Or alternatively, they've "figured out" how not to hire people unrelated to their core business? What does Frito-Lay have to be gained from engaging in the janitorial business?
Not paying the person in between? I worked at PepsiCo for a little and most of their job responsibilities weren’t unique to the product offering or business model.
A job that supports the core business is definitely not the same thing as a job unique to the product offering or business model.
e.g. food safety is something that is important to PepsiCo's business, yet they are far from the only business that needs food safety expertise. In contrast, they may also need potholes filled in the parking lot, but they may choose to hire outside help for this, because they do not do it enough to be good or efficient at it. Paying a middleman is often cheaper than hiring labor directly. Labor is the largest single cost for most businesses.
I think the distinctions between supports and essential to value get pretty subjective. Since 2008 the number of contracting roles has increased quite a bit and there are disputes as to whether Uber drivers (or engineers) are employees. I’d claim there is an unnecessary and unhelpful bias towards outsourcing (not saying that it’s always wrong, just more prevalent than ideal...).
Well, Uber drivers definitely directly support Uber's primary business. So I'd say that's a different situation altogether. (and they're not really outsourced, Uber directly "contracts" each one of them) Many businesses fail when trying to outsource staff that directly support their primary product or service.
A more direct comparison to the issue of Frito-Lay's janitorial staff is something like: should Yellow Cab should hire their own car wash staff or make a deal with a local car wash?
Yes, the decisions could go either way depending on circumstances. I think for me this was a good example of needing to stay on topic. Original comment was that not paying a middleman is one potential benefit of keeping common services in house and that many if not most roles could be filled externally.
YMMV (I am in Austria), but there are advantages and disadvantages, it's not a clear decision. In my ex-company we decided to hire janitors, mainly because we didn't want to deal with different people all the time whom we'd have to teach how to treat computer displays and keyboards every time, with some perhaps slacking or even stealing. The main disadvantage was that as a small company, you're in trouble if all your janitors (or your only one!) are sick or on leave and you can't get a replacement at short notice. Our first hired one still works at that company after 18 years - not bad for an IT startup.
The software industry hasn't quite figured it out, but specialization is a great strategy for the vast majority of the economy and it has worked extremely well.
See General Electric, Boeing, The TV industry, the chip making industry, and countless others. Well, OK two of those outsourced their core business... They probably didn't understand the concept.
