What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution that have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman has to deliver is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments--when the dot-com bust turned interest away from the business and technology pages and when 9/11 and the Iraq War turned all eyes toward the Middle East--is when they actually began to accelerate. Globalization 3.0
The Black Book of Outsourcing is a comprehensive guide and directory for the emerging field of outsourcing, including expert advice on how to operate an outsourcing program, how to deal with the political aspects of outsourcing, and how to find a career in outsourcing. A controversial and emotional subject among business leaders and workers in the global business community, outsourcing is fast becoming one of the greatest organizational and industrial shifts in modern history. In this one-of-a-kind resource, outsourcing gurus Douglas Brown and Scott Wilson chart a course for business leaders charged with managing outsourcing initiatives and present a wealth of employment opportunities for workers who want to enter this growing field.

Intelligent IT Outsourcing enables practitioners to focus in on the essential issues that need to be addressed so that the fundamental structure of their sourcing strategy and its implementation is sound. The authors provide insight into the challenges likely to be faced and give detailed advice on how to pre-empt and manage these.

IT and outsourcing continue to be problematic, not least because fundamental learning about this subject fails to be applied systematically, and because IT is inherently difficult to manage. The economics are not obvious and emerging technologies have to be addressed, therefore IT goes to the heart of many enterprises and interfaces with multiple business units and processes, and there are continuous skills shortages.

Outsourcing and Management shows how the next generation of executives will employ outsourcing, systematic thinking, disciplined management, and effective use of technology to redefine organizational structure and drive performance to new levels. Too many executives still fail to grasp how the organizational whole becomes greater than the sum of its individual parts. Layers of bureaucracy, dysfunctional behavior, and simple inertia continue to impose a drag on organizational performance at all levels. Outsourcing and Management identifies and defines important new economy organizational dysfunctions -- the Moving-Target Theory of Management, Internal Monopoly, the Bozo-CEO, and the Stream-of-Consciousness Manager -- all of which are destined for the scrapheap.

Outsourcing is now increasingly used as a competitive weapon in today's global economy. The Outsourcing Handbook is a step-by-step guide to the whole outsourcing process. It looks at key factors in the success of a project as well as problem areas and potential pitfalls. It provides an objective, repeatable process that allows organizations to maximize returns on outsourcing investments. Unlike most outsourcing books, The Outsourcing Handbook takes a process-oriented, actionable, and structured approach to understanding the intricacies of constructing, managing, and even terminating an outsourcing engagement.