Wednesday, March 17, 2004
The Price Of Efficiency
BW Online
Stop blaming outsourcing. The drive for productivity gains is the real culprit behind anemic job growth
Stop blaming outsourcing. The drive for productivity gains is the real culprit behind anemic job growth
Indian firms drain Western brains
BBC NEWS
Skilled Indian professionals have for years been travelling to the West in search of better job opportunities and a higher standard of living, but now the traffic may have started to flow from west to east.
Skilled Indian professionals have for years been travelling to the West in search of better job opportunities and a higher standard of living, but now the traffic may have started to flow from west to east.
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Lost Edge?
Business Week
Once the undisputed leader, America is now under assault from countries worldwide. How did this happen, and will the U.S. be able to fight back?
Once the undisputed leader, America is now under assault from countries worldwide. How did this happen, and will the U.S. be able to fight back?
Friday, March 05, 2004
Small and Smaller
Op-Ed Columnist: Small and Smaller
I confess: I missed this revolution. I was totally focused on 9/11 and Iraq. But having now spent 10 days in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, I realize that while I was sleeping, the world entered the third great era of globalization.
The first era, from the late 1800's to World War I, was driven by falling transportation costs, thanks to the steamship and the railroad. That was Globalization 1.0, and it shrank the world from a size large to a size medium. The second big era, Globalization 2.0, lasted from the 1980's to 2000, was based on falling telecom costs and the PC, and shrank the world from a size medium to a size small. Now we've entered Globalization 3.0, and it is shrinking the world from size small to a size tiny. That's what this outsourcing of white-collar jobs is telling us — and it is going to require some wrenching adjustments for workers and political systems.
Globalization 3.0 was produced by three forces: First is the massive installation of undersea fiber-optic cable and bandwidth (thanks to the dot-com bubble) that have made it possible to globally transmit and store huge amounts of data for almost nothing. Second is the diffusion of PC's around the world. And third (what I missed most) is the convergence of a variety of software applications — from e-mail, to Google, to Microsoft Office, to specially designed outsourcing programs — that, when combined with all those PC's and bandwidth, made it possible to create global "work-flow platforms."
These work-flow platforms can chop up any service job — accounting, radiology, consulting, software engineering — into different functions and then, thanks to scanning and digitization, outsource each function to teams of skilled knowledge workers around the globe, based on which team can do each function with the highest skill at the lowest price. Then the project is reassembled back at headquarters into a finished product.
Thanks to this new work-flow network, knowledge workers anywhere in the world can contribute their talents more than ever before, spurring innovation and productivity. But these same knowledge workers will be under more pressure than ever to constantly upgrade their skills in this Darwinian environment.
Sleeping Americans, working Indians
I confess: I missed this revolution. I was totally focused on 9/11 and Iraq. But having now spent 10 days in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, I realize that while I was sleeping, the world entered the third great era of globalization.
The first era, from the late 1800's to World War I, was driven by falling transportation costs, thanks to the steamship and the railroad. That was Globalization 1.0, and it shrank the world from a size large to a size medium. The second big era, Globalization 2.0, lasted from the 1980's to 2000, was based on falling telecom costs and the PC, and shrank the world from a size medium to a size small. Now we've entered Globalization 3.0, and it is shrinking the world from size small to a size tiny. That's what this outsourcing of white-collar jobs is telling us — and it is going to require some wrenching adjustments for workers and political systems.
Globalization 3.0 was produced by three forces: First is the massive installation of undersea fiber-optic cable and bandwidth (thanks to the dot-com bubble) that have made it possible to globally transmit and store huge amounts of data for almost nothing. Second is the diffusion of PC's around the world. And third (what I missed most) is the convergence of a variety of software applications — from e-mail, to Google, to Microsoft Office, to specially designed outsourcing programs — that, when combined with all those PC's and bandwidth, made it possible to create global "work-flow platforms."
These work-flow platforms can chop up any service job — accounting, radiology, consulting, software engineering — into different functions and then, thanks to scanning and digitization, outsource each function to teams of skilled knowledge workers around the globe, based on which team can do each function with the highest skill at the lowest price. Then the project is reassembled back at headquarters into a finished product.
Thanks to this new work-flow network, knowledge workers anywhere in the world can contribute their talents more than ever before, spurring innovation and productivity. But these same knowledge workers will be under more pressure than ever to constantly upgrade their skills in this Darwinian environment.
Sleeping Americans, working Indians
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Indian Americans in two minds over outsourcing of US jobs
FT.com
US ELECTIONS: Indian Americans in two minds over outsourcing of US jobs
By Amy Yee in New York
Financial Times; Mar 04, 2004
Ron Hira, a public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology who represents the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, a professional group, is worried about the future of his occupation in the US.
"A lot of people aren't recommending this profession to the next generation," says Prof Hira. He points to the debate about the outsourcing of US jobs overseas - offshoring - which he says has had "a chilling effect on the technology workforce".
John Kerry, who yesterday swept aside any doubts that he would be the Democrats' presidential nominee, has placed concerns about lost US jobs at the centre of his platform. And people such as Prof Hira agree that outsourcing in the US is making professions such as software engineering seem increasingly insecure.
Stories abound of IT professionals training their overseas replacements, only to be laid off. "This isn't knowledge transfer - it's knowledge extraction," says Prof Hira. "The job market for IT workers is so depressed that they have to do it. If they quit, they risk not getting unemployment benefits and jeopardise their pensions. People in America don't have a choice."
But without his professional hat on, Prof Hira strikes a different tone. He happens to be Indian-American, and he has cousins in India who are benefiting from the boom. "I have a personal interest in seeing India grow," he says.
This chasm between the personal and the professional poses a dilemma for many Indian-Americans, especially those with relatives in India. While they see family members benefiting from the offshoring boom, many also feel their own jobs are slipping away.
Surveys suggest that Asians are the largest minority group in science and engineering jobs in the US. In 1999, the most recent date for which data are available, the National Science Foundation reported that about 11 per cent of US scientists and engineers were of Asian descent.
They work in a sector that faces unprecedented levels of unemployment. Joblessness among electrical engineers reached 7 per cent in the first quarter of 2003 and 7.5 per cent among computer software engineers, according to the US Department of Labor. The national unemployment rate last month was 5.6 per cent.
US ELECTIONS: Indian Americans in two minds over outsourcing of US jobs
By Amy Yee in New York
Financial Times; Mar 04, 2004
Ron Hira, a public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology who represents the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, a professional group, is worried about the future of his occupation in the US.
"A lot of people aren't recommending this profession to the next generation," says Prof Hira. He points to the debate about the outsourcing of US jobs overseas - offshoring - which he says has had "a chilling effect on the technology workforce".
John Kerry, who yesterday swept aside any doubts that he would be the Democrats' presidential nominee, has placed concerns about lost US jobs at the centre of his platform. And people such as Prof Hira agree that outsourcing in the US is making professions such as software engineering seem increasingly insecure.
Stories abound of IT professionals training their overseas replacements, only to be laid off. "This isn't knowledge transfer - it's knowledge extraction," says Prof Hira. "The job market for IT workers is so depressed that they have to do it. If they quit, they risk not getting unemployment benefits and jeopardise their pensions. People in America don't have a choice."
But without his professional hat on, Prof Hira strikes a different tone. He happens to be Indian-American, and he has cousins in India who are benefiting from the boom. "I have a personal interest in seeing India grow," he says.
This chasm between the personal and the professional poses a dilemma for many Indian-Americans, especially those with relatives in India. While they see family members benefiting from the offshoring boom, many also feel their own jobs are slipping away.
Surveys suggest that Asians are the largest minority group in science and engineering jobs in the US. In 1999, the most recent date for which data are available, the National Science Foundation reported that about 11 per cent of US scientists and engineers were of Asian descent.
They work in a sector that faces unprecedented levels of unemployment. Joblessness among electrical engineers reached 7 per cent in the first quarter of 2003 and 7.5 per cent among computer software engineers, according to the US Department of Labor. The national unemployment rate last month was 5.6 per cent.
Learning to love stress
BBC Magazine
Have life, work and even playtime really become much harder to cope with than in the past? Some experts doubt it.
According to academic David Wainwright, co-author of Work Stress: The Making of a Modern Epidemic, life has not necessarily become more stressful. Rather, he says, in our "therapeutic age", where we tend to view ourselves as fragile creatures in need of a self-esteem boost, we are encouraged to see even minor problems as potential crises and to underestimate our ability to cope without official help.
"Stress theorists say there is a 'stress epidemic' because we are all facing greater psychological demands, for instance balancing increased job demands with childcare commitments," says Mr Wainwright.
"There is some truth in this - but it doesn't explain why there was no stress epidemic in, say, the 1930s, when working people faced significantly greater physical and psychological demands both at home and in the workplace."
Have life, work and even playtime really become much harder to cope with than in the past? Some experts doubt it.
According to academic David Wainwright, co-author of Work Stress: The Making of a Modern Epidemic, life has not necessarily become more stressful. Rather, he says, in our "therapeutic age", where we tend to view ourselves as fragile creatures in need of a self-esteem boost, we are encouraged to see even minor problems as potential crises and to underestimate our ability to cope without official help.
"Stress theorists say there is a 'stress epidemic' because we are all facing greater psychological demands, for instance balancing increased job demands with childcare commitments," says Mr Wainwright.
"There is some truth in this - but it doesn't explain why there was no stress epidemic in, say, the 1930s, when working people faced significantly greater physical and psychological demands both at home and in the workplace."
Friday, February 27, 2004
Dollar smiles - the Indians doing nicely in Forbes billionaires list
BBC NEWS
Four Indians now feature in the top 100 wealthiest people in the world, according to the latest Forbes billionaires list. The 18th Forbes magazine list once again has Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at the top, with a net worth of $46.6bn. Azim Premji, chairman of software company Wipro, continues to be the richest Indian. His net worth increased to $6.7bn this year, from $5.9bn in 2003, although he has fallen 13 places to No 58 overall.
The wealth of all of India's billionaires in this year's full list totals up to $31.9bn.
Four Indians now feature in the top 100 wealthiest people in the world, according to the latest Forbes billionaires list. The 18th Forbes magazine list once again has Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at the top, with a net worth of $46.6bn. Azim Premji, chairman of software company Wipro, continues to be the richest Indian. His net worth increased to $6.7bn this year, from $5.9bn in 2003, although he has fallen 13 places to No 58 overall.
The wealth of all of India's billionaires in this year's full list totals up to $31.9bn.
Thursday, February 26, 2004
The dying monsters of kitsch
BBC NEWS
For over half a century, they dominated the skyline of India's cinema-crazy southern cities, dwarfing the buildings and the traffic below.
The gargantuan, hand-painted cinema posters were an integral part of the cityscape. They showcased scenes of usually rotund heroes and heroines.
Often the central character would be 'cut-out', as in the picture on the right here, giving them an eerie life-like two-dimensional character. But today these monsters of kitsch are dying. They are being replaced by glossy, digitally-produced billboards.
For over half a century, they dominated the skyline of India's cinema-crazy southern cities, dwarfing the buildings and the traffic below.
The gargantuan, hand-painted cinema posters were an integral part of the cityscape. They showcased scenes of usually rotund heroes and heroines.
Often the central character would be 'cut-out', as in the picture on the right here, giving them an eerie life-like two-dimensional character. But today these monsters of kitsch are dying. They are being replaced by glossy, digitally-produced billboards.
Monday, February 23, 2004
Sun co-founder defends offshoring
CNET News.com
India must use World Trade Organization agreements to stop election-year attacks on the now-unfettered growth of U.S. technology outsourcing, a key Silicon Valley venture capitalist asserts.
"It's important for India that IT services and outsourcing be part of the open trade, global trade paradigm,'' Indian-born Vinod Khosla said in an interview Sunday from Bangalore, the center of India's outsourcing boom.
India must use World Trade Organization agreements to stop election-year attacks on the now-unfettered growth of U.S. technology outsourcing, a key Silicon Valley venture capitalist asserts.
"It's important for India that IT services and outsourcing be part of the open trade, global trade paradigm,'' Indian-born Vinod Khosla said in an interview Sunday from Bangalore, the center of India's outsourcing boom.
India bets on election boom
BBC NEWS
After a tough few years, borne of droughts which ravaged the country's massive agricultural sector and confronted many of its billion-strong population with the risk of famine, things look to be on track.
The latest figures show economic growth to be topping 8%, a rate only matched by the powerhouse that is China.
After a tough few years, borne of droughts which ravaged the country's massive agricultural sector and confronted many of its billion-strong population with the risk of famine, things look to be on track.
The latest figures show economic growth to be topping 8%, a rate only matched by the powerhouse that is China.
