turnkey outsourcing providers, the burden shifts to the buyer to
ensure that the providers integrate and work together and can
provide their self-healing and upgrading solutions whenever and
wherever needed.
ConclusionIBM’s dream may seem far-fetched now, but ask your chief tech-
nology officer (CTO) and chief information officer (CIO) how
their budgets have changed regarding infrastructure purchases and
where they would rather put the burden of upgrade costs. Most will
say on someone else. How can you argue with this approach? After
all, that’s the reason to be in business, to serve the customers and
deliver shareholder value.
Of course, this hypothetical CIO, CTO, and even CEO would
be one that would not be weighted down with internal silos, poli-
tics, territories, “not invented here” issues, and control phobias.
Maybe that is where the issue will lie: Will the buyer really have
the company, customer, and shareholder value in mind, or will the
human failings, personal aggrandizements, ego issues, and control
problems that occur in all environments prevent this utopian
vision from being realized?
Being the kind of person who finds a room full of manure and
just knows there is a pony in there somewhere, I am convinced that
personal goals will yield to corporate good and shareholder return
in the new era in which we find ourselves. This is a time of corpo-
rate accountability and when less is seen as preferable to more,
when issues of building infrastructure and expense are the choice,
rather than outsourcing the capital cost and expertise to others.^1
Larraine Segilspeaks on the management tools for alliances, lead-
ership, and e-business. Author of Measuring the Value of Partnering,
Dynamic Leader, Adaptive Organization, FastAlliances: Power Your
E-Business, Intelligent Business Alliances,she also coedited (with
James Belasco and Marshall Goldsmith) Partnering: The New Face88 LEADINGORGANIZATIONALLEARNING