Home - Why outsourcing is a bad idea by Peter Blue
I don't like outsourcing. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with UK companies working with Indian or Asian companies but the idea of 'detaching' part of your company and handing it over to somebody else thousands of miles away just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Its a bit like a gazelle outsourcing its liver to the lions because they can manage it so much better.
In no particular order here is why I think outsourcing is on its way out :-
- Short-term thinking Its not much of a mental leap to realise that as the standard of living in those countries goes up, so will costs. Soon you will have lost the only real advantage of outsourcing - low labour costs.
- Language + Culture clashes Even though the outsourcing countries might speak perfect English, no one in England does - there are many regional dialects. I am British and even I have problems with some of them.
- Loyalty An outsourcing company is loyal to its shareholders, not yours. Its also quite likely that your loyal employees are also your loyal customers - unless you have just outsourced their jobs.
- Humans v Robots Most people prefer to deal with someone who has enough authority to deal with the problem not a script-reading zombie whose sole purpose is to make the process so pointless and traumatic that you give up (and use another company).
- Critical Feedback If your customers are having problems with your products/services, you hope that any company-damaging info will take the shortest, most reliable route to your board of directors not your competitors board.
- Security Its a bit hard to feel secure when some of your companies operations can be disabled by someone cutting a cable thousands of miles away.
The only good thing about it is that it helps to relieve poverty in those countries. Who knows, it might even result in a bit less terrorism too