Outsourcing/In-sourcing

I am not an avid reader, but when my friend anshum praised and suggested a book to me, i thought i'll give it a try. I am still not finished with "The world is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman, but could agree and relate to many of the author's observations. The important observation was conceding part of your work to others. He talked about big business houses outsourcing and in-sourcing their work and benefiting from it. This is not just limited to big business units, but is relevant everywhere as well. The old school of thought was to accumulate as much work as possible, or sometimes beyond it. The focus was to stay in control and have more direct authority to drive it. There was a sense of insecurity. As a result of this approach, the focus from the core activity spreads across other activities, which sometimes may not be your strength and beyond your competency.
Today corporates are ready to part with some part of their business activities and concentrate on their core activity. Idea is to let the best people do the work. The resistance to part with is no longer there. The main requirement however here is "trust". If you don't trust your vendor, or if the vendor is not able to come good on your trust, the decision may backfire. Which is why a thorough analysis is required before such decisions are taken.
This strategy is well implemented within a team also. I have seen some good leaders delegating work with ease and achieving their objectives efficiently. Some new leads can be seen clutching on to important tasks, even if they don't have time and resources for it. This is not good for anybody and for the bigger objective.
The sooner we understand this, better it is for us. I could co-relate this with another book i was reading called "now, discover your strengths". This book emphasizes on discovering your strengths and working on it to get the best result, rather than concentrating and working on your weakness. Though this was more about soft skills, i thought it is in sync with what is discussed by Friedman in his book.