One question that I get asked regularly is:

“Should we outsource our project? Or get our in-house team to work on it?”

Usually, when executives decide to outsource a project it is because it represents a problem that bothers them already for some time. Maybe they even half-heartedly tried to solve it.

But for whatever reason, the problem is not solved.

So let’s hire someone external and let them deal with it. Right?

Although that is a very human reaction, it is not a successful long-term strategy in most cases.

So let’s just let the in-house team deal with it?

They are probably already at capacity and now they need to be responsible for another project?

That is usually a death sentence for the project. It just dies over time. Buried under all the other daily tasks.

But if you combine the long-term stability of a competent in-house team with the flexibility and boost an external specialist can bring to the table, you can build a powerful solution.

If you want to get it done right, you have to do it by yourself. But there is nothing wrong with getting some help.

Get a specialist to help you with creating the plan and laying a solid foundation, and then continue building on your own.

Nobody is good at everything. That is why most police and military organizations have special forces.

Highly trained and experienced specialists who are getting called when the regular forces can’t handle the situation and failure is not an option.

Their job is to get in and fix the immediate problem. Then hand it over to the regular team to take it from there.

Fast in, fast out.

So when you face a big problem the next time, you might want to think about hiring a specialist to help you get it right from the beginning.

You wouldn’t let your physician do heart surgery on you right?

I hope I could answer this common question and give you something to think about.

Simon Küpper