Re: Outsourcing developer to India and China - As an Oracle developer I am miffed

Joel Garry wrote:

> "Ironside" <old_ironside_at_SPAMREALLYSUXhotmail.com.REMOVECAPSTOREPLY> wrote in message news:<KG4hb.8882$xe6.3812_at_newssvr29.news.prodigy.com>...
> > or buy stock in the companies that are doing the outsourcing. Chances are
> > that those huge profits are coming back to US companies.
> >
>
> Outsourcing is a very nasty business. Just one bit of slightly
> slimier marketing and there goes your income stream to China.

Well, this is non-logical emotional talk. It's not inherently your income stream. You are the recipient. It is the sender's stream. If the company ever determines that the best interests of the company are better served sending that stream to 10 offshore programmers instead of you, it should rightly do it. The question is 'when if ever is it right?'

> Economically speaking it is unbalanced - it costs more to outsource
> than not, outsourcing itself has marketing and management costs.

If this is true, then outsourcing will die off naturally as companies compete or die according to their economic choices. If, on the otherhand, outsourcing continues to occur, then your claim is probably bogus.

> The non-economic issues (ie, slimier marketing, perception of control,
> management trends-of-the-moment, nepotism, aggressive growth, monopoly
> games) are often the determinants.

If you say so. As above, in a free market those companies that choose losing strategies will do less well.

> In the last couple of months alone, two companies I've worked for in
> the past have been seriously affected by this.

Affected by what? Are you claiming that these companies were healthy and then got into major trouble, with the sole cause being outsourcing? I am not a company head, but I communicate with enough to know that the average intelligent manager knows ahead of time about the extra cost of communication and managing outsources, and they mostly do OK when it's valuable. I can certainly also see desparate companies, whose market is very hard, doing everything possible that might lower costs to make it through the next quarter, including some hasty ill-advised outsourcing, but in that case, their subsequent failure can't be attributed to outrsourcing per se.

> One oriental aggressor
> is buying out my stock in one at something above recent market rates
> (a fraction of what it was valued at when issued to me years ago).

Note too that even choosing the right strategy does not guarantee success. If the game is a losing one, even the best player will starve. Ie: the very best buggy-whip manufacturer nowadays is making their real money doing other things..
Joe Received on Fri Oct 10 2003 - 14:23:20 CDT