First Posting.....

Ok, first of all let me say that I, like many others in the world, feel as if I 'just don't fit in'.

What I see is a world that seems to enjoy hurting itself and the people in it seem to enjoy hurting each other. Having said that though, I ALSO see how with seach successive generation we are improving the lot of the majority of the people on earth. Maybe I am wrong, but it seems that there are fewer people starving now than 75-100 years ago. Let's keep up the good work!

OFFSHORING:

There is LOADS being written about this....however let me stick my 2 cents worth in.

First let me say.... IT IS INEVITABLE!! The same way as car manufacturing left North America for less expensive shores....so will other industries as it becomes feasible. Can it be stopped? Not totally, but it can be slowed. Should it be stopped? I don't know... maybe, maybe not... The corporations are right when they say that they need to be able to compete.

The question for ME is....exactly HOW much profit do they need to make?? Some people have told me that capitalism is:

The maximization of profits

YET, Websters states:

An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

Please NOTE it states reinvestment.....not externalization of costs.



In no particular order:

1. When sending work to people NOT within the firm and not within the country of origin NO assumptions can be made.

This means that to assume that people in another country, raised in another culture will understand implicitly, without being told or mentored, exactly what is expected. When we all come from the same culture we ALL understand that you turn a key in a lock clockwise to lock the door and counterclockwise to open it, etc, etc. Let us all remember the movie whose premise was that a coke bottle falling from heaven must be heavensent (on the African plain) and therefore a young man of the tribe should embark on a LONG journey to return the bottle to the Gods....

2. That there are costs which are hidden which do not seem to be taken in at this time. Specifically, the costs of lost work time because of the time difference and lack of overlap of work force between the home company and the offshoring personnel. Literally I have seen situations where 10-15 personnel would sit and not be able to do any work because they did not understand the requirements. Rather than disturb people who would be in bed in the home company time zone, they waited the full work daytime before clarifying instructions.

3. There is an assumption that management in the home company and 'workers' in the offshoring company is efficient. It is NOT. I keep saying to people, 'why do you think that the British SENT representatives to places like Africa to start the coffee plantations?'. From personal experience, it does not work as well as everyone imagines, or says. The management will lose effective communication with the personnel doing the work. There is a BIG difference between reading a design proposal and discussing it over the phone at 9:30 p.m. your time and being able to trot down the hall and thrash it out in person......

What does this mean? In my opinion it means that you either send management to the country the offshoring is in, or else give the entire project to the offshoring company and pray you get back what you need.

I have heard horror stories about how software development in other countries has produced software that is totally NOT intuitive and not user friendly. For example, to write a software application that does not allow the client to use the 'tab' key. Illogical.

Now, are things improving? Of course! Are there still challenges? Of course! The best thing we can do (in my opinion) is understand that there are challenges, look them in the face, mentor these new resources and assist them to realize/understand the unspoken, expected requirements.

3. As to cost savings......we saw this with Japan, etc etc etc. As the 'work/business' moves to a different country the personnel of that country start to demand higher wages because they want their 2 cars in the garage and large screen tv and vacations. This immediately starts to erode the production expense advantages. We see this right now with India....just this year the cost of wages has increased at least 20%. This means that it becomes less and less attractive to offshore. And this does not take into account the 'hidden' costs.

The same happened in Japan. For the longest time it has not been financially feasible to offshore to Japan. They are themselves offshoring to other countries where the labour is much cheaper.

More later as time goes on....



General ideas:

I noticed on the tube the other day that Haiti is having particular problems with flooding. This is, some believe, because Haiti has deforested their hillsides so the water has NO where to go but to the flood plain. Of course we have built our homes on the flood plains as it is easier.

So now the people need something to cook their food with, as of course they don't have electricity right now after the hurricane....so they use COAL! One of the MOST polluting substances.

OK...we KNOW people need to cook their food to eat. Soooooo, how about we figure out an inexpensive and efficient SOLAR cooker?? That way there is no environmental impact. That way there is no expense to people who are already unable to afford the basics of living.