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Michael Barrett announced as an ecch Case Award winner

20 February 2012

The article at a glance

Congratulations to Michael Barrett, Professor in Information Technology & Innovation Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School, for being named as a winner …

Michael BarrettCongratulations to Michael Barrett, Professor in Information Technology & Innovation Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School, for being named as a winner of an ecch Case Award 2012, formerly known as the European Case Awards.

Michael was successful in the ‘Knowledge, Information and Communications Systems Management’ category, with his case writing – Offshoring and Innovation at Globalco: Negotiating a Win-Win Strategy for the Outsourcing Relationship.

The case looks at how the evolution of IT offshoring relationships has been marked in recent years by a gradual shift away from their traditional focus on low cost and labour arbitrage. Instead, with the relationship evolving to new levels of global collaboration, the perceived role of vendors is shifting to one of partnership and as a key source of innovation. It also examines the challenges and opportunities of a multinational firm and its Indian vendors in developing its offshoring relationship over time. It also raises the crucial question as to how key Indian and North American firms can transition their offshoring relationship to one of partnership driving business innovation.

On winning the award, Michael commented:

I was delighted to be honoured as a winner of the ecch Case Awards 2012, especially as there are so many fantastic cases from schools across the globe in the ecch collection. I would like to thank all the participants in the organisations who contributed their time and knowledge, without which the case could not have been written.”

ecch operates as a professional association of organisations engaged in management education and training. Created in 1973, its aim is to establish a facility for exchanging case materials among teachers of business administration.

The ecch Case Awards are presented annually to recognise worldwide excellence in case writing and to raise the profile of the case method of learning. Awards are made in up to nine management categories; for one overall winning case; two case writing competition categories for a case by a new author and for a newly authored case on a ‘hot topic’; and to recognise the outstanding contribution of an individual associated with the case method.

As a previous ecch winner in 2008, Michael is no stranger to awards and has also recently been honoured with Best Interactive Paper Award 2011, OCIS Division, Academy of Management, as well as the IBM Faculty Award in 2003 and the Mackenzie Undergraduate Teaching Award, University of Alberta in 1998, amongst others.

Michael is a member of the Steering Board of the Cambridge Service Alliance and a member of the Management Executive Group of the Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care at Cambridge University. He has served as Director of Programmes and as Director of the Innovation, Strategy & Organisation MPhil programme at Cambridge Judge Business School.