Is Outsourcing Dying Or Thriving? (Part 3)

By guest author Tony Scott

In part I of my article, I pointed out the reasons why outsourcing to India based on pure labor rate arbitrage faces significant obstacles to continued growth – and possibly even to future survival. On the other hand, outsourcing is clearly thriving – in India and around the world. How can we reconcile this? >>>

Is Outsourcing Dying Or Thriving? (Part 2)

By guest author Tony Scott

It has now been two years since Sramana Mitra’s article “The Death of Indian Outsourcing” was published. Is outsourcing dying – or thriving?

In one sense, outsourcing in India as it was known in the past is on the verge of (and in some cases is already) “hitting the wall.” Pure labor arbitrage-based outsourcing is dependent upon wage rate differentials. While the global economic downturn may have slowed the rate of wage inflation in India, it will return as soon as the world economies return to “normal” – and likely with a vengeance. >>>

Is Outsourcing Dying Or Thriving? (Part 1)

By guest author Tony Scott

Almost exactly two years ago, Sramana Mitra wrote an article titled “The Death of Indian Outsourcing.” That article created quite a bit of controversy and stimulated a lot of conversation. Companies providing outsourcing services, companies using outsourcing services, and people in general in the United States and India often had a reflexive and somewhat knee-jerk reaction to her article (or at least its title) based on their personal biases for or against the entire concept of outsourcing. >>>

Building Successful Global Teams (Part 3)

By Guest Author Tony Scott

Building Global Teams – Case Studies in Success

The series finishes with a couple of success stories:

We were asked by one of the world’s largest Japanese technology companies to help them find someone to lead their corporate VC organization, which is based in the U.S. The corporate VC organization’s charter was to help identify and nurture early-stage companies in the U.S. that could ultimately either enhance the existing technologies created and developed by our client, or be added to the sales channels developed by our client. In this case, Japanese language capabilities were absolutely not a requirement. >>>

Building Successful Global Teams (Part 2)

By Guest Author Tony Scott

Building Global Teams – Case Studies in Failure

A VC that we frequently work with asked our firm to take a look at a very interesting optical networking company in Silicon Valley with truly breakthrough technology they were considering funding. When we went to visit the company, we found that the founders and the entire team of engineers and scientists were Chinese, and the company was effectively operating as a Chinese company — all the conversations in the company were in Mandarin, and many of the signs in the office were in Chinese only. The founders, who were strong scientists, were not willing to let go of managerial control. They told us that they had attempted to bring in non-Chinese speakers in the past, but couldn’t understand why it never worked out. >>>

Building Successful Global Teams (Part 1)

By Guest Author Tony Scott

In the recent past, in the US, Europe and Asia, there were simply too many companies chasing too few people — resulting in across-the-board shortages of the human capital skills necessary to build and grow technology companies. In the US, working for an Asian or European company was often viewed as a second choice, at best. US-based executives were concerned that they were likely to have difficulties managing across geographic and cultural gaps, and that their wealth creation opportunities through IPO were limited. >>>