I work in the telecommunications industry and have a fair bit of experience of outsourcing. We outsourced our catering but then that wasnt integral to our product or brand reputation.
We also outsourced things like Payroll and cleaning etc and finance and catering companies etc outsource their telecoms services to us.
I cannot believe that a large modern corporation like BA wh basically have a well respected brand and a range of products that on world standards are good ( they are not the best but they are much better than most) has managed to find itself held hostage to fortune in this way.
It is bad enough going through the grief of the last few weeks without finding themselves having to pay more for a proven sub standard service with very fragile future prospects and almost assured labour difficulties due to the management style.
It is incredible that so called professional managers could do this. Even if they thought they were outsourcing the management problems they allegedly had with their own in house catering and if RE wasnt going Iwould be surprised if their were not calls for his head and justifiably so.
Outsourcing can work very well in all industries but in recent years people have learned that you never ever outsource to a company that is unstable and certainly not for anything that is either mission critical or brand damaging.
As it was explained to me once in the context of a marriage . If you are a man and you are very busy by all means outsource some traditional male marital duties like the gardening and decorating but you dont pay someone else to sleep with your wife.
PB