The Sound of Inevitability
JohnClegg talks about outsourcing ...
About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 to do the job I get paid $67,300 for. He is happy to have the work. I am happy that I only have to work about 90 minutes per day (I still have to attend meetings myself, and I spend a few minutes every day talking code with my Indian counterpart.) The rest of my time my employer thinks Im telecommuting. They are happy to let me telecommute because my output is higher than most of my coworkers. Now Im considering getting a second job and doing the same thing with it. That may be pushing my luck though. The extra money would be nice, but that could push my workday over five hours. From posting at SlashDot (02.04.04) (more at WiredMagazine)
I've never worried about outsourcing because my experience of dealing with companies that outsource is that their service is always suckful. I don't think this is a representation of the outsourced workers ability or intent, but rather that people intimately involved in the process always perform better, and care more, then people abstracted from the problem. I think I'm also unable to effectively evaluate the threat simply because I find outsourcing boring, it holds little interest to me other then it's potential to make it harder for me to earn a living. Even thinking as a potential future business owner the only value I see in outsourcing is that it could make me more money, but that's not why I'd want to go into business, I'd go into business as an attempt to do "interesting things" while surrounded by the most interesting people available.
JohnClegg (13/04/2004)
Comments
I think we can agree that we disagree, here's my response to your comments: i) People who are highly skilled and add value to their companies have a lesser risk of losing their jobs to outsourcing. The ones at risk are the thousands of average programmers and technicians working for Multi-national companies like IBM, EDS and government departments. The lure of substancial cost savings makes outsourcing very attractive. Its a form of business evolution, a large number of technology services rapidly are becoming a commodities. The key focus for the future will be in creating value via IP / design. The implementation / manufacturing can be farmed to who can offer the best quality and value.
ii) Outsourcing is not a reason to start a business. Business are built in and around people and ideas. Outsourcing is just a means to an end. I have already been involved in a couple of businesses that outsource programming and web development overseas to minimise their costs. There not much you can't do via msn / chat these days.
iii) There are a number of risks in outsourcing. As with everything, there are number of cowboys operating in India and if you want to outsource you need to have strong project management and excellent SLA's.