Tipping Forward

Today's blog on TPI's Sourcing Industry Conference comes from Peter Allen, Partner and Managing Director, TPI.

Have 120 executives from over 50 service provider firms discuss the “tipping point” in sourcing, and the word you’ll hear repeatedly is innovation. It’s no surprise the topic earned the most buzz at TPI’s Sourcing Industry Conference (SIC) in Chicago on April 22.

How to put the topic of “innovation” more prominently on the table for outsourcing relationships has been led by my colleague Harvey Gluckman. His work with several service providers and law firms is addressing the ways that innovation is declared as an expectation, its evaluation techniques, funding models, and the overall governance constructs. It’s truly market-changing work.

But we took on other “meaty” debates across a spectrum of contexts as well, ranging from macro-economic factors to the minutiae of individual transaction terms. At the end of the day, we were looking for ways outsourcing can have a more substantial effect on the business of clients.

To that end, we took a checkpoint on TPI’s Innovation Agenda for the global outsourcing industry and discussed the recently published findings related to change management led by TPI’s Shawn McCray. I especially enjoyed the collaborative spirit among the participants taking up tough topics many companies struggle with.

It was an incredible event, and there’s more to come! Next week we hold the Americas Sourcing Leadership Exchange (SLE), a conference among buy-side leaders in outsourcing. I suspect there will be a few gems worth sharing for that event too!

In the meantime, for those who attended the SIC and care to keep the public thoughts rolling, please post a comment.