Personnel - waste article

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According to orthodoxy, the unit cost of personnel in contract negotiation is one of the key expenses to be smooshed. The obvious way of doing this is to find a cheaper unit. One that can do the same job for less money. Three key ways of achieving that:

• Downgrading: Find a less experienced, more junior person in the office to do the same job;
• Offshoring: Find a negotiator in a cheaper location
• Outsourcing: Find a third party service provider to whom you can contract the negotiation job, who in practice will do both.

These are easy to diagnose. But you get what you pay for. It stands to reason you get less experience and ability when you downgrade. It is no less inevitable when you offshore, and all the more when you outsource: there you get the uninvestment of a contractor into the bargain too.

But with de-skilling comes lack of flexibility and agility. Comes silos. Comes specialisation - in the sense of limitation. This implies more escalation. Escalation necessitates waiting.