There's another wrinkle : sometimes people outsource problems. "This process/system/unit is a constant source of trouble, other people do this well, we can't.. let's outsource it". The pattern here is that the constant complaints go away (or at least the outsourced company is now the "sin eater" and you aren't on the hook). But of course, there is no incentive to actually fix what's gone wrong, in fact the opposite is true... and so these problems stay on the balance sheet for years and decades more than they should, soaking cash that could be used for investment and dragging business performance down. But there is no way out of this tarpit - all hope of actually dealing with the problem goes with the signature on the outsource contract.