Outsourcing Engagement Recovery
Phil Hatch leads the recovery of a poorly performing outsourcing engagement. The work connects delivery evidence, reporting, workforce capability, and shared controls to the corrections the institution and provider need to make.
Phil Hatch / Principal-led advisory / Financial institutions
Recovery Triggers and Operating Concerns
Recovery is warranted when the institution and provider cannot resolve important delivery problems through normal arrangements. Common triggers include recurring service misses, unexplained human correction, disputed reports, delayed decisions, weak oversight, and a material change that neither side can govern effectively.
Phil works with the sponsor to establish the facts and lead prioritized correction under a defined Engagement Recovery mandate. The assignment is not restricted to an assessment and verdict.
Engagement Review Scope
- Financial institution readinessData and process ownership, access, dependencies, retained capability, decisions, and response to delivery requests.
- Vendor capabilitySkills, staffing, delivery methods, knowledge continuity, and controls over human intervention.
- Co-managementThe firms’ shared decision rights, risks, changes, escalations, issue resolution, and review.
- AI technologyRelevant configurations, changes, monitoring, and output checks, with qualified technical expertise.
- Third-party ecosystemMaterial model and service dependencies, permissions, continuity assumptions, and changes outside the direct relationship.
- Reporting and actual workReconcile reported performance to underlying completion, exclusions, and human review, correction, or manual work.
Corrective Work
Correct ownership and decision delays. Resolve material process, input, access, or staffing gaps. Establish reporting definitions that distinguish unassisted agent output from work requiring human intervention. Strengthen oversight, shared issue records, change procedures, and suspension authority where needed.
Commercial review can address outcomes, incentives, verification rights, licensing assumptions, and feasible transition or exit arrangements. Counsel owns legal interpretation and drafting. Modeled alternatives are identified as assumptions rather than reported as observed costs.
Assignment Deliverables
- A reconciled baselineSupported measures of service, cost, human effort, control operation, and material uncertainty.
- A funded recovery planOwners, containment decisions, resources, milestones, and criteria for operating correction.
- Executive recovery leadershipA decision cadence, issue escalation, documented choices, and direct challenge of unsupported explanations.
- A supported disposition and handoverContinue, restrict, restructure, transfer, or exit according to the evidence, with independent verification of material closure.
Scope and authority are agreed before the assignment. The institution and provider must supply the named resources and relevant access. No blanket promise is made to prevent cancellation, recover a fixed sum, or test an exit without the necessary rights and operational participation.
Research Basis and Scope
Download the complete study PDFPhil Hatch’s 2026 study examines 150 agentic AI outsourcing engagements through accounts from 850 vendor delivery-team respondents. It identifies reported weaknesses in preparation, shared management, controls, reporting, and the visibility of human work.
The Executive Action Plan proposes independent review, direct access to delivery personnel, corrective action, and independent verification of material closure. Akholi translates those recommendations into a scoped institutional assignment.
Related evidence: financial institution readiness, co-management, and manual alteration.
The sample is not industry-representative. The findings are observational. They do not establish causation or legal breach, and the study did not test the proposed remedies or measure GCC performance.
Outsourcing Recovery Enquiries
Start with the concern, the decision you need to make, and the people responsible. Agree scope, access, responsibilities, timing, and fees directly with Phil Hatch.