Insight on Coaching
Offshore Outsourcing: Coaching and Offshore Outsourcing
Season 4, Episode 9 - Air Date: October 1st, 2007
Audio File - Length 55:18, File Size - 12.6 MB
Outsourcing parts of your business can be a strong business strategy. But your customers – internal and external – need to have a consistent experience whether they are dealing with employees who are stateside or offshore. Guests on this program discuss how coaching can help companies build cohesive teams in disparate locations in the U.S. and abroad.
Guests
Summary
According to the July 20th, 2006 issue of the Mondaq Business Briefing, the volume of outsourcing activity has doubled in the last decade. One estimate puts the annual growth rate of outsourcing at 20 to 30%.
While outsourcing is big business (estimated at well over $1 trillion), managing across borders – and cultures – is certainly not without its challenges.
In a November 2006 article titled Managing Multicultural Teams, the Harvard Business Review cites four categories of challenges that can arise on global teams, including direct versus indirect
communication, trouble with accents and fluency, differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority, and conflicting norms for decision making.
Are these issues arising within outsourced engagements?
And how are corporations and outsourcing providers using professional coaches to help?
Our experts discuss these topics and more.
Highlights of the show include:
- An overview of the industry, as well as the benefits companies are experiencing from outsourcing.
- The legal challenges that can arise within offshore or outsourced engagements.
- Why the human components of an offshore or outsourcedpartnership impact success the most.
- The importance of proactively establishing relationships with offshore partners face-to-face.
- Cultural traits that can be misinterpreted by both Western and Eastern cultures.
- Coaching techniques to improve communication and address conflict within global teams.
This podcast is part of the Insight on Coaching series. For additional information, visit the Insight on Coaching Home Page.