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Riding for Kids Book $17 ‘Riding for Kids’ by Judy Richter includes subjects including Stablecare, Equipment, Tack, Clothing, Longeing, Lessons, Jumping, and Showing. Horse Book.

Equipment Sack – Odor Neutralizer $16.2 Fresh Helmet, Equipment, and Boot sacks were designed with athletes in mind! These sacks works to soak up moisture and neutralize unpleasant odors caused by everyday use! After each ride, simply toss your helmet sack into your helmet, your equipment sack into your tack trunk, and your boot sacks into your riding boots or shoes and you will have Fresh, dry, and odor free helmets, equipment, and boots the next time you ride! Once a month or so, regenerate your fresh helmet sack by microwaving it on low for 2 minutes (remove it every 30 seconds and give it a good shake) or sit it in the sun for 12 hours (you can leave it on the dash of your car while mucking stalls or hand grazing your horse)! Don’t forget that you can use these at home too (for example, in your tennis shoes, cowboy/cowgirl hat, gym bag, near cat litter boxes, etc)!

The Riding Lesson Coloring Book $7 A Horse Book read-Along Coloring Book About Riding Lessons.

Mounting Step For Horse Riding $58.4 2-Step Mounting Block with built in handle. Durable, weather proof and easy to move

Sportote Step For Horse Riding And More $119.3 Sportote 3-step, ideal for mounting, grooming or any other barn or household chore. Third step opens up as a storage compartment and is lockable

Weaver Leather Draft Horse Riding Bridle – Dark Chocolate – Regular Draft $75 Draft Horse Riding BridleThis 1 doubled and stitched dark chocolate skirting leather browband bridle features 7′ reins and a snaffle bitSingle-ply throat latchFeatures double cheek buckles and chicago screw bit endsNickel plated hardwareColor: Dark ChocolateSize:  Regular Draft

A Parents Guide to Riding Lessons $15 Every parent hopes to experience the thrill of seeing a child discover an activity she loves, and then watching as that interest unfolds into a lifelong passion. But when a child adores horses above all, these joys are often dampened by anxiety, especially when the parent knows little about riding. The questions can be overwhelming: How does one begin to find a qualified riding instructor? Just how expensive is this hobby? And most important will my child be safe?Parents searching for answers will find relief in A Parents Guide to Riding Lessons, by Elise Gaston Chand. A former horse-crazy child born to horse-clueless parents, Chand is today both an accomplished horsewoman and the mother of a horse-crazy daughter. Her vantage point allows her to get to the heart of parents concerns, then offer the information, instruction, and peace of mind that they desperately need.With its engaging been there voice, A Parents Guide to Riding Lessons combines the instant appeal of an impulse purchase with the practicality and depth of content of a thorough guide. Parents will snap up the book for its clear, reassuring voice, then refer back to it often for its quality answers and information.A Parents Guide to Riding Lessons gives busy parents an overview of horseback riding and lesson progression. It translates the strange language of horse enthusiasts, explains horse show etiquette, and addresses specific ways that parents can help children stay safe in and out of the barn. Along the way it offers practical advice, tips, and step-by-step guidance through an array of challenges that parents can expect to face.

Finishing Touch Finishing Touch Horse Head With Stone On Riding Crop Gold $10.95 HORSEHEAD WITH STONE ON REINS ON CROP STOCK PIN-GOLD FINISH 1 15/16 X 5/8Finishing touch takes a great deal of pride in offering a high-quality product at a low price, and they stand behind their products. Finishing Touch is a 34-year-old Lexington Kentucky corporation located in the heart of Horse country and Horse Jewelry is their specialty. Finishing Touch Jewelry is all costume jewelry and is plated in either durable karat gold or imitation rhodium (gives a nice silver finish without the problem of tarnishing) over white metal or brass. Many items are manufactured right in Nicholasville, KY. Jewelry from The Finishing Touch of Kentucky withstands the test of time when cared for properly.

Finishing Touch Riding Crop With Horse Head Pin Gold $11.95 HORSEHEAD WITH REINS ON CROP STOCK PIN-GOLD FINISH 1 15/16 X 11/16Finishing touch takes a great deal of pride in offering a high-quality product at a low price, and they stand behind their products. Finishing Touch is a 34-year-old Lexington Kentucky corporation located in the heart of Horse country and Horse Jewelry is their specialty. Finishing Touch Jewelry is all costume jewelry and is plated in either durable karat gold or imitation rhodium (gives a nice silver finish without the problem of tarnishing) over white metal or brass. Many items are manufactured right in Nicholasville, KY. Jewelry from The Finishing Touch of Kentucky withstands the test of time when cared for properly.

Mountain Horse York Sox $13.5 An Innovative combination of cotton for comfort, nylon for durability and Lycra for a snug fit. This knee-high riding sock, with argyle pattern and Mountain Horse embroidery, also offers a smooth toe seam and a terry cushioned foot bed for arch support and all-day comfort. Material: 85% cotton, 13% nylon, 2% Lycra

The Horse Show Coloring Book $7 By Pat Young, illustrated by Polly Carbonari. Read-along coloring books that teach kids about riding lessons and trail riding. 40 pages.

Buckingham Velvet Riding Helmet $69.95 Made by International Riding Helmet, a division of Intec Performance Gear, this is the Velvet Buckingham Helmet, featuring a soft padded Pittards Leather Harness in the English bow down style with laced back. The Pittards leather is specially designed with water repellent substances that are permanently bonded to each fiber. Microscopic spaces between fibers allow water vapor to pass through, however, so perspiration can evaporate, but rain cant penetrate. The cover is genuine 100% cotton black velvet and the liner is a golden colored silk-like material called Tech Fab. It is a high-tech material that is infused with special resins, which give it strength, softness, moisture-permeability, yet it is still lightweight. This is designed with the traditional English shape with a very classic, elegant look and comes with extra foam sizing pads. It is ASTM F.1163.01/USA/SEI certified.

Weaver Rayon 15-Strand Horse Cinch $20 These traditional favorites are great for all riding needs. Horse size features woven-in dees for tie down strap and back cinch attachment. Nickel plated hardware. White with brown accents.

Weaver Rayon 17-Strand Horse Cinch $21 These traditional favorites are great for all riding needs. Horse size features woven-in dees for tie down strap and back cinch attachment. Nickel plated hardware. White with brown accents.

Devonaire Monaco Riding Helmet $54.9 The Monaco is perfect for those beginner horse shows. Provides a classic, traditional look with modern helmet safety technology. Exclusive vent design provides maximum air flow and circulation.The chin strap has a quick snap buckle for easy on-off. Removable cushioned head liner is washable. Meshed covered vents keeps out dirt and debris. Devon-Aires famous dial adjustable retention system ensures a comfortable and secure fit. Reinforced retention anchors keep the sizing system in place. SEI approved to ASTM F1163-04a standards.

Easycare Horse Boot Studs $8.5 These boot studs are designed for durability and ultimate traction, and are great for riding on ice, mud or turf. Four studs per boot are recommended, but more may be used. Studs come complete with installation instructions, and can be used in all sizes of EasyCare riding boots. Note: Studs come in regular and long sizes. For the Easyboot line, regular studs can only be used in size 4 and smaller boots, due to increased sole thickness. Order long studs for boot sizes 5-7 in the Easyboot line, all sizes of the Easyboot Grip, all sizes of the Boa Horse boot, and for all Old Macs styles. Sold in sets of four (4).

TORY LEATHER Chambon – Havana – Horse $58.1 From the original Tory Leather – MADE IN USA. ChambonColor: HavanaSize:  Horse

Mountain Horse Team Jacket $75 The classic Mountain Horse barn jacket will protect you from nature’s nastiest elements. Waterproof, windproof and breathable. Fully seam-sealed. Detachable, adjustable hood. Two-way ront zipper with storm flap, riding vents in back, adjustable waist, underarm zips for quick ventilation, four outside pockets, two inside pockets. Outer Shell: 100% Polyester. Lining: 100% Polyester.

Mountain Horse York Sox Jr. $13.5 An innovative combination of cotton for comfort, nylon for durability, and Lycra for a snug fit. This knee-high riding sock with argyle pattern and Mountain Horse embroidery, also offers a smooth toe seam and a terry cushioned foot bed for arch support and all-day comfort. 85% cotton, 13% nylon, 2% Lyrca

TORY LEATHER Rolled Leather Cowboy Caveson – Horse $21.9 From the original Tory Leather – MADE IN USA. Rolled Leather Cowboy CavesonSize:  Horse

Hawthorne Bristol Child Sleeveless English Riding Shirt $26.95 Hawthorne HAWTHORNE is a registered trademark of Libertyville Saddle Shop, Inc. Bristol Children’s Riding Shirts – Broadcloth Polyester/Cotton blend for easy care. Matching choker. Pin or mongram not included. Made in USA and Imported.

International Child English Riding Shirt Long Sleeve $29.95 Hawthorne International Children’s Riding Shirts Subtle Tone-on-Tone stripe pattern fabric of easy care Polyester/Cotton blend. A shirt that has an updated look about it. Matching choker. Pin or monogram not included. Made in USA and Imported.

HORSE-OPOLY: The Board Game $19.95 HORSE-OPOLY is a property trading game based on our equine friends. It’s a game that actually encourages horseplay! The board features different breeds of horses while each property deed teaches players a little about that breed of horse. Players buy Bails of Hay and trade them in for Stables while trying to become the richest player in the game. So hop in the saddle and take this game for a ride! Game play is for 2-6 players, ages 8 to adult.Made in the USASize:  1.5 H x 10 W x 20 L

Old Mac’s Horse Boot G2 $122.8 Every Old Mac’s horse boot has a unique hi-tech performance outsole, incorporating the unique Hoof Suspension System. The specially developed Thermo Plastic Urethane (TPU) compound will minimize and help speed up recovery from concussion-related injuries. If your horse suffers from any of the following – arthritis, pedal bone fractures, jarred shins, navicular disease, ringbone, knee fractures, laminitis (founder), bruised soles or hoof walls and scalping from overreaching an Old Mac’s horse riding boot will benefit your horse. Aimed at improving your horse’s soundness, well-being and performance, these boots will extend your horse’s working life!When used during transport, Old Mac’s will eliminate the problem of your horse throwing a shoe in the trailer. When you arrive at your destination, your horse will be ready to work. Old Mac’s protect your horse from bulb and tendon damage, as well as hoof wall and sole bruising. Their exceptional traction will help prevent slipping on the loading ramp and offer increased confidence inside the trailer. Please note that the use of boots over shoes voids the wear warranty.You can protect both the stallion and mare against kicking injuries during breeding by fitting Old Mac’s Multi-purpose Horse Boots. The unique outsole design will also significantly improve traction during serving. Our equine friends often suffer skeletal structure injuries due to losing their footing on greasy or hard surfaces. This sudden hyper-extension of the limbs can cause serious spinal, joint and/or ligament damage. Riders, too, are often injured as a result of a horse losing its footing and falling on its rider. The traction offered in Old Mac’s unique hi-tech performance outsole helps ensure a safe ride for you and your horse.

Tough-1 Kid’s Embroidered English Riding Gloves $10.7 Synthetic leather palm/fingers for superb feel and durability. Spandex back for comfort and airflow. Quick grip closure back with embroidered english horse.

TuffRider Smart Riding G’s G-String Underwear $4.95 Made with ultra soft cotton fabric, these g-strings offer exceptional comfort for the active rider. Attractive horse head design on front.

Old Mac Hoof Horse Boots $139.4 Every Old Mac’s horse boot has a unique high-tech performance outsole, incorporates the unique Hoof Suspension System. The specially developed Thermo Plastic Urethane (TPU) compound will minimize and help speed up recovery from concussion-related injuries. If your horse suffers from any of the following – Arthritis, Pedal bone fractures, Jarred shins, Navicular disease, Ringbone, Knee fractures, Laminitis (founder), Bruised soles or Hoof walls and Scalping from overreaching an Old Mac’s horse riding boot will benefit your horse. Aimed at improving your horse’s soundess, well-being and performance, these boots will extend your horse’s working life!Offer your horse the necessary support and confidence needed during transportation and wear Old Mac’s Multi Purpose Horse Boots. Using Old Mac’s may also prevent injury to the coronet which impedes hoof wall growth and results in permanent scarring of the hoof wallOld Mac’s will eliminate the problem of your horse throwing a shoe – when you arrive at your destination no matter your discipline your horse will be ready to work. Avoid lower limb injuries. Old Mac’s protect your horse from bulb and tendon damage, hoof wall & sole bruising. Old Mac’s exceptional traction will help prevent slipping on the loading ramp and offer increased confidence within a trailer. Please note that the use of boots over metal shoes voids the boot’s wear warranty.

Easyboot Grip Horse Boot $68 Unrivaled TractionThe Easyboot Grip is essentially the Easyboot Epic with an aggressive sole and traction tread pattern. The Easyboot Grip is ideal for the barefoot horse ridden in soft muddy conditions or wet grass and snow surfaces. The aggressive traction pattern provides better grip on these surfaces but should never be used on dry surfaces or hard surfaces.The Grip should be used in soft soil conditions or soft wet grass and snow surfaces only! Although the Easyboot Grip provides increased traction in slippery conditions, riding horses in wet, muddy and soft conditions is dangerous and should be done at your own risk.Available in sizes 0, 1, 2 and 3 only. Sold individually.

TORY LEATHER Gag Cheeks – Havana – Horse $31.1 From the original Tory Leather – MADE IN USA. Gag CheeksColor: HavanaSize:  Horse

Miniature Horse Western Saddle Pad $21.9 This classically designed saddle pad is sized just for the miniature horse. Features soft fleece underside, wear leathers at the appropriate places, and a fun southwest design. Measures approx. 19 x 19. The perfect pad to fit all of your mini’s western riding activities. Design may vary slightly but it is a Tan Southwestern design on each pad.

The Green Guide for Horse Owners Book $20 Many horse lovers are looking for ways to make their facilities more environmentally friendly and to practice greener riding habits. The Green Guide for Horse Owners and Riders takes a clear look at current horse-care practices and provides green alternatives for day-to-day horsekeeping – both for the property owner who keeps dozens of horses and for the rider who rents a stall in someone else’s barn.Property owners will find extensive information on building and renovating barns that use environmentally friendly materials, fit well into surrounding ecosystems, and work best with available water resources and prevailing weather conditions. All horsekeepers will appreciate the chapters that address the constant challenges of responsible pasture rotation and manure management.There is plenty here for the concerned rider, too. From avoiding toxins in feed, fly sprays, cleaning products, and medicines to practicing good trail-riding etiquette, anyone who spends time with horses will find simple and rewarding ways to be kinder to the earth. Paperback , 231 pp.

International Child English Riding Shirt Short Sleeve $22.95 Hawthorne HAWTHORNE is a registered trademark of Libertyville Saddle Shop, Inc. Hawthorne International Children’s Riding Shirts. Subtle Tone-on-Tone stripe pattern fabric of easy care Polyester/Cotton blend. A shirt that has an updated look about it. Matching choker. Pin or monogram not included. Made in USA and Imported.

Miniature Horse Nylon Training Surcingle – Brown – Miniature Horse 40.5-53.5 $24.9 Finally a training surcingle small enough for the Mini’s! This classic training aid is constructed of durable Nylon webbing w/ Felt padding. Nickel plated Dees correctly positioned for maximum equipment attachment possibilities. Girth adjusts on both sides. A must have item for any training or lesson barn. Great way to start the young Mini or give a tune up to a seasoned veteran.Color: BrownSize:  Miniature Horse 40.5-53.5

Easyboot Glove Horse Boot $50.6 This form-fitting, seamless boot hugs the hoof and responds like a natural foot. Flexible and tough, this boot adds traction to the hoof, while allowing a free stride and breakover.Like a glove, this boot provides protection without stifling mobility. The Easyboot Glove material stretches over the hoof and clings to the wall so that debris stays out of the boot even through sandy and muddy conditions. No external hardware means that there is no need to worry about replacing cables. Studs are available for winter riding.Does your horse overreach? These boots have a faster breakover and no hardware to catch on the front heel if you are wearing them on hind feet. This boot must be carefully sized and fitted to the hoof. Your horses width and length must fall into the same size category. If your horses width and length fall into two different size categories you must choose another boot style. If you believe that you measured correctly but the boot doesnt fit tight try going to a smaller size or chose another boot in the EasyCare line.Sold individually.

Tucker Pleasure Trail Bridle – Brown with Brass – Horse $78.75 This Tucker design is made just like our Plantation Headstall except the cheeks and crown are only 5/8 wide double stitched construction. It is a great bridle for pleasure riding. Horse size. Crown 21 1/2, Cheeks 10, Noseband 23, Throat 38.Color: Brown w/BrassSize:  Horse

Hawthorne Ladies Huntley English Riding Shirt Long Sleeve Cotton $39.95 Huntley Cotton Riding Shirt Fine Cotton broadcloth fabric Embroidered horse design Tail is longer to prevent pull-out which can occur while riding Shorter front so there is less shirt tail to tuck in Comes with two chokers with hidden buttonhole to button to shirt to keep choker in place Straight back yoke with pleats gives added shoulder ease Imported Pins or monogram not included

Finishing Touch Riding Crop Pin Imitation Rhodium $7.95 CROP STOCK PIN-IMITATION RHODIUM FINISHFinishing touch takes a great deal of pride in offering a high-quality product at a low price, and they stand behind their products. Finishing Touch is a 34-year-old Lexington Kentucky corporation located in the heart of Horse country and Horse Jewelry is their specialty. Finishing Touch Jewelry is all costume jewelry and is plated in either durable karat gold or imitation rhodium (gives a nice silver finish without the problem of tarnishing) over white metal or brass. Many items are manufactured right in Nicholasville, KY. Jewelry from The Finishing Touch of Kentucky withstands the test of time when cared for properly.

TORY LEATHER Leather Head Bumper – Oakbark – Horse $29.1 From the original Tory Leather – MADE IN USA. Leather Head Bumper Lined With Black FeltColor: OakbarkSize:  Horse

Easyboot Trail Horse Boot $54.1 The Easyboot trail is the easiest hoof boot in the world! This boot opens up completely to slip on and off most hoof shapes and sizes. The rear double velcro attachment protects the entire hoof wall and keeps the boot firmly in place. Front shield protects the area that takes the most abuse. Proven tread design handles a wide range of conditions. Recommended for medium-distance riding of up to 25 miles per week. Great for a pleasure rider or the backcountry rider!

Mountain Horse Devon Jacket $143.1 Our classic barn jacket will protect you from natures nastiest elements. Fully seam-sealed, the Devon Jacket is waterproof, windproof, and breathable. Detachable, adjustable hood can be folded into the collar. Additional features include a two-way front zipper with storm flap, adjustable drawstring waist, ventilation zippers under front and back yokes, riding vents in back, fabric zipper pullers, reflective piping on front and back yoke, mesh and taffeta lining, and multiple pockets. Material: 100% polyester

Easyboot Rx Horse Boot $50.6 The Easyboot Rx is just the prescription for horses requiring a therapy boot that offers stability and support without being heavy or clunky.Veterinarians, hoof care professionals and horse owners alike rely on the Easyboot Rx to help horses heal and recover quickly. It provides support and relief for horses suffering from chronic lameness, laminitis, founder, navicular and other lower limb/hoof problems.The Rx is an excellent choice for those horses that simply have difficulty standing on hard surfaces for extended periods of time. The boot can be used to speed recovery and offer protection after surgery or injury, lessen fatigue and add protection during trailering as well as offer a safeguard in the breeding shed.The sole of the Easyboot Rx is a combination of durable and soft material, much like that used in human orthotics, in a light weight package. All seams and edges of the upper are rounded for safety. Three air vents provide air circulation keeping the hoof cool while preventing the accumulation of dirt and debris. Each boot comes fitted with an EasyCare Comfort Pad to provide immediate relief and additional sole support. Replacement comfort pads in three densities are available at a very affordable price.Application is quick and easy. The unique upper of the Easyboot Rx folds down and opens large enough to accommodate the wide base of a hoof, allowing for quick application without strength or force. After the hoof is placed in the Easyboot Rx, two hook and loop tabs are fastened to provide a secure fit. A quick pull on the hook and loop tabs and the Easyboot Rx is easily slipped off the hoof. Each boot has a double hook and loop lock system that prevents the boot from opening unintentionally.The Easyboot Rx is not intended for riding but can be used for light turn out.Sold individually.

Robart Robart Pinchless Walking Horse Bit – 5 $52.5 Robart PRECISION Bits have patented internal springs that allows the port to return to a neutral position quickly upon dropping the rein, giving immediate reward for correct behavior. Great for shoulder control and keeping a lower head set. Why a Pinchless Bit? A horse is a flight and fight animal. If the bit is hurting the horses mouth he is going to respond with fight or flight. Neither of these responses are condusive to training, competing or riding. Take the pain away and you instantly modify their behavior and response to your instructions. The Pinchless bit swivels at the bars, rather than relying on the center link to swivel, eliminating the possibility of pinching the tongue. Also it gives a more consistant and immediate signal to your horse, so his response time is reduced, with less pressure. If a horse is not new to the bit and is still gapping his mouth, excessive mouth movement or tossing his head, you will want to try a pinchless bit. Using a pinchless bit on a young horse will prevent inflicting pain, keeping the experience less streeful, resulting in easier and improved learning for the horse. Great for walking and all gaited horses. Tongue is not trapped! Smooth ball action allows horse to swallow and relax his face. More gait control.Size:  5

Hawthorne Bristol Child Long Sleeve English Riding Shirt $26.95 Hawthorne HAWTHORNE is a registered trademark of Libertyville Saddle Shop, Inc. Bristol Children’s Long Sleeve Riding Shirts – Broadcloth Polyester/Cotton blend for easy care. Matching choker. Pin or monogram not included. Made in USA and Imported. <

3M 8210Plus Particulate Respirator N95, 20-Pack $10.99 …

Horse Life $19.99 An original game exclusively for the Nintendo DS™ Horse Life takes the handheld virtual pet category to the next level in 3D graphics. Given to you by your grandfather a former grand champion himself you must keep your horse happy and fit by feeding him cleaning his stall and riding him. Best yet you will put your training to the test by participating in national and international competition…

Judy Richter’s Riding for Kids: Stable Care, Equipment, Tack, Clothing, Longeing, Lessons, Jumping, Showing $1.99 ‘Riding for Kids’ by Judy Richter includes subjects including Stablecare, Equipment, Tack, Clothing, Longeing, Lessons, Jumping, and Showing. Horse Book….

Roundtable: Sourcing in the Face of a Financial Crisis

As the financial crisis continues to grip markets and businesses worldwide, is there any clarity as to the consequences for the sourcing sector? The Shared Services & Outsourcing Network hosted a roundtable debate looking at the short- and long-term impact of the turmoil on the sourcing space; online editor Jamie Liddell was joined by some of the keenest minds in sourcing to analyse the possible repercussions, the potential winners and losers – and steps industry players can take to minimise the impact on their businesses.

Attending were:

Charles Aird
Senior Managing Director of Outsourcing/Shared Services & Offshoring
PricewaterhouseCoopers

Phil Fersht
Research Director, BPO, Offshoring & IT Services
AMR Research

Katherine Kawamoto
VP Research & Advisory Services
IACCM

Tony Rawlinson
Managing Director, Financial Services
EquaTerra

Brian D Smith
Partner & Managing Director, Financial Services
TPI

Dr. Thomas Tunstall
Advisory Liaison
ACS

SSON: Let’s kick off with the immediate future: how do you see the short-term impact of the financial crisis playing out across the outsourcing sector?

Brian Smith: I think we’ve seen we’ve seen some impact here already; people are starting to think carefully about discretionary projects, particularly in the application development space. But we’ve seen less impact on day-to-day BPO-type activity which is outsourced and offshored, I think largely because the financial crisis has had more of an impact on credit and the capital structure of organizations, and less impact at this point on operating volumes.

I think what we’re seeing is a slowdown in discretionary activity – but that will pick up again at some point as people get back to realizing their projects to execute against – and then the string of mergers that are taking place particularly here in the US as well as in Europe is obviously going to spawn a degree of activity in restructuring. I think that will impact the captive side of life; I think we’ll see more activity there. So my thought would be that we’re going to see a lull followed by a large amount of activity.

SSON: To what extent do you think the mergers that have taken place have been driven directly by the crisis rather than having already been in the works?

Brian Smith: I would say most of the big mergers that have taken place here are directly related to the financial crisis. I suspect very few, if any, were even on the cards three months ago.

Tony Rawlinson: Picking up on that, I think we see the economics at the moment both disrupting and driving outsourcing. On the one hand there’s certainly a disruption in the short term, an impact on project budgets, a deferral of capital expenditure, a deferral of all but mission-critical projects especially in financial services. Conversely our view is that the credit crunch and economic downturn mean that structurally outsourcing and offshoring are even more useful strategic tools going forward.

I’d share Brian’s view that there’s going to be a short pause before the true implications of the market crystallise, and then a forceful push for cost-reduction – but also a recognition that the winners now in recessionary times are going to turn their service delivery model into something that’s a lot more flexible. I think the winners in recessionary times will already be thinking about their sourcing strategy for what comes after the recession; the flipside of flexibility in a downturn is a need to switch on as the upcurve starts again.

SSON: You said a short pause: how long do you think that short pause is going to be?

Tony Rawlinson: I think it’s going to be market-specific; my sense is that the US is further through that process than the UK and continental Europe. Some institutions are still, frankly, focused on survival – I’m going to meetings with institutions that are clearly worried about their continued existence – but over the next month or so we should have a lot more clarity. The other interesting flavour of course in the US, the UK and increasingly in continental Europe is the impact of the virtual nationalization or semi-nationalization of some institutions; we see that potentially impacting the political attitude to offshoring at a time when offshoring is clearly going to help address the short-term cost objectives of some of these players. So there are some interesting forces at work here, some of them pulling in different directions, and I think all will become a lot clearer over the next few weeks.

Phil Fersht: There are some interesting discussion points here and I’m inclined to agree with them. We went out of our way to speak with 44 of the major US financial institutions over the last two or three weeks to really gauge what their short- and medium-term plans are with regards to embracing outsourcing, and naturally the short-term focus is very much on stability and understanding how the hell this is going to play out for them. Taking 20 or 30 per cent off the bottom line is a nice-to-have, but at this moment just knowing you’re going to be around is taking precedence. However, the way things seem to be moving, I think people are going to have a pretty strong idea in the next month about stability, about M&A – I think we’ll see a lot of the M&A start to happen in the next few weeks as this thing starts to settle down a bit – and then the process is going to move on towards further optimization in the back office, further means to find cost-containment and broader–scale strategies.

In addition to that, there’s definitely a change in mindset amongst the finance operations leaders in terms of embracing outsourcing as a strategic vehicle for longer-term plans to cut costs – and being perceived to do so. When we spoke to these institutions, 40 per cent of them said they were going to increase their spend and their impetus towards outsourcing in the next 6 months and only 15 per cent said they were going to decrease that. And when we break that down further, it’s the banking sector that has the strongest impetus to increase outsourcing; nearly half the banks – all the usual suspects going through this meltdown right now – said they were increasing their impetus towards outsourcing, and only 10 per cent were decreasing. When we get into other areas like insurance it’s a much more neutral effect; it’s definitely the banking sector that’s driving this.

When we get a bit deeper into the actual specific areas they’re looking to get quick hits from, it’s the bread-and-butter areas of outsourcing which don’t require massive amounts of upfront transformation, where they’ve already done some educational exploration and some evaluation, and it’s areas like banking BPO, application outsourcing, and F&A BPO that are clearly those that are going to offer the lower-hanging fruit opportunities. Taking the areas like core financials, core HR, bringing them out into third-party models quickly and effectively, is where we see a lot of activity in probably the middle of Q1, Q2, Q3 next year; we’re expecting to see a big spike in contracts being signed, but we don’t think they’re going to be very large contracts, we’re expecting to see a lot of small-to-medium-size contracts as companies try and move quickly into engagements that are more workable.

The short-term areas that we’re seeing a drop-off include areas like IT infrastructure. Any IT staff augmentation projects seem to be a negative right now; anything discretionary is definitely being put on the back burner; things like HR outsourcing are definitely being put on the back burner in the near-term as companies look to have quicker, more impacting areas to move into. Then when we look at the sort of 6-to-12-month timeframe, we see a much stronger bend towards things like mortgage BPO, or even HRO coming back, and areas like staff augmentation have to come into play. When you think about Wells Fargo and Wachovia merging, that’s a ton of systems integration that has to go on. Wachovia had a very broad, well-documented BPO and ITO strategy, Wells Fargo is not traditionally a big adopter of broad outsourcing, so how are these companies going to align? Which road are they going to go down? We think outsourcing is going to be one of them.

SSON: Charles, is this reflected in how your clients are approaching the crisis at the moment?

Charles Aird: I would say yes and no. I think for the traditional back office that everybody’s been talking about, the answer is yes, short-term; there’s definitely a pause, people are trying to figure out what their existence is going to be and it’s taking longer for them to make decisions. However, having said that, we do a lot of work around sourcing with clients in manufacturing, R&D, and other areas both for captive and outsourcing – and we’re not seeing a significant change for those organizations, because, as you’ll find, research shows that the US just isn’t turning out science and technology people anymore – well, I shouldn’t say that, universities are, but people are going back to India and China, to their home countries – and so we don’t have the skills in the US to do a lot of the work that needs to be done for the US economy. So outsourcing’s now embedded in organizations.

Plus we see a lot of organizations that we work with are using outsourcing as a means to penetrate markets that they haven’t been in before, particularly in developing countries; we see those things continuing. But definitely in the BPO, ITO environments – particularly over the last month or six weeks – organizations are loath to spend, so they’re looking for ways – creative ways, which I think probably helps the outsourcing service providers – to finance some of these deals, particularly the upfront part of them that deals with transition costs and may be involved with severance, consulting fees, legal fees, whatever it may be. And interestingly enough we’re seeing some private equity firms with interest in providing some of the finance for doing this transformational kind of thing. So it’s becoming a much more interesting –  remembering the Chinese proverb “may you live in interesting times” – environment to work in and it probably is going to stretch a number of organizations like ours in the consultancy and advisory markets in helping our clients get over the issues that they may be having.

Tom Tunstall: I would agree with that. One thing I do want to comment on, with regard to when we would see things getting clearer, and settling out, I think a month may be too optimistic – particularly considering the fairly massive government interventions taking place right now. I think it’s more likely it’ll be a full quarter before we see clients deciding upon, or being able to strategise around, increased use of outsourcing. The analogy I’ve heard used recently is the deer in the headlights – a lot of companies, particularly financial service firms have been caught off-guard by the depth of the financial turmoil.

I think it’s likely that’s the first-order effect. The second-order effect, we’re starting to see apart from banking is a cascade into insurance as well as other types of organizations. Automotive manufacturers are under stress, and other industries are likely to be affected as well. Probably consumer non-discretionary items are going to be least impacted, and if they are it’ll take the longest to occur. Unfortunately, financial services are probably just the first-order effect. As all of you know this often creates opportunities for outsourcing suppliers.

SSON: So at least a quarter of uncertainty?

Tom Tunstall: I think so. If the markets had been allowed to correct, and to assign prices to the assets, then I think we might have had a sharper downturn but it would have occurred more quickly and we would have started to see some clarity. The government involvement creates more uncertainty and will stretch the timeline out for any sort of recovery.

Charles Aird: Until the credit crisis sorts itself out a lot of clients just aren’t able to get financing for operating capital, so we see clients just hanging onto their cash because of that kind of issue.

Phil Fersht: I think the election plays into this a little as well, in terms of who gets in; are there going to be any immediate strategies on bringing work back onshore? I think that’s another factor.

Katherine Kawamoto: I think what we’re seeing is that some decisions are starting to stall, particularly in areas related to outsourcing, and if companies are going to go forward with an outsourcing operation they’re proceeding very cautiously and are really waiting for the dust to settle. We’re hearing that budgets are starting to be looked at with more scrutiny and are starting to be reduced for the coming year, so some of the projects that people had anticipated rolling out in the first quarter are now on hold; that could be problematic for a number of the companies that we work with.

SSON: Looking a bit further ahead, what do you think will be the impact on the sourcing industry over the next few years? Do we think this is going to lead to a general reorganization of sourcing providers?

Phil Fersht: I think for some of the up-and-coming Indian providers I think this might have come a little bit sooner than they’d wished. Yes, it’s creating a ton of opportunity, but the bigger question is: when the world’s in crisis, and companies are looking to find relationships that can take them to the next level – or that can get them out of this mess – are they willing to take a risk on a provider that doesn’t have a lot of experience. So I think that this might have come a little sooner than some of the providers may have wanted, whereas it may create an opportunity for some of the incumbents to cement their positions so they can ride out the storm and consolidate further. I think we’ll see some really step up and be successful; I think others will drop away quite quickly.

We’ll also see a move towards the ability to augment application development work with BPO, for example. Providers who can really prove that they’ve got their act together bringing together systems architects, business process analysts and application development people to work across broader business goals are really going to be more successful in the long term; those providers that are pure-play process or pure-play IT need to think very seriously about how they’re going to develop their solutions in the coming years.

Tony Rawlinson: I think it’s going to be quite situational. On the one hand firms like TCS – who’ve recently done what I take to be a very attractive deal to buy Citi’s BPO banking operations in India – clearly have a strategy to acquire service lines and scale up, and I think they’ll be successful. There’re clearly signs at the moment that it’s a buyer’s market, and some of the activity we will see will be more selective sales of captive operations – or if not that, certainly selective outsourcing of captive back office processes. I think conversely what we’ll also see emerging will be providers that continue to specialize. Some of the big Indian KPO players will not want to scale up. They won’t want to be reliant on having to make large capital investments. They’ll stick to their knitting. I think service providers with a clear strategy will be those that are successful.

To pick up on the point a minute ago, I think I’d agree too that actually it’s not so much the new deal activity that’s pivotal for a lot of these providers: it’s going to be extending, restructuring, realigning their existing outsourcing relationships with clients, in order to grow revenue for them but also to address client needs. We see a continuation – certainly in financial services – of center-led strategies to outsourcing being successful but conversely there are still a lot of institutions out there that are behaving quite dysfunctionally, at business-unit level or geography level, and those sort of buyers are still a real headache for providers to deal with.

Brian Smith: One observation I would make is that we’ve seen a lot of people looking at moving away from India over the last few months, and starting to look at different locations, and I suspect that this will cause some reconsideration of that because there will be – at least in the sort term – some capability in India that may not have been there previously as things slow down a bit, and this may cause people to stop looking elsewhere. In that sense, for the Indian provider community, this may not be as bad a thing as maybe could be construed.

Charles Aird: I agree with that. I think that the Indian market is not as attractive as it was before, but then I don’t consider a TCS or an Infosys to be an Indian company any more; they’re just as global as IBM as Accenture, and they’ve diversified very successfully into Eastern Europe and China and South America and places like that. But one of the things we’ve seen, just before this hit – and I wonder what the impact is going to be – is that we’ve found clients more comfortable with setting up captives in remote areas, in Eastern Europe, in China, in India, wherever, because of some perceived dissatisfaction with service providers. Service providers are getting spread really thin in their delivery teams. We’re all going for similar skill-sets, whether it’s a major service provider, one of the advisory firms like us and our competitors, or a client with its performance management and governance – and so the thing with service providers is that clients think they’re not getting out of the deals what they expected to, and start to think about going more into the captive environment. So it’ll be interesting to see over the next few months if that continues as a trend – and some of our research has shown that a lot of people are going to more captive – or if they will leverage the financing that I mentioned earlier through service providers to go the outsourcing route.

Tony Rawlinson: From an EquaTerra research perspective we’ve certainly seen signs of a slowdown in the trend to captives. I think we’re beginning to see now – depending on the market and the proposition of the provider – certainly a growing maturity and range of some service provider offerings, and I think I’d expect to see the credit crunch at least make financial institutions and other organizations reassess whether they want to be in the captive game, and certainly in some circumstances – as the Citi example has shown – to focus on core businesses and leverage the growing capability of some of these providers to pick up commodity services, whilst at the same time assessing which of the processes that are in their captives right now give them competitive differentiation, and making sure they hold onto those.

Brian Smith: Tony raises some good points there; we just did some benchmarking of captives in India and observed that the smaller captives – even the medium-sized captives – are not as efficient as third parties; it’s only the bigger ones that can achieve that degree of efficiency, and it tends to be the bigger ones which get sold, as we’ve seen happening twice recently. My sense is that I do agree that people do want to have captives, but sometimes the economics don’t support that decision and sometimes it’s more a politically or risk-driven decision.

Phil Fersht: We definitely don’t see a move back towards captives at all at AMR; it’s been much more of a shift away from that strategy, particularly for captives smaller than 150, 200 staff that are very challenging to run, very costly, and where in many cases the cost per transaction or the cost of managing staff has spiralled out of control. The other issue is finding providers that actually want to invest and buy them. You look at the financial services space right now and the cost per transaction or trade is through the roof at the moment – because you can’t lay off staff very easily in India, it’s very complex to do that – and at the same time these companies want to be more flexible. They want to have a more flexible infrastructure that can allow for future divestitures, and the common thinking is that an outsourced model allows for more flexibility in the future. We’ll see a few selective strategic acquisitions like TCS-Citi, and we may see Lehman and a few of the other captives get snapped up, but I don’t think this is going to be a broad trend. I just don’t think there’s enough appetite to buy all these captive centers. We’re going to see a lot of them being slowly phased out and merged into outsourcing operations. That’s the way we see things right now.

SSON: Are you saying that – without wishing to be too melodramatic – we might witness the slow death of the captive?

Phil Fersht: I think unless you’re a big-brand, well-resourced organization where you want to invest in having high-quality processes running offshore – and a lot of the captives now are very high-quality, they do very good work, they’re just expensive – in a down-market or volatile market it goes against the model of being predictive and being nimble. I think we’ll always have specialist areas remaining within certain captive operations, but I think it’s going to be more in areas like engineering than in back-office, data-analytics, areas like that where we’re getting a proven model. Offshore companies are very good at doing this stuff: it doesn’t make sense to keep it all in-house.

Charles Aird: I would agree with that. When I say “captive” I go back to my definition of sourcing which includes manufacturing, engineering, R&D, and so on, and a lot of the time we see our clients going as captives into China, India, etc, in manufacturing and R&D because again they’re not able to find resources in the US, whereas they’re not as likely to do that in IT or accounting or the F&A processes that are not core to their operations.

Phil Fersht: We were talking with some clients the other day, and a lot of them have reduced budgets for next year in things like IT, and now have no choice but to look at outsourcing models that work for them; anything that is bread-and-butter like core HR, core financials, they’re looking at moving out now, and actually taking industry-specific areas that give them the value-add, that are client-facing, and consolidating that stuff in-house. That’s really where things are moving and I think we’ll see a heavy move towards non-core, non-mission-critical support operations being moved into the outsourced model; I think this economic crisis is just going to accelerate and expedite that process.

Tom Tunstall: I would agree with that. Captives represent something of an opportunity, either as an acquisition candidate, or as a way to put together a creative deal to help clients move to more of a variable cost model.

Tony Rawlinson: The only other thing I’d add – and it’s been a thread running through our conversation anyway – is that a lot of clients have very complex sourcing maps, multi-sourcing, multi-provider landscapes. Some of them have not traditionally been very good at managing these landscapes. So in an era when we’re all agreeing there’s going to be greater pace to selectively offshore and selectively outsource more, the skills that are going to be fundamental to success are going to be around governance and managing these multi-source landscapes. So there’s certainly going to be a need for us in the advisory community to play our part in equipping clients to successfully make that trip.

SSON: Let’s talk a little about locations. We were discussing India a minute ago, and the idea that it might benefit a little from the downturn in terms of people postponing their decisions to move out of the country. Is it too early to pinpoint the winners in terms of locations that might come best out of the crisis?

Katherine Kawamoto: I think it depends on what you’re sourcing. If you’re talking about services, then I’d say whatever country has the largest talent-pool and the lowest wage inflation. From a wage standpoint you could look at the US and claim we would be one of the better countries as far as sourcing goes.

Charles Aird: I think India has a lot of issues that may cause them even greater pain during the crisis. I’ve lived in India, set up centers there, and am very acquainted with the environment there; but over the last few years the retention issues they have, the escalation in wages, and the perceived drop in quality in both IT and BPO, have caused a lot of frustrations with clients. So I don’t see clients knocking on our doors to say “let’s go to India”. More and more they’re looking at alternatives: China, Eastern Europe, South America, those countries that started making inroads into what India has been doing. I think the current crisis may cause even more of that to occur.

Brian Smith: I do think however that this will maybe cause a reduction in the attrition rate in India, which will be a good thing and one that will make people feel more comfortable. We may also see some change in the underlying economics of offshoring particularly from some of the less expensive regions within the US, and making the business case for doing this may get more difficult.

Tony Rawlinson: I think it’s got to be looked at through the lens of what the requirement is, where the point of service delivery is, where the point of service receipt is, and against that backdrop EquaTerra feels that India will continue to be the dominant market for these services. I think they’re going to be helped clearly by the move we’ve already talked about from captive to outsourced; I think some of the weakness in the global economy is going to feed through to lower wage inflation in India which might address some of the frustration that was mentioned a minute ago. We see China maturing but frankly not rapidly enough to be a universal service delivery response, and clearly Eastern Europe has its supporters mainly around continental European customers who take a more conservative approach to risk.

This is very much an Anglophone discussion and we’re seeing the emergence of places like Morocco serving the French market, for instance, and we’ve talked already about Brazil serving the US market. I think overall our view would be that India will continue to be the big player but we’d also see a “horses for courses” approach being taken by clients and a recognition that risk needs to be managed on a global basis: it doesn’t make sense to have all your services running out of one country.

Phil Fersht: I can add a little additional perspective on that: let’s look at the types of services that are being outsourced to different locations. When you look at IT, I think India has developed a very strong position now delivering high-quality programming, application development services, at labor costs often a quarter of what you’d find in places like the US or UK. I think that’s just going to go from strength to strength as that model matures. They have a real industry developing, with strong training programs and very strong footprints. I think a broader area where it’s still an open game is BPO, and when you look at the fact that you can hire BPO staff for $25-30,000 a year in rural areas of the USA, the arbitrage trade-off with India and other countries isn’t that great – and if Obama takes power and gives even further tax breaks to incent countries to onshore, I do think that nations like the US – and even the UK – are still in the game. And I think that that’s going to be the area where we’re going to see some change globally.

Don’t rule out the Latin American countries for providing voice services and employee services and things like that. But I think on the IT side it’s almost a done deal now: I think India has cemented their footholds, they’re moving into the European markets, they’ll develop intelligent resources in the US and the UK and other places to service their clients. It’s more in the BPO area where we’re going to see more variety, and different countries offering different unique characteristics.

Katherine Kawamoto: It seems to me that wage inflation is such a key factor in these decisions; a couple of people have mentioned Brazil, but if you look at the inflation there that seems to be on the rise – or at least is trending in an upward direction. Globally these are really tough decisions to make because the economies themselves are so unpredictable at this point. We really can’t predict with any certainty what to predict in the way of wage increases. As to the point about Obama: I think it will have an impact; I don’t know how soon it will have an impact, however. I’m not as certain that these things will turn around as quickly as some of the panel have indicated. I really think this is a much longer-term issue that we’re faced with.

Tom Tunstall: I think there are some things that – no matter who’s in office – will preclude an easy repatriation of jobs, if you will. With the electronic mechanisms available, some of that stuff is going to be fairly difficult, and frankly a lot of the jobs that do get outsourced are on the lower end whereas jobs created through outsourcing often are managed in the US and tend to be higher up the value-chain. The idea that whoever happens to be in the White House will affect these things greatly is likely oversimplifying things a bit. Global macro effects override a lot of that.

Charles Aird: I think I’d agree with that. I’m pretty cynical about election campaigns – and we went through a lot of this same rhetoric in the last campaign; some of you may remember Lou Dobbs and all of those things. And then we didn’t see a great deal of change. Obama will more than likely win the election – I can’t imagine him not, given the way things are going these days – and I think the issues he will have to face when he becomes president are much larger than what’s happening in outsourcing around the world.

Tony Rawlinson: I think it’s maybe worth looking at this more holistically as well as from a service provider perspective. The Indian players are becoming global players, the MNCs have deepened their investment in India and other low-cost economies. I think the successful service providers are going to be able to load-balance their client requirements across multiple geographies – so actually it’s probably going to be smart in many cases for clients to let the service providers take those decisions and let the economics of the deals drive where the requirements are placed.

SSON: That sounds like another reason to be concerned about the future of the captive model.

Tony Rawlinson: I think so, overall – although we shouldn’t be too black and white. Yet another driver here that we need to look at – and I’m not sure I know the answer to this one – is there have been signs in recent months, until the credit crunch, of wage price arbitrage not being the only driver of offshoring. It was increasingly coming to be seen as an acquisition of capability. So I think potentially what we’re going to see at least in the short term is a reawakening of the wage price arbitrage driver and I do think to your last point that that’s going to be associated predominantly with outsourcing.

SSON: OK, let’s move on. How can people in the industry best mitigate against the worst effects of the crisis in the short-term – what are the easy wins which can at least lessen the impact of what we know is going to be a pretty lengthy downturn?

Charles Aird: Somebody mentioned this earlier: for a lot of clients maybe it’s time to take stock of the relationships they already have, and improve their governance and performance management. We see a lot of organizations that get through the honeymoon period – whether it’s captive or whether it’s a service provider relationship – and they’re not getting out of the deals what they expected to get. And quite often it is those two areas: the governance is poor, the training on both sides between the client and the service provider is really bad, and the performance management is just not up to speed. In the short term, trying to improve the performance of the deals that are currently in place would be an excellent way for a client to go forward.

Brian Smith: I would agree with that. I think that there are many smallish transactions that have been done – small numbers, moved either domestically or offshore – that have never truly been leveraged across organizations because they belong to one business unit or one particular function within an organization, and I think this may prompt people to realise that looking for that enterprise-level direction is something that is going to add value at this point in time, and to get more strategic in how they manage these relationships.

Tony Rawlinson: We see the value-leakage in outsourcing at the front end of the sourcing lifecycle: ie where a client’s got the wrong strategy or the strategy is too distributed across business units. So there needs to be some focus there to ensure that some of the short-termism that will inevitably be around doesn’t lose sight of the need to have a sustainable target operating model. I think the other area, as Brian covered there, is that value-leakage often is most rife around sourcing and management, so I see a continuation of the multisourcing approach. I think there’s an interest in clients to go to best-of-breed providers, but I think as more stuff is outsourced I think that that governance challenge has to be met head-on, and we need to help our clients invest in the right skills to manage these multi-provider landscapes successfully.

Tom Tunstall: One of the things from ACS’ perspective that we intend to do is continue to focus on client intimacy – which to Charlie’s point should help us better understand the landscape and client requirements. The other thing we intend to do is make greater use of business process utility, delivering the same standardized process to multiple clients, our own technology and best practices; those types of approaches in the short term should allow our clients to save money and we think certainly in the near term that’s going to be top of the list: minimizing investment and saving costs.

Katherine Kawamoto: One of the things that we recommend is that now is really the time to benchmark current processes, and redesign if necessary. Certainly if you’re not already outsourcing but it’s something you might want to look at, it’s better to have a good process that you throw over the fence, versus what we’ve seen in the past where people have just given whatever processes existed at the time to someone else to go and sort it out. We are recommending that people do some self-assessments, do some benchmarking, and proceed with a little more knowledge.

Phil Fersht: All really good points here. We spend a lot of time talking with a lot of business leaders about this and the key issue now is for providers and leading sourcing executives to sit down and work out how to create some innovation within an engagement. Innovation doesn’t just mean operationally effective; it means actually finding new ways of doing things, finding ways of bringing together things like application design with business process design more effectively, and building business-level metrics that can achieve that. So how can you incent vendors to deliver business performance, and not penalise vendors for missing their metrics one quarter, that sort of thing.

We’ve seen that penalising vendors doesn’t really work; there needs to be more collaboration, there need to be better ways of managing vendor relationships, and I think it’s up to the intermediaries, the third parties, the consultants, the analysts of this world, to really help drive this conversation to the next level, to really help create more innovative contracts. It doesn’t help when vendors sell deals that are literally just providing bodies to the client, and the client doesn’t really know how to manage them. There needs to be a greater focus from companies on how to do this more effectively.

Look at the Big Four consulting firms; they need to build practices that are specialized in governing outsourcing contracts. I think too many of those companies are too focused at this point on old-style business models, on shared services and things like that. The vendors need to step up, the buyers need to step up, everybody needs to step up and start being more innovative and thoughtful about how this industry is changing and how we can design a curriculum to reflect that.

Charles Aird: One of my concerns is that our clients use consultants too much! And everybody may be appalled at that but: we find that they’re too dependent on us for helping them set up the governance or the deal or the shared service environment or whatever, and then when we go away they’re not able to maintain it, so more and more we’re encouraging them to embed a center of excellence, or a sourcing team – call it whatever you want – into their organizations so that they can take tools and templates that come from us, or others, and then extend them through their organizations over a period of time to be able to do the deals themselves. So that’s a hope. It may even be a dream. Some organizations obviously have been able to carry it off very well in the world, but I think most of them are still struggling around that and, as I say, I think most organizations use consultants too much, and depend upon them too much.

Tony Rawlinson: I’d generally go with that, and I think it’s got to the point now where it’s incumbent on all of us to incorporate skills trends in our advice. I think there’s enough outsourcing that’s going to go on for us not to be too frightened of clients growing their capabilities, and I’ve always been very evangelical about outsourcing only working if it’s properly managed by both provider and client. I think it’s in everyone’s interests at the end of the day.

Brian Smith: A client who’s not doing this and does not embrace the need for them to manage is not going to succeed, and I think we need to help them understand how to embrace that. We need collectively to evolve our way of helping them through that post-deal phase of life and we can do that in many creative ways.

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About the Author

Jamie Liddell has worked in journalism since he was a 17-year-old cub reporter for The Tico Times, Costa Rica’s highly regarded English-language weekly newspaper. Holding an MA in English from Clare College, Cambridge University, Jamie came to SSON from the world of overseas property publishing where he worked on the industry’s best-selling publications for the UK and Ireland, and gave seminars at consumer and b2b exhibitions and conferences internationally.