Save money! Improve performance! Stick to your knitting!

With promises of tantalizing payoffs and "strategic partnerships," outsourcing vendors have convinced a lot of top executives to replace entire staff groups with their services.

Sadly, many of the promised benefits never materialized. In fact, paying vendors a profit turns out to be surprisingly expensive. Meanwhile, outsourcing contracts are tough to manage. And even when relationships are good, vendors can never be as well aligned with business strategies as can insiders.

Unfortunately, after a series of disappointments, executives find that once an outsourcing decision has been made, there's no turning back. Key staff have been lost, and lawyers have a lock on the relationship.

Certainly partnerships with suppliers are a good thing. But decimating the careers of staff and becoming dependent on outsiders is not.

How can corporations leverage the talents and economies of vendors without becoming hostages to people who serve other shareholders?

This book cuts through the hype, analyzes the fundamental trade-offs, and describes an approach called "extended staffing" which makes the right vendor decisions, in context, day after day. It is written for executives who are not interested in leaping from the pan to the fire... who are willing to invest time and thought into getting the best of both vendors and internal staff.