Can Management Be Outsourced?
We’re investigating a controversial hypothesis. We’ve seen almost every major function move outside the building: Marketing → Agencies Sales → SDR firms Legal → External counsel Product → Dev shops.
The pattern is clear. But does it stop at Management?
We honestly don’t know.
Is the "execution" side of management something that must stay in-house forever? Or is it the next function to be decoupled?
We’re running a survey to gather the data: “Can Management Be Outsourced?”
We want to hear from everyone—skeptics, believers, and the undecided. Help us build the dataset. We’ll share the raw findings with everyone who participates.
Link: https://forms.office.com/r/7LxYpzHqKd
Time: 2 minutes.
That is how a lot of US government contracts works. E.g., airports, prisons, even nuclear weapons maintenance.
https://cgfa.ilga.gov/Upload/2006Gov_Privatization_Rprt.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_Nuclear_Security
Management Consulting has been a thing for decades. so has more generic consulting. The whole current trend for "fractional" C-level roles is just a new marketing spin on the same old "consulting".
You always need a leader who sets the vision. Beyond that top-level board or exec, sure, you can outsource everything else. There are pros and cons to it. If I were you, I'd go research the history, successes, and failures of various consulting models before you try to start something new. Because it absolutely can work, but if you don't find the giant shoulders to stand on, you are ignoring decades of lessons learned and will sound like someone who doesn't know their own industry.
Isn't management always "outsourced" by hiring someone who might not even have the industrial experience? DEC hired someone from Pepsi I think. And I know many higher level managers are contractors in the companies I worked for.
Interesting question. If you would ask Deming I believe he would say “no”.
I don't think so. In my experience a position of a manager is more political one than the one requiring a skill.
My immediate manager for my US remote SRE team was based out of Poland. He was a good manager.
And regarding team management, do companies need to retain internal staff to oversee them? Could they dispose of internal team leads, product managers, etc?
So... management consultants?