Those of us in the sourcing ‘business’ know that outsourcing is all about companies making decisions about where to source, or procure, services. When we talk about the subject, we tend to think of it in isolation. It’s a business strategy and there are well-established guidelines for deciding when to outsource, when to offshore, when to call in consultants – and when not to. But, in my new book I’ve strayed off the typical path worn down by outsourcing commentators and into a world inhabited by sheepdogs and terriers.
Just take a step back from the typical outsourcing debate for a moment and consider how companies are functioning today. Companies can source services, and even entire departments or functions, from the best of breed operators anywhere in the world. The Internet has created a robust pipeline that allows almost free data and voice transmission without boundaries. Yet, there is an opposite phenomena too – increased migration.
People are increasingly willing and able to travel for work. The EU already allows a free movement of labour, but most developed countries are on the prowl for new talent to plug skills gaps and are using points-based methods of securing that talent, wherever it may come from.
So, people are more capable of moving to the work and work is more capable of moving to the people. It’s a more fluid work of work out there and companies are increasingly structured in a way that reflects this. There is less of an ‘HQ’ culture and more of a loose global collective or federation, all interconnected and moving in the same direction, but not necessarily with all those actors being employees of the same company – or being employed by anyone at all!
Academics have written about this extensively. Business guru Charles Handy predicted all this in the 1980s and sociologist Manuel Castells wrote three volumes on what he called the ‘Network Society’ – so what’s new?
Well, the difference now is the sheer presence of this phenomenon in all our lives. It is now a reality for all of us. None of us in any walk of life can avoid globalisation any longer. The recent troubles in banks all over the world demonstrates how closely linked they have become and how a butterfly flapping its wings in one country can destroy a bank in another.
So how could I write something new on the subject that would add to the debate? Well, I decided that there was plenty of theoretical material already out there. I wanted to write something short, punchy, and different – so it would in fact serve to spark off more debate about how jobs, education, taxes, migration, and outsourcing are all interlinked.
So I came up with ‘Who Moved My Job?’ It was just published this month. The book is about three English sheepdogs: Winston, Charlie, and Blair, who find their idyllic life on Manor farm disrupted by the arrival of lower-cost foreign herding dogs. They embark on an adventure that changes their lives forever. Mozi, Pandit, and Lech (from China, India, and Poland) are trained in local herding methods by the English dogs and soon establish their dominance on the farm – even working longer hours without complaint. The three Border Collies embark on an adventure where they are forced to discover a new career, enduring life in Battersea Dogs Home, living rough in a London cemetery, and the nagging doubt that perhaps they can’t adjust to the fast-moving world outside the jobs they know and love.
The book has been fun to produce, but is clearly an experiment for me because it is so different to most of the books commenting on outsourcing. A new detailed academic study of the issues might get more recognition within ivy-clad university walls, but what is going to stimulate more debate and understanding in the media and with the general public – the people really affected by these changes?
Bring on the dogs!
Mark Kobayashi-Hillary is the author of ‘Who Moved My Job?’ and is Offshoring Director of the National Outsourcing Association.
www.whomovedmyjob.com
