Outsourcing - Good, bad or just the way it is

I look at outsourcing from many different perspectives. Using my Economics education I see the movement of resources to places that have a competitive advantage over US resources as logical.

From my business background I see the need to continually drive down the cost of doing business as a business imperative. Everyone else is doing it mentality, so if I don't drive down my costs I will be at a competitive disadvantage compared to others in my space. With this being said, companies saying they are opening off-shore locations to enable them to do business around the world, need to be honest with themselves and their employees and say it is all about saving money, because that is what it is really about.

From a public policy perspective it is never a good thing to see good, well-paid jobs leave the country. But even with a "free-trade" policy it is not a good thing to encourage this type of job loss via a tax policy that puts American workers at an even more of a disadvantage. It is important for public policy to put American workers in their best competitive position (in spite of our higher standard of living) .

From an individual perspective I see outsourcing as a threat to my economic security as well as my ability to grow my compensation given the additional competition off-shore resources provide. I also use this threat as a constant pressure on myself to keep current and keep myself in a position to be a valuable contributor to my company's success.

Finally, I wanted to share another perspective from Ron Hira, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology and author of Outsourcing America about other ways the outsourcing trend is hurting our competitive position in the world. Ron's interview with ComputerWorld is quite enlightening.

So to answer the question I posed in my post title, is "Outsourcing - Good, bad or just the way it is?" The answer is all of the above and more. It is good for global companies, bad for US domestic companies and individuals. It also is just the way it is, but that doesn't mean we (the proverbial "we") can't do something about.

We all need to do everything we can for ourselves to make sure we stay as competitive and valuable as possible with education in every way possible, not just formal schooling, but continual learning from our experiences and our networks. We also need to work with our public officials both elected and appointed to ensure our public policies put us all in the best possible position. This is no different then how we work with our managers to ensure they understand all of the good things we do for our companies and the value proposition we individually bring to the table.

Finally, because there are no guarantees in life, we must all have contingencies in case our best laid plans don't pan out.

I recognize this as a different kind of post than you may be used to reading about in Technology Plumbing, but I hope it inspires you to at least think about the outsourcing topic and perhaps inspires you to comment on this post or even better do something that impacts this trend.

As always, these views and comments are my own and do not reflect or represent my employers or anyone else I may be associated with now or in the future.