Relationship structure I Relationship management I Leadership requirement

RELATIONSHIP STRUCTURE
Best practices	Common mistakes
Having clear the goals from the outset.	Failing to acknowledge the organization’s values and implicit assumptions.
Making the case for outsourcing as "leveraging".	Letting outsourcing be felt as "abdicating".
Establishing a "win-win" relationship with the supplier. Being open with the supplier.
Letting the supplier help to reengineer the process, if this is the case.	Outsourcing inefficient processes "as they are". Outsourcing "what it is" instead of "what it should be".
Establishing result-based goals.	Prescribing the way things will be done, not the results. Micro-managing the supplier. Identifying with the process. Putting in charge as relationship manager the former functional manager who does not understand and accept the cultural changeover.
Defining the service levels properly.	Compiling unfocused contracts with many overlapping and potential collisions.
Defining in advance the scorecard for supplier evaluation.	Foreseeing only qualitative evaluations.
Looking for and taking advantage of every opportunity to mitigate risk. Running a pilot project.	Not considering known benchmarks in contract evaluation. Over-relying on median benchmarks.
Identifying from the outset an exit strategy to be used in case the relationship does not work.	Leaving unclear how the relationship exit costs should be divided between the two partners.
Planning long-term but engaging in short-term contracts.