Leslie Wilcocks, Sara Cullen and Mary Lacity have written an excellent report titled, "The CEO guide to selecting effective suppliers," which provides great advice for how to approach the selection of a service provider for work to be outsourced. You can download it here.

LogicaCMG sponsored the 28-page paper, which makes two points that really stand out.

1. Get your CEO involved. That person, write the authors, is "responsible for shaping the four pillars of strategy, process, relationships and people... Organisationally and strategically, the CEO is the ultimate pivot of bargaining power and must be involved in forming and utilising this power."

2. Don’t focus on strictly on supplier resources (such as the people making up its workforce). In spite of the fact that "these are highly visible on site tours, balance sheets and resumes," what really matters is the vendor’s ability to turn those resources into capabilities.

Good read. Plenty of practical advice. A couple of interesting case studies.

Associated Press reporters Malcolm Foster and Margie Mason provide this rundown on Americans who go offshore for surgical procedures that are too costly for them to obtain in the states.

While I know that the concept of elective surgery typically involves non-life-threatening procedures, any time one goes under the knife, there's the prospect of unexpected complications. If I were choosing to get something done in a country that required a day of flight time, how would my family feel not being around to make sure I was getting the care I needed? And would I take my son for surgery in another country? No way.

This isn't to belittle the facilities, physicians, nurses or other staff involved in this form of "outsourcing." I'm sure they're incredibly competent and up to date.

But geographic distance is a barrier that sometimes shouldn't be overcome.

What do you think?

The Philippines gets a lightweight boost in the International Herald Tribune in this article. I bring it up because it has some interesting factoids in it (such as the point that service providers there tend to show lower staff turnover rates than many Indian firms); plus, I've begun working with a small service provider there myself -- for transcription work -- and I have to say the service has been remarkable, responsive and friendly. Loudel, if you're reading this: Keep up the great work! :-)

Aaron Ricadela must have really hustled to gather the coverage he provides to InformationWeek in his article, "China Blog." He interviewed the China-based heads of research and other operations at Microsoft, Intel, Sybase, HP, Telegent and AMD, among others for his impressions of the growing tech industry in China.

Between his sketches and the photos by Kevin Lee, this is a must read for anybody interested in learning more about this $2 trillion/year dragon that will come to dominate the economic landscape in the current century.