Report: Send it offshore, ASAP

TalkBack 34 of 37:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

What the Devil needs: a good lawyer.

Nice counter.

In response to my:
The results of offshoring have been known for some time: it works best for low priority, repetitive, standard work. This is no consolation to the people who lose their jobs, but it does put a rational limit on offshoring.
you wrote:
That was then: This is now. Remember how Hong Kong used to be laughed at because they only produced cheap plastic toys? Now East Asia manufacturers for the entire world. Whoever does the grunt work today, whether writing software or making TV?s, will be doing the high-value work tomorrow.

Even if you're correct, you're predicting years in the future. The consultants said of offshoring, the sooner the better.

Also, the Japanese, as an example, did not become subcontractors. They licensed the technology and produced good/high quality cheap. Why shouldn't people in India and particularly China do the same?
The offshoring companies will either be bought out or marginalized once indigenous industries have matured.
Maybe, when US companies are ready to have their most sophisticated work done offshore, it will be done by a different, local company for its own profit.


In response to my:
And R&D is not appropriately subject to outsourcing. For one thing a primary function of R&D is developing ideas of value to company profits. Of course you want the most detailed knowledge of your valuable idea to be thousands of miles away, in the hands of someone you never met who is working for a different company.
You wrote:
Oh, but this is the way it?s worked for years. SAP employs people in the US. IBM employs people in Switzerland. How is San Francisco farther from Bangalore than it is from Z?rich? Executives couldn?t care less where the worker ants are located. If they want the figures, they get some poor middle manager to take the red-eye from wherever.

In fact, I'll add to your point: in order for companies to sell in certain countries, they have to do at least some of the production there.

But notice that we're not talking about offshoring in general here. We're talking about companies which can profitably set up a branch operation in a foreign country.
Let's say that most companies cannot afford and would not want to set up an operation in a foreign country just for IT, for instance. If company executives think in-house IT staff are difficult to deal with, wait until they encounter representatives of a foreign government.

So you're talking about a limited subset of all corporations in the country. In those cases, you're right, for various reasons.
However.
These companies already have an offshoring strategy. The consultants couldn't possibly be writing for them.
So you're correct, but irrelevant.


Good to be on the side of the angels.

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 06/16/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Evaluating Price/Performance of VMware ESX Server on Dell PowerEdge Servers Dell This paper examines the price/performance advantage that enterprises can ... Download Now
• Designing a Balanced Architecture With Oracle RAC and VERITAS Software for Linux Dell Introducing Oracle RAC into an IT infrastructure and using Linux as the ... Download Now
• Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now