Recently, a friend sent me an email about President
Bush and the Budget Deficit due to the growing cost of running
the government. PResident Bush decided to follow the lead of many
companies and outsource some of the government responsibilities to a
Legislative Support Center
in Bangalore, India. He decided to lay off the 535 members of
Congress and move the lawmaking responsibilities to the Support Center,
citing a
savings of over $80 million per year. The $150,000 per year
salary
of the ex-congressmen would be replaced by people making $250 per month
and we can train the new people to do exactly what we want them to do.
The paper goes on to discuss the transition and the responses from all
involved. While it was fun to read, I could not help but to think
how the scenario relates to the outsourcing we see today in many of our
companies. In the early 1990s, we started with outsourcing
manufacturing
and Customer Call Centers. After that, we progressed to Help
Lines,
then HR Services and now wer are venturing into outsourcing $&D.
I
can see how profits are rising and unemployment staying the same in the
U.S. Is this idea of outsourcing good fundamental business or
short
term gain? Only time will tell.
When I myself encounter outsourcing, I often wonder if the company has
thought abeyond the dollar savings of the act.
- Is what is being outsourced important/critical to the business?
- Do the replacements have the necessary tools to function as
expected (or needed)?
- Do the replacements conduct business as predetermined?
- Is there a system in place to monitor the execution of the
business?
- Are there regularly scheduled reports on the state of the
business within the outsourcing?
- Have we outsourced a part of the business that has a competitive
advantage?
- Does the outsourcing open up access to confidential information?
- Does the activity being outsourced have an internal training
value?
- Does the activity being outsourced contain a knowledge gathering
facet about the market, consumer or customer?
I wonder how many of the above questions are addressed before making
the move to outsource? In all of this something can be said for
focussing on core competencies. We should keep in mind, however,
that Newton's Third Law also applies to business. There can be a
down side in Corporate Security as well as Corporate Image.
For more of my
Views on the topic of "Outsourcing" go to
www. popsg.org/views and see the issue of November 5, 2002 titled
"Downsizing, Liquidating & Outsourcing -- in search of a better
bottom line."
Maybe this is a place for the thoughts expressed in the
Views
of August 20, 2003 titled, "Confirm, Confirm & Reconfirm."
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