Partner choice You have interviewed an executive of a company that plans to outsource strategically important products.

What key insights can you get from the following excerpt of your interview about the importance organisational culture to a successful IOR? Are these insights generally applicable to outsourcing all resources? Explain.

Also very important is the soft match: do you trust the partner’s management, do you feel the right ‘click’, do you relate well? You enter a long-term commitment, you will have numerous meetings, and you know that you will have intense debates in which you ask your partner to stretch the limits in order to correct failures. You also know you will ask your partner to take strategic decisions and to make necessary investments. A good relationship between management teams is very important in these circumstances. Do they have a long term vision, or do they mainly care about the next quarter. Do they have a proven track record? Will the managers we meet today also be in their position in the coming year? We look at proven track records: financial performance and management performance. We have business meetings with them, but also informal meetings (drinks and dinner) in order to see whether they are partners who are not opportunistic and short term focused, but are long term focused, serious about their business and can be trusted.