Creating a joint vision and statement of intent should be a crucial in developing your outsourcing agreement. Our research and fieldwork at the University of Tennessee's Center for Executive Education has found that highly successful outsourcing arrangements are based on 10 essential elements of success.

For my next series of posts, I’ll address the remaining six elements for achieving successful, more strategic outsourcing agreements that are aimed at transformation and achieving the often elusive "innovation."

Thought Leaders is a series of regular posts from experts from across industries and regions, looking at the issues procurement faces today. In this, the first post in our series, academic, author and outsourcing guru Kate Vitasek looks at one of the core problems that can stand in the way of collaborating to leverage true value from an outsourcing relationship.