Monday, November 9, 2015
TWIF Flattener #5 - Outsourcing
Use one of the current events sources linked at http://svhs-hwc-spring-2016.blogspot.com/2015/11/approved-sources-for-twif-current.htmlto find a recent news article that relates to, supports, or refutes Friedman's assertion that outsourcing was a "flattener." Your comment should include the title of the news article, a link to the article, and a summary of the article including an explanation of how the article relates to this point. Don't forget to check your rubric for evaluation criteria!
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Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-outsourcing-idUSBRE83404X20120405
ReplyDeleteTitle: Insight: In Bangalore, a Remake to Avoid Being "Bangalored"
Summary: Rajesh Rao, an executive at Dhruva, an India-based online gaming software firm, explains that outsourcing opportunities in India must "move up the value chain" in order to compete with now cheaper outsourcing contingencies around the world. Outsourcing in India, particularly in the world of gaming companies is historically a very lucrative industry, however, it has seen a recent decline in yearly growth. This decrease can be attributed to India's advances in the areas of technology and knowledge. The engineers who have been responsible for all of the technology related jobs outsourced to India have dramatically increased their skillset, and are beginning to form their own business plans. The outsourcing industry in Bangalore has grown immensely since it began as an outlet to eliminate the Y2K bug, and has changed the international relations of global companies. As the "global hub of outsourcing," Bangalore's economy has come to rely on the revenue that it brings. In an effort to remain at the forefront of outsourcing, Indian company Infosys is expanding its value in the world of global commerce. It is said that Bangalore is being "Bangalored" by other countries, so Indian companies have begun to provide specialized training for their engineers in an effort to increase their value. Narayana Murthy estimates that eventually, India will transform from a hub of outsourcing to innovation.
This news article relates to "The World is Flat," because in his analysis of India's outsourcing industry and its correlation with the Y2K Crisis, Friedman recognizes that the technological bug was the inciting incident which initiated the flourish of outsourcing to Bangalore. As Friedman puts it, "Y2K led to this mad rush for Indian brainpower," (Friedman 133) which has continued into modern events. The article expands on this idea by describing the increase in "Indian brainpower" that has led to the ultimate and slow decline of the world's outsourcing hub, as it grows into an innovative power of its own.
Title- China and India: Clash of the titans
ReplyDeleteAuthor- Bruce Riedel
Source- The Economist
Link- http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21684764-war-echoes-down-decades-clash-titans?zid=306&ah=1b164dbd43b0cb27ba0d4c3b12a5e227
Summary- The article discusses the strained relations between China and India over the past several decades due to multiple wars and a Chinese occupation of Indian territory in Kashmir. The conflict was initially started by Maoist aggression in 1962 when then Chinese had invaded a section of India and forced out the Indian troops with lightning speed. Had the the US not been preoccupied with the Cuban Missile Crisis at the time we would've seen more aggressive US response to the aggression. However, a month after the incident Mao declared a unilateral cease-fire and withdrew his forces as to not spark another major conflict between the US and China so near to the Korean War. Due to the US backing of India during the conflict this pushed the neighboring country to India of Pakistan to siding with China and thus creating today's geopolitical problems in the region.
Explanation- While it may not be immediately obvious how the war between the Chinese and Indians in 1962 relates to modern outsourcing to India it is more important than almost any other variable. Due to the fact that the US chose to side with India curing the conflict rather than turning a blind eye allowed for India to survive as it forced China to withdrawal as well as laying foundation for the mass of commerce between India and the US. While we do see that there is a massive economy between both the US and China and the US and India, we mainly receive material goods from China whereas we outsource menial labor jobs to India. This close partnership of outsourcing would not be possible had the 1962 crisis not drawn India, a communist nation, and the the US very close together.
India has a parliamentary democracy based on the British system - mainland China has been under communist rule since 1949. Also, English is one of the official languages in India.
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ReplyDeleteTitle: “Why Donald Trump is now targeting Apple and its ‘damn computers’”
ReplyDeleteLink: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/01/19/why-donald-trump-is-now-targeting-apple-and-its-damn-computers/
Summary/Explanation:
Outsourcing is a practice that is done by many companies, large and small. Apple, as discussed in this article, is more apparently a larger business that uses outsourcing. Due to the lack of readily experienced and qualified engineers in the United States, it is harder and less likely that companies will want to produce their product here. Steve Jobs had discussed that if America possessed more educated engineers, then more manufacturing plants would be able to be located in this country. This insufficiency is the reason that Apple uses outsourcing. Close to all of Apple’s products are made in China and the reason for this is that they can provide a cheaper workforce. If Apple did not have the connection with China to manufacture their products, they would run into a dilemma as America does not serve as an ideal location to do so.
This article relates to “The World is Flat” as it presents yet another example of a connection that America has with other countries. In addition to the India and America relationship that Friendman discusses in the book, this article presents another one and how outsourcing is being utilized between them. The relationship reviewed in the book uses outsourcing for similar reasons to that in which Apple does; India and China possess the qualified workforce for cheaper, and therefore pose as countries to work with for businesses.
Title: “Why Donald Trump is now targeting Apple and its ‘damn computers’”
ReplyDeleteLink: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/01/19/why-donald-trump-is-now-targeting-apple-and-its-damn-computers/
Summary/Explanation:
Outsourcing is a practice that is done by many companies, large and small. Apple, as discussed in this article, is more apparently a larger business that uses outsourcing. Due to the lack of readily experienced and qualified engineers in the United States, it is harder and less likely that companies will want to produce their product here. Steve Jobs had discussed that if America possessed more educated engineers, then more manufacturing plants would be able to be located in this country. This insufficiency is the reason that Apple uses outsourcing. Close to all of Apple’s products are made in China and the reason for this is that they can provide a cheaper workforce. If Apple did not have the connection with China to manufacture their products, they would run into a dilemma as America does not serve as an ideal location to do so.
This article relates to “The World is Flat” as it presents yet another example of a connection that America has with other countries. In addition to the India and America relationship that Friendman discusses in the book, this article presents another one and how outsourcing is being utilized between them. The relationship reviewed in the book uses outsourcing for similar reasons to that in which Apple does; India and China possess the qualified workforce for cheaper, and therefore pose as countries to work with for businesses.
Title: Small Business, Joining a Parade of Outsourcing
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/business/small-business-joining-a-parade-of-outsourcing.html?_r=0
Summary:
This article primarily focuses on the topic that outsourcing is no longer an exclusive practice for larger organizations. It is stated that smaller businesses continue to outsource to other companies for the benefit of cheaper expenses. The point is made that the need for projects in the software development field to stay local is nonexistent. Countries such as the United States can find a worker in a less wealthy foreign nation to create software for a much smaller salary than an American worker. A specific software website, ODesk, is discussed. As stated in the article, the activity on this website is mainly comprised of wealthy countries hiring workers in poor countries to do their work for them.
This article relates the "The World is Flat" because it agrees with the opinions of Thomas Friedman regarding outsourcing. In the book, Friedman asserts that companies will split services with other companies in order to take advantage of cheaper costs. Based on the article, it is evident that his statement is substantiated, specifically with the activity on the ODesk site. As stated earlier, the primary activity on this site has wealthy companies hiring workers in poor countries to do their work for them.
Title: “’Outsource marking’ to cut teachers’ workload”
ReplyDeleteAuthor: None Listed
Link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32513932
Summary:
This article is about teachers that have started to outsource their work to teachers in other countries. They are having these other teachers mark up their students work, for around £2 to £3 per hour. It then goes into detail about how this is not something teachers should be doing, because this is one of their primary duties as a teacher, and that they should not be trying to cut down on their own work load. Thus they have started to consider different methods of marking papers in both a timely and accurate manner. This large amount of marking has become apparent due to the “high stakes accountability system which places teachers under intense pressure to provide ‘evidence’ to justify their assessment decisions.” Therefore, they have begun to take shortcuts, such as outsourcing their grading to other countries. This connects to Friedman’s assertion that outsourcing is a flattener because it involves people who live in a given country giving their work to someone overseas or somewhere else to do. This proves that the fifth flattener of outsourcing is indeed accurate, because it is causing people to work together more, and share their work all over the world. Although, unlike the others this is not so much a corroboration so much as a boss subordinate relationship, with the teachers being akin to a boss and the outsourced people that mark up their papers the subordinates.
Title: Disney Suddenly Cancels Layoffs For Technology Employees
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.npr.org/2015/06/17/415274530/disney-suddenly-cancels-layoffs-for-technology-employees
Summary:
In January, 2015 Disney laid off several hundred workers in the information technology department. Disney signed a contract with a outsourcing company who then sent in replacements from India. Then, about 5 months later, about 30 technology workers at the Disney-ABC Television Group were informed that they were going to be fired but before they left, they’d have to train their replacements who were immigrants from an outsourcing company. This related to “The World is Flat” because in Chapter two, the section about outsourcing talked about much of the work in the United States being outsourced to India. In this case, the work is still being done in America but an outsourcing company is sending the workers to come to them from India. Labor in India is done for lower wages and the people are sometimes more skilled than the people in the United States so Disney-ABC was most likely trying to save money but they randomly decided not to fire the original workers.
Title: Npower to cut 1,400 UK jobs in outsourcing to India
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/27/npower-cuts-1400-jobs-outsourcing-india
Summary/Reflection: Npower, a large energy company based in the UK just recently announced that they will be outsourcing 1,400 UK based jobs into India. The people in the UK were not happy with this announcement at all. The people were threatening them and saying that it will create a bad reputation for the company. Npower stated that the reason they were doing this was because they wanted to cut spending and improve their customer service. The problem is that people in the UK are losing their jobs to people across the world. This article is in full agreement with Friedman’s views of outsourcing to India. Friedman believed that outsourcing to India can bring large U.S. businesses to the next level. The reason Npower did outsource was because they wanted to be a better business overall. Friedman also talked about the negatives of outsourcing, which is taking jobs away from people in the country where the business is located. To conclude, this article shows the same views as Friedman’s, of how outsourcing flattens the world.
Title: Outsourcing Impact Exaggerated
ReplyDeleteLink: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6283428.stm
Friedman mentions in The World is Flat that outsourcing is becoming more common in many jobs. The article I found, however, states that a minimal amount of jobs in Europe were lost due to job positions being sent abroad. The public had been concerned that they were losing many jobs that could have been filled in the UK to other countries. Most well-paying jobs were actually being filled by people in the same country as the company however. Based on the information found in the article, Friedman's statement about outsourcing is incorrect.
Author: Heather Timmons
ReplyDeleteTitle: Snapple Deal To Outsource May Add Jobs In America
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/business/global/01outsource.html
Summary: This article is about how Snapple, an American ice tea company is looking to expand by making work for employees in India. This process is know as outsourcing. This deal will provide jobs for the people in Indian, but it will provide more jobs for people in America. The people of America, however, will have to also collaborate with the employees in India. HCL a partner in this process has provided a lot of jobs around the world because of outsourcing. Many other companies are looking to also expand like Snapple, and outsource their company around the world. This article relates to the outsourcing section of the flatteners. Friedman in this section talks about how outsourcing is taking a company from one location, then expanding it overseas, in which Snapple did in this case. He also talks about how people all over the world will have to collaborate in order to get the work done, and during this process people in America will have to collaborate with the workers in India in order to accomplish tasks.
Title: Morgan Stanley Looks to Move Jobs to Cheaper Cities in Bid to Cut Costs
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/01/19/business/19reuters-morgan-stanley-outsourcing.html
Summary:
The investment bank Morgan Stanley plans to raise its equity 1.5 percent and to cut up to $1 billion. The firm plans to do this by outsourcing office functions from higher-cost cities such as London and New York to lower-cost cities. Last April, they started this process by opened an office in Bengaluru, India. Morgan Stanley is not alone in this pursuit of cost reduction, as other firms like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have also started to outsource. Outsourcing to lower-cost countries and cities is an excellent way for these firms to produce better quarter results, and they are trying to accelerate outsourcing even more.
This article relates to the fifth flattener in Friedman's book "The World is Flat". Outsourcing is a major flattener because it it is a result of countries collaborating. In order to reduce costs to make a profit after the dot-com bust, companies were forced to outsource to India. Nowadays, companies can still outsource anywhere, as shown by the plans of the Morgan Stanley firm, and this continues to advance globalization. This article completely supports Friedman's view that outsourcing is a major force that flattened the world.
Title: Morgan Stanley Looks To Move Jobs to Cheaper Cities in Bid to Cut Costs
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/01/19/business/19reuters-morgan-stanley-outsourcing.html
Summary: This article discusses Morgan Stanley and his decision to move some of the operations for his investment bank to a 184,000 square foot office in Bengaluru, India. This new office would open 1,400 jobs in that area to complete the operations that it would be assigned. Morgan Stanley decided to outsource some of his operations because he says that the work can be done in lower cost centers and would help his business save a large amount of money. This article relates directed to Friedman’s argument of outsourcing because Morgan Stanley is moving some of the operations for his business to a cheaper area where he could pay less for people to complete the same work that they would in his current location.
Title: US employee 'outsourced job to China'
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-21043693
Summary: A software developer from the United States outsourced his own job to China. The man paid a company from Shenyang a portion of his salary to perform his job for him. As the developer's US firm became suspicious, they had requested an audit. During the investigation they had discovered a VPN connection between Shenyang, China, and the guilty software developer's computer. They also learned that the developer used his credentials to open the VPN and had shared many documents with the Chinese company. The man had this scam running numerous firms in his area, and he got away with only paying the Chinese about one fifth of his actual six figure salary. This article relates Friedman's discussion about the Y2K in the fifth flattener. When most of the computers in the United States needed a brand new internal clock, who fixed them? Indian software engineers were commissioned to do the job, rather than Americans. Similarly, in the article, the software developer had to get his work done, but instead of doing it himself, he commissioned a Chinese company to do it for him.
Title: “As Traditional Industries Are Declining, Outsourcing, Offshoring and Subcontracting Are Booming” Link:http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21604686-traditional-industies-are-declining-outsourcing-offshoring-and-subcontracting-are?zid=292&ah=165a5788fdb0726c01b1374d8e1ea285
ReplyDeleteSummary:
In The World Is Flat, Friedman discusses outsourcing in India. He states that the formation of the Dot-com Bubble made outsourcing to India easy because of the fiber-optic cables. Also, the burst of this bubble resulted in companies loosing money that they invested in fiber-optics, so they had to outsource to save money. While Friedman discusses outsourcing in India, this article discusses how outsourcing is now a major industry in Poland. Lately, Poland’s major industries, such as ship manufacturing and coal mining, are fading and countless companies are going out of business. Now because of the country’s population size, lower wages, and high work standards, many companies now outsource to Poland. In fact, many companies now conduct Research and Development in Poland, and the country’s most famous city, Wroclaw, aspires to become a center for R&D. This article relates to Friedman’s flatteners because it discusses the rise of outsourcing in Poland following the outsourcing boom in India.
Title: Outsourcing: What’s the true impact? Counting jobs is only part of the answer.
ReplyDeleteLink: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/outsourcings-net-effect-on-us-jobs-still-an-open-ended-question/2012/07/01/gJQAs1szGW_story.html
This article shows both sides of the debate with the outsourcing of jobs. It illustrates how people become angry when they hear of American jobs being outsourced. However, what they do not see is that with the outsourcing jobs, more jobs are being created here at home. A recent study shown within the article explains that although the jobs gained at home may not be the same jobs, the outsourcing of jobs creates jobs for America. The article also illustrates how outsourcing of jobs has constantly occurred within history, however, it is only now more evident with the invention of the web and use of the computer. I chose this article because it illustrates many of the points Friedman makes within the fifth flattener of outsourcing. Friedman also explains how jobs are being created you at home even with the outsourcing of some. This article explains it in a simple way and supports Friedman's evidence of the use of the cable in outsourcing American jobs.
Title: Outsourcing 2.0: India May Now Become a Hub for Creative Work
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.pri.org/stories/2012-04-20/outsourcing-20-india-may-now-become-hub-creative-work
Summary: This article talks about how on top of the fact that people want to outsource to india for labor, they want to start outsourcing to india for creativity. A man named Drew Smith was looking for a new idea and ended up coming into contact with a girl named Asha Sarella. When he asked her to help with the idea she put together a team and came back with the finished product in three weeks. While most of the work is technical, creative and art work is now beginning to be outsourced to india. While if Smith were to have actually produced his video in America, it would have cost him almost $40,000, but instead it only cost him $2,000. People like not only that the price is cheaper but that the culture being involved is so unique. This article relates to Friedman's Flattener #5 because again it has to do with outsourcing to india. Outsourcing to india means less money spent in America, as well as less money earned in America. (Meaning jobs that aren't needed)
Title:Seven-year sentence in India's largest ever fraud case
ReplyDeleteLink:http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/9/satyam-founder-sentenced-to-seven-years-in-jail-for-fraud.html
Summary: Ramalinga Raju,the founder of Satyam Computer Services, was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty in an accounting fraud. Before this incident, Raju was securing lucrative outsourcing contracts from overseas clients.His company rose to it's prime when Raju noticed all the outsourcing opportunities he had in helping foreign countries transition their computers from 1999 to 2000. This Y2K problem marked the beginning of the software outsourcing industry in India. In the World Is Flat, Friedman talked about India and it's technologies. He also talked about the outsourcing in India.
Title: Train ’em up. Kick ’em out
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21689545-shrewd-governments-welcome-foreign-students-stupid-ones-block-and-expel-them-train-em-up-kick
Summary: This article discusses the amount of foreign children coming to other countries to learn, and how the lowest number of foreign students is in the united states. First, the article states that many students have crossed borders to gain education, and many of them succeed. Once going to a university, many students earn acceptances into exceptional careers and most of them end up taking a job in the country they studied from. Also, the article explains the overwhelming number of foreign and native students enrolled in some countries, such as Africa where the natives and foreigners have a 50/50% split! In america however, things are different. Very few foreign exhange students come to study in America because of the strict immigration laws and large size. Many people want to come to America, but most of the time they are driven away. This compares to the 5th flattener of the world when China and America start "dating". Many Chinese work with Americans, but some get driven away because of their lifestyles or the programs here in the states. In order for both the amount of foreign students and the amount of foreign workers to rise, America has to learn to adapt to the cultures of the rest of the world. If they do, the end result will most likely be much more favorable.