How do you feel about outsourcing jobs? Whether for it or against it, most people I speak to have fairly strong feelings about its use.
Some hope that regulations or changes to the tax codes will stop businesses from using it. They hope to see fewer local jobs lost as a result. Others see it as the only way to compete in a global economy and save their enterprise. I believe it is going to become increasingly more prevalent. Further, it's going to take the jobs from many people who have so far escaped its impact.
Beyond the traditional roles and job grade levels, outsourcing - and in particular off shoring - is about to impact North America's businesses and our economy as
dramatically as anything in the past.
If you think that because of your education, management level or profession you are untouchable - you're naive.
It's the Future All Over Again
In the late 1970s, I started traveling to Asia to meet with companies and local government agencies willing to set up factories in those countries. My goal was to have them make various products (shoes, accessories, glassware, clothing, microwave ovens) for sale in North America. I went there because I thought they could manufacture my goods for far less money than on this side of the ocean. It
worked very well. Throughout the decade, Asian factories and economies grew as many other companies followed this approach.
Later, in the early 1990's I applied the same financial logic to increase margins in other industries. I became involved with customer service work which was done over the phone and realized good profit improvements and improved
levels of customer satisfaction by outsourcing jobs to smaller communities across the US and Canada where local wages were low, and unemployment high. As the years passed, we started sending telephone delivered service work to many
of the same areas I'd used earlier to manufacture women's pumps and apparel. Outsourcing was now offshoring. As we all know, many top North American companies no longer have many employees involved in service departments.
They've found that those roles can be done better/faster/cheaper by expert companies in Asia or elsewhere.
Now it's becoming clear that many other jobs requiring no physical interaction can be done in Third World countries, where the pay scales are about 1/10th of what people in North America would get for those jobs.
Does Your Job Use Decision Tree Logic? Oh Oh...
Some executives still haven't figured out that the same technology which allows an Indian Customer Service Rep to serve a MasterCard customer in Michigan has been
re-purposed and expanded to allow an accountant living in India to do the taxes for an elderly taxpayer in Ontario.
Some people know that this is going to impact many accountants in the same manner it did to employees in manufacturing and the service industries over the recent years.
But the real big deal still hasn't been considered by most executives, in most industries, yet.
Any management job or professional activity which is dependent upon so called 'decision tree management' is in jeaprody of being outsourced by someone in a country where a computer can do the same thinking in less time and with
less human distraction. It is my opinion, based upon what I see and hear from those in the know that by the year 2015, most routine work done in most businesses in North America will be done by people living in Asia or South America who will be trained and equipped as well as those they are replacing in the western countries. Additionally, they will perform those tasks with greater proficiency because they are grateful to have the job.
Consider how much of your job is done by using straightforward logic ie: "if this happens, then we'll do this, which will result in X, and our earnings will be $Y." Now
take it a bit further and think about your doctor's role - (s)he does pretty well the same thing by reasoning that if you have these certain symptoms then you have this particular illness and need to take a specific medication
to deal with it. This is precisely the kind of logic that can be done by someone at a computer in any location.
What to Do?
- No government is going to stop this sea change of doing
business, so you may as well ride the crest earlier than
later.
- If your company can benefit from moving more quickly to
offshoring - do it.
- Computers may never figure out how to use intuition or
creativity at all - let alone as well as humans.
- Whatever industry you work in, ensure that the career or
profession you develop over the coming years is going to be
more conceptual and less logical in nature.
John McKee is the expert and visionary behind http://www.BusinessSuccessCoach.net, an online destination for professionals, from small and large business owners, to entry-level managers to senior-level executives -- and everyone in between, who aspire to maximize their success in the business world. John, a 30-year veteran of corporate boardrooms and executive suites, has personally hired, promoted, and fired literally thousands of people. He provides ambitious business people with sound, first-hand advice by phone, from a personal "Business Success Coach" and mentor with a wealth of experience.
Take a free 7 session mini Coaching Session by email by signing up at the website.
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