Title: The influence of outsourcing on achieving business goals in large Croatian companies
Abstract: This paper presents results of a research conducted in large Croatian companies that intended to connect and establish eventual influences between the usage of outsourcing and achieving business goals in those companies. It was also meant to establish if (and in which segments) outsourcing was being used in large Croatian companies, what were the main reasons for its use, if it was conducted according to specific plans and with tracking of achieved results, if expectations that surveyed companies had about outsourcing were met, and what are the future possibilities and perspectives of those companies regarding outsourcing. Many other useful data regarding outsourcing and goal achievement were also collected and linked together in order to establish eventual influences of outsourcing on the effectiveness of making business in large Croatian companies. 1. INTRODUCTION Today, in order to survive extremely intensified competition on world markets and almost daily changes of production technologies and labour organization in general, companies must seek for new paths to do business effectively, that is to achieve targeted business goals. More and more international companies are realizing that the tactics that lead to survival and development include concentration on activities that add the most value and elimination of other activities. One way to improve the effectiveness of doing business is by using outsourcing, which is an act of transferring unessential internal activities to outside providers, and focusing on core (main) company activities (Greaver, 1999, 3). Outsourcing is currently the only tool available that enables focusing on core activities (that companies do best and is recognized by) and the abstraction of important but non-core activities that do not represent the driving force of the company, while simultaneously improving the quality and cutting costs of performing those activities (Bendor-Samuel, 2000, 22). The usage of this managerial tool has been especially intensified in the last 10 years due to certain changes in the conditions of making business. The most important changes that allowed outsourcing to be embraced as an important restructuring tool are as follows (Greaver, 1999, 12): * Large organizational size is no longer a competitive advantage. * Small, agile niche competitors can now change industries and cost structures overnight. * Product and service cycle times have reduced dramatically and time based competition demands a quicker response. * Investors demand a focused management that delivers. * Significant operating and financial performance improvements are critical for success and long-term survival. * Supplies of technical specialists are reasonably plentiful; thus, employing them internally is unnecessary for their availability. *Cutting edge technology and knowledge are now recognized as competitive weapons, but are expensive to acquire and successful results are often elusive when implemented internally. The relationship between outsourcing partners is only likely to work if the following are in position (Gay/Essinger, 2000, 78): * a definition (in the form of a contract) of the nature of the relationship with the supplier * a boundary defining the responsibilities of the service provider and the responsibilities of the organization that has appointed the service provider * a way of measuring the success of the outsourcing initiative. In history, outsourcing was used only when organizations could not perform due to incompetence, lack of capacity, financial pressures or technological failure. Only short-term indicators were considered important and the most important factors in the decision of whether to produce internally or to outsource were the achieved economy of scale and the capability of performing a specific activity, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 shows that outsourcing was considered only in the case of a sub-critical internal economy of scale and average or under-average capabilities of performing a certain activity, while it was avoided in all other cases. …
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['doaj']
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Cited By Count: 2
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