Failure Demand

Often things are more complicated than they appear at first. Many large organisations (public sector in particular) look at the various common systems they have replicated through out their departments and think how great it would be if they could be outsourced. The very attractive idea is that this will lead to greater efficiencies and cost savings.

Management thinker John Seddon developed the concept of Failure Demand. This is the idea that a lot of demand for a service is derived from the poor service delivered in the first place. In a call centre for example people may call back several times to correct a problem that was not resolved on first contact. This leads to increasing levels of calls, as much as 80% extra in some cases.