them.
CAN also outsources administrative support.  A company has three parts: sales, operations, and administrative support. Sales generate revenue, operations produce profit, and administrative support allows the organization to scale. Whenever possible CAN outsources administrative support. This allows CAN’s employees to able to focus on generating and fulfilling sales, not on supporting the weight of the organization.
Because of this streamline each employee at CAN is able to track the success of the organization directly back to their work. This improves employee engagement and improves the organizational stability.
Our approach to outsourcing and our thoughts about work have allowed CAN to be an organization that can respond quickly to change, deliver an outstanding product, and provide great jobs to innovative and creative professionals.
You too can outsource to gain these advantages.   It is an example of how you can work smart.