Blog Archives
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Using Game Theory to Gain “Win-Win” Outsourcing Ventures
By Kate Vitasek - Thursday November 22, 2012
There’s a long line of economists and academics stretching past Adam Smith’s time that helps us understand the emergence and necessity of modern outsourcing. One of the most prominent in that line is the Nobel laureate John Nash. If you are familiar with the movie “A Beautiful Mind,” which is loosely based on the life of Nash, there’s a brief scene in it that captures his great breakthrough in the use of games—especially non-cooperative games—as a basis for understanding complicated economic issues. In the scene, Nash (portrayed by Russell Crowe) has a light-bulb moment in a campus bar as he and his mates mull over the best ways to produce optimum results in their approach and pursuit of a beautiful blonde and her friends... -
A History Lesson in the Economics of Outsourcing
By Kate Vitasek - Thursday October 18, 2012
It may seem odd to talk about outsourcing and Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, in the same breath but—stay with me on this—it’s not far-fetched at all. In our research and work on the Vested approach to collaborative, outcome-based outsourcing and business relationships, we’ve traced a clear line from the giants of academic and economic theory to the emergence and evolution of modern outsourcing. And it started with Adam Smith. Obviously, the term outsourcing did not exist when Smith was alive but it existed in one way or another as mercantilism, markets and transactions developed and became more sophisticated. For example, when an entrepreneur formed a relationship with a guild of weavers to manufacture and sell... -
Introduction to “Academics of Outsourcing”
By Kate Vitasek - Wednesday June 27, 2012There is a better way to outsource. I know this as a result of research and fieldwork conducted over many years in partnership with the University of Tennessee and the United States Air Force. Along the way I have joined forces with the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) and the Corporate Executive Board. I have also had the opportunity to work with progressive practitioners that are applying the best thinking in terms of outsourcing. This research led to my books, “Vested Outsourcing: Five Rules that Will Transform Outsourcing” and its follow-up, “The Vested Outsourcing Manual.” Another book that examines the collaborative, outcome-based Vested business model in practice, “Vested: How...
