Quinn says strategic control is control over your future positioning. In the outsourcing arena, buyers have to assess whether their suppliers will threaten or enrich their financial future, depending on the buyer's particular strategy. This entails envisioning both where the company and its suppliers will be at a particular time in the future. This ability to look ahead is another skill buyers will have to add to their outsourcing skill sets. Buyers must have input at the formative stages of a supplier's new strategy.
Buyers only have power to change things while the ideas are still nascent.
Companies need to let their suppliers supply innovation. Today, the world is too complex for any one company to commandeer the lead. A global viewpoint is crucial for buyers. Buyers must anticipate which vendors will be able to help or hurt them in the future.