We outsource our digital marketing to an agency, and our IT infrastructure is managed by an external MSP. Since outsiders execute the work, how do we assign internal ownership for their corresponding weekly Scorecard metrics on our leadership team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you outsource critical business functions like marketing or IT to external vendors, the ultimate accountability for those functions still must reside within your internal leadership team. You cannot assign a Scorecard metric to an outside agency or contractor. A seat on your Accountability Chart™ must own every single number on your leadership Scorecard.

The rule of thumb is that the internal leader who manages the vendor relationship must own the corresponding metric. For example, if your marketing is outsourced to an agency, your marketing and sales leader owns the weekly lead-generation number on the Scorecard. If your IT is managed by an outside vendor, your Integrator or operations head owns the weekly system uptime metric.

The internal owner is not necessarily the person doing the daily work, but they are the one who is fully accountable for the outcome. If the external agency fails to deliver, the internal owner must identify the issue, bring it to the Level 10 Meeting™, and lead the IDS® process to solve the problem. Assigning clear internal ownership ensures that your outsourced partnerships are managed with high standards and that you never allow external partners to become an excuse for poor performance.