Management is often faced with the alternative of continuing to make a product (or offer a service) internally, or go to an external source and purchase the product (or use a third-party service provider). Search online news articles for a company that is considering outsourcing or already outsources a product or service.

1. Describe the company that is making the decision to outsource. What area of the business is the company looking to outsource, or did it already outsource?

2. Why did the company decide to outsource (or is considering outsourcing)?

3. List the revenues and costs that might be impacted by this outsourcing decision. The article will not list many, if any, of these revenues and costs; you should make reasonable guesses about what revenues and/or costs would be associated with the business operation being outsourced.

4. List the qualitative factors that could influence the company's decision of whether or not to out- source this business operation. Again, you need to make reasonable guesses about the qualitative factors that might influence the company's decision to outsource or not to outsource.

*Try online news websites such as New York Times website (www.nytimes.com/) or USA Today (www.usatoday.com/

**Example search terms: outsource, outsourcing, offshoring