Feb 6, 2004

Wired 12.02: The New Face of the Silicon Age

The Outsourcing Consultant

As part of its cover story the new face of the Silicon Age, Wired profiled a consultant who midwifes an outsourcing deal:

"For an inside take on the consultant's role in pushing jobs overseas, listen to Mark Gottfredson. As cohead of outsourcing strategy at Bain & Company, Gottfredson tells the tale of a recent client, a CEO who was brought back from retirement to save the struggling West Coast hardware firm he started many years ago. A pillar of the community for having created thousands of local jobs, the CEO originally resisted outsourcing. But as his stock price and market share plummeted, he became desperate, and agreed to take a meeting with Gottfredson.
Gottfredson's team paraded out a variety of charts and graphs that all boiled down two simple options:
a) become competitive again by sending jobs someplace they could be done better and cheaper, or
b) face a slow death.
The CEO ordered a complete efficiency audit, at the end of which Gottfredson recommended outsourcing all call centers, manufacturing, HR, IT, and back-office operations."

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