Global “Chop Shops” Slice, Dice and Outsource the Value Chain

Henry Ford’s that company produced everything internally from the steel to the finished automobile, the modern firm is a pastiche of work done internally, as well as other components procured, and functions outsourced, externally. The multinational firm “slices” discrete operations from its value chain and outsources and offshores them to external vendors and countries to obtain cost-reduction, speed and external partner capabilities superior to what the company can do itself. The article presents a model for this organizational transformation, with examples from the pharmaceutical sector which increasingly slices off functions which previously were conducted internally, to vendors and affiliates abroad.