Read enough business journals, and you’ll encounter the expression ‘core business’ on a regular basis. The phrase refers to the part of the company that creates, produces or services those things which are the intrinsic reason that the business exists. Most firms have departments like human resources and accounts that are important in operational terms, but aren’t ‘core business’ functions. Some companies will review the various components of their business on a regular basis to determine which parts are core, and which aren’t – potentially outsourcing the latter to other firms, who can then take responsibility for, say, cleaning the offices, finding new recruits, and so on. In a similar vein, hosting a website, updating the contents and managing any web-related security issues are all complex jobs that require experienced staff to handle. Therefore, rather than accepting those additional tasks, many businesses outsource the whole problem, an...