Abstract
Managers from a major corporation met with representatives of contractors to whom business-critical activity was out-sourced so that they could review their combined management of performance. Their meeting generated a number of insights as to how they might reverse deterioration in both the relationships between them, and in the performance achieved in the out-sourced activity. However, rather than closing their discussions at the end of the day, the group passed their deliberations over to a modeller who, over the next 24 hours, built a system dynamic representation of their thinking. When the group worked with this relatively simple model, it stimulated further insights and ideas for managing their out-source contracts to the greater satisfaction of both parties.
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Rachel Bodle
RACHEL BODLE started her management science career within British Coal, first with the OR group and then as head of a statistics consultancy service for senior management. In 1991 she completed London Business School's Sloan fellowship programme before embarking on freelance consultancy. She now works with clients in both the commercial and public sectors. Her particular interest is in supporting corporate planning processes that foster systems thinking and encourage organisational learning.