The Outsourcing Blog: Horses for Sources

Good luck you miserable git!

Great Britain's Andy Murray (OK, he's a Scott, but we'll have him anyway), goes for our first major tennis tournament victory in 72 years tonight against the mighty Fed Express in the US Open final.  The player, whom our former tennis icon Tim Henman recently described as a "miserable git", proves that being a nice guy doesn't always win you trophies...

You’re not Tiger Woods!

AMR Research's CEO, Tony Friscia, delivered a superb analogy that software and golf are more related than we may think:

"A large percentage of golfers bought new golf clubs every two to three years. Yet the average golf handicap hasn’t dropped one point... for either you or me. But in the hands of Tiger Woods, that technology makes a tremendous difference, which is why some of these technologies are prohibited on the pro tour"

I'd even go as far as using this analogy to describe the relationship between an enterprise and its outsourcing provider.  The provider provides the golf clubs, but ultimately it's the buyer who is making the shots...

Who is the greatest of all time?

Having spent the first half of my life living in Wimbledon, I have been privileged to follow some historic matches - especially the Borg/McEnroe/Connors golden age.  I never thought we'd see anyone emulate Borg's 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles, but today we saw the "Fed Express" dig deep to achieve the unachievable.  Does this make him the greatest player of all time - to win 5 Wimbledon titles on the bounce in this era of physical and technical perfection? 

My vote goes to Bjorn Borg - for two reasons:

1) Borg also won the French open 6 times (and 3 times concurrently with Wimbledon).  To dominate clay court and grass for such a long period is the true test of class and having the complete game.  Federer hasn't won in France.  Neither did Sampras, McEnroe or Connors.

2) Borg had to contend against other great players....McEnroe, Connors, Vilas, Nastase to name a few.  Federer's only real competitor is Nadal.

Feel free to cast your vote (see the sidebar to the left)....