The times they are a-changin’
“Come gather ‘round people wherever you roam and admit that the waters around you have grown and accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you is worth savin’, then you’d better start swimming, or you’ll sink like a stone.”
What do GP’s, inhouse lawyers and internal accountants have in common?
You’d never ask your GP to perform open heart surgery. You wouldn’t ask your inhouse legal team to represent you against KC’s in specialist court. So, is it right to expect internal teams to be able to offer a full range of expertise and systems knowledge when the world has changed?
The answer is no, and that your competitors may already know this should set alarm bells ringing. And whilst it’s unlikely that Bob Dylan was ‘on topic’ he remains very relevant.
Competitive advantage is at your fingertips, you just need to be open to changing with the times to unlock new value. (“for he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled”).
The evolution of value
The Fourth Industrial Revolution isn't a distant future we can afford to wait for. It's happening now, transforming industries and forcing businesses to adapt or risk getting left behind. While some dream of utopias powered by AI, savvy businesses are seizing the opportunities presented. This revolution isn't just about machines; it's about harnessing technology and expertise to generate real, tangible value.
Covid’s positive legacy
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the global and local economy, and the world is still grappling with the long-term consequences. One of the key challenges facing businesses today is the combination of high inflation and a housing market downturn. This is a worrying trend for many industries, including estate agents and lawyers.
In this challenging environment, businesses need to find ways to cut costs and become more flexible in order to scale business operations. By outsourcing non-core functions such as accounting and payroll, businesses can free up valuable resources and reinvest in core operations and growth initiatives
The rise of outsourcing – Flexible, multi-tiered resource and shared value
So, it makes sense that rather than recruit and ‘maintain’ a small workforce to provide expert services, businesses are increasingly looking to outsource to teams of experts who offer flexible, multi-tiered resourcing and shared value.
Shared value is not just enjoyed at a resourcing level but, in addition, infrastructure and system investment value is also shared, and businesses can focus on their core business whilst gleaning benefits of outsourced insight and intelligence to drive growth and increased profitability.
But isn’t outsourcing old hat?
This isn’t a new concept. For many years agency services have been provided by third parties. Overtly through creative agencies, recruitment agencies, IT and systems support to name but a few. But also, and perhaps less obviously through professional services more generally. It has always been widely accepted that, whilst businesses may have an inhouse legal team they will often need to ‘bolt on’ specialists. However, the assumption that other professional services are somehow more generalists seems to have prevailed resulting in overstretched ‘Jack of alls’ either burning out, over resourcing in an attempt to get depth of experience or simply not providing value.
Normalisation of outsourcing to deliver value.
“Your old road is rapidly changing.”
But we’re seeing a step change. Change consultants, outsourcing to cheaper geographical locations to benefit from workforce cost reductions came next. And now we’re seeing seismic change at a departmental level where services like marketing, business development, accountancy and payroll are outsourced to generate flexible value for small independents through to multinational corporate businesses, offering total outsource solutions as well as bolt on services.
And this trend is particularly relevant in small jurisdictions with more limited resourcing pools like the Channel Islands. In particular Jersey has a significant supply and demand issue, with much of the talent pool scooped up by a handful of big players, making recruitment hard and meaning that businesses must change their operating models or standard practices to support outsourcing to stay ahead of the game.
Outsourcing your non-core activities means you can focus on what you’re good at whilst improving efficiency and productivity, cutting operational costs and driving faster turnaround times and increased competitiveness. Outsourcing professional services makes sense on many levels but at its simplest it creates business value.