Michael F. Corbett is an internationally recognized consultant, author and lecturer on organizational structure and its powerful relationship to competitive advantage.

Mr. Corbett believes that for organizations to capture markets and increase shareholder value they must achieve best-in-world excellence born of specialization, strategically leveraged outside relationships, and constant innovation.

Mr. Corbett is best known for his pioneering work on the topic of outsourcing. This work includes training thousands of executives on the topic over the past ten years, producing and chairing the field’s premier annual conference, The Outsourcing World Summit, forming and chairing The Outsourcing Research Council, producing and editing Firmbuilder.com, and authoring, since 1994, annual management briefs on outsourcing for Fortune Magazine. He is President of Michael F. Corbett & Associates, Ltd., a research and training firm dedicated to advancing outsourcing as a powerful management discipline, and is CEO of Outsourcing Advisors International, LLC, a consultancy that assists clients with outsourcing best practices and effective relationship management.

Outsourcing has changed the world of business and with it the business of management. Outsourcing is not simply a by-product of the need to reduce costs. It is an integral part of an organization’s strategy for excellence. Outsourcing enables best-in-world performance. It creates breakthrough thinking through a clearer focus on an organization’s core competencies -- those things it does very best -- combined with harnessing the unique capabilities of equally talented and focused outside partners. Seen this way, outsourcing becomes a powerful tool for organizational competitiveness.

Mr. Corbett began his work on outsourcing in the late 1980s when, as Manager of Software Service Offerings for IBM, he helped develop the company’s strategic business plan for its entry into the outsourcing marketplace. This business plan presented a compelling vision of the enormous opportunity available to IBM for partnering with its customers in the operations of their information systems. Today, IBM Global Services is the largest service organization in the world.

In 1993, Mr. Corbett co-founded The Outsourcing Institute. As Director of Research and Member Programs, Mr. Corbett helped shape the direction of outsourcing during the industry’s critical early years.

Mr. Corbett founded and chairs The Outsourcing Research Council, a senior executive consortium of leading U.S. companies that exchange experience and expertise on outsourcing on an ongoing basis and collectively fund research into cutting-edge issues.

Annually, his company presents The Outsourcing World Summit ~ Conference & Exposition.. The Summit is the industry’s preeminent gathering of leading practitioners and thinkers from across the U.S. and around the world. More than 565 executives from twenty-one countries attended the 2002 Summit. The 2003 Outsourcing World Summit will take place February 24-26, 2003 at the Desert Springs Marriott Resort & Spa, Palm Desert, California. The Summit is also presented in annually in Sydney, Australia and plans are underway for Summits in Europe and China.

Firmbuilder.com, the company’s online outsourcing information portal, was launched in May 2000 and has quickly become the ‘go to’ resource for executives seeking a greater understanding and improved application of outsourcing as a management tool. There are now more than 15,000 registered users of the site with access to over 300 articles and reports on the topic. Firmbuilder.com has been praised by independent sources, such as eCompany Now, for its scope, depth, and quality of information.

Routinely sought as a lecturer and speaker on outsourcing and related organizational topics, Mr. Corbett was, in 1996, an expert witness on outsourcing at hearings called by then President Bill Clinton and was recently invited to testify before the Office of Management and Budget’s Commercial Activities Panel tasked with redefining the Federal government’s outsourcing policies and practices.

Until its sale to Compass Group, Mr. Corbett served on the Board of Directors of Morrison Management Specialists, Inc., a leading provider of food and nutrition services for hospitals and senior living centers, and currently serves on the board of Janus Associates, Inc., an information security software and consulting firm headquartered in Stamford, CT. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of Portera and Advanti.com – both providers of information technology-based outsourcing services.

Worldwide clients of Mr. Corbett’s include Bell Canada, Ericsson, GlaxoSmithKline, American Express, Lockheed Martin, Compaq Computers, General Motors, as well as government agencies (both inside and outside the U.S.), individual healthcare providers and hospital associations.