After spending many cumulative years of my 25 year career in foreign locations, I am still bewildered at the outsourcing providers who openly aspire to outsourcing being an entirely offshore arrangement. The first thing out of their mouths is about labor arbitrage -- they talk about how cheap the labor is rather than really understanding the business need. They then quickly present the classic shield of “globalization” and “market shifts” to the media (e.g., mortgage association) who blissfully reports them as facts!
For those of you who know me I’m a large advocate of globalization, and if that involves business-driven offshore outsourcing then that should be part of the corporation’s execution strategy. What I am still offended by today are those providers who continue to act as nothing more than order takers and pushing work offshore just because that’s all their business model supports. Why is it that after nearly four decades of globalization, we draw lines along geographic boundaries? Are these firms and their senior management leader which are listing their ADR’s on our financial exchanges really partners for collaborative, gain-sharing relationships?
My concern is that these providers and their biased communications will reduce the discussion of outsourcing and globalization to one in the G7 that is more about protectionism. Their misguided and erroneous assumptions that outsourcing is all offshore and not integrated with the domestic operations will be high-octane fuel for a fire that will forever change this discussion pre and post elections. Can anyone guess what will happen if the US markets hit a recession? What then will their nationalist statements do to their bottom line?
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