In this session we discuss the new economy that makes MASSIVE changes in where things are manufactured, where services are performed, and the total shift of roles in the various professions.
In this Global Outsourcing session we discuss the new economy that makes MASSIVE changes in where things are manufactured, where services are performed, and the total shift of roles in the various professions. I care very much that you get positioned for this shift, so much so that I'm filming this from my vacation and taking the time to talk to you today. The most important thing I want to focus on is making sure you're not spending your energy, money, and your time in a career path that is eventually destined to be moved off-shore and out of the United States. You would be shocked to know how many jobs are not really going to be done in America anymore over the next 10 or 15 years.
Now, what I'd like for you to do is to line up your passion with a skill and talent in an industry and job that will still be here 15 years from now. So, this is really serious talk. And it’s potentially a depressing conversation, except that it’s being presented to you in such an honest and straightforward way that you will benefit from it, learn where the pitfalls are, and how to avoid them.
The base understanding for this whole thing is that 72% of the world product is all produced by 10 countries. Only 10 countries produce 72% of the entire world product. Currently, the United States, of course, is the leader by far of those 10 countries. But here's the challenge. Countries 11 through 30 are in a position of explosive growth, because they've been so far down for so long. Because of three things I want to talk to you about, the next 20 countries are going to pose a serious threat to the top 10 over the next 15 years. They will draw away a lot of business and jobs from those top 10 countries. Now, I'm going to explain to you these three things so that you can use it to your advantage and not spend a lot of energy in the wrong direction. So, just be objective with me about this.
The first major factor that's going to push these jobs off-shore is the Internet. The Internet's explosive growth has made all business activities accessible and available. It's allowed us to do worldwide telephone, video, DATA transmission with little regard to where you physically reside. Back in the old days, just a few years ago, you had the problem of the satellite delays. Whenever you would see somebody on TV doing an overseas story there would be a delay for the transmitting of the satellite. They would ask a question, there would be a couple of seconds delay while communications bounced back from the satellite, then they would give you the answer. Now, because we laid fiber optic cables under the oceans and connected the entire world through fiber-optic cables, you no longer have that delay anymore of the satellites.
So what does that mean to you and me here in the United States? Well, just to give you an example. One factor that plays into the advantage of these other countries is the fact that you can have telephone calls all the way in India with no delay. Now remember Dell computer was the first to use call centers in India? Whenever you had a customer support question about your Dell computer you would call to speak to someone in Hyderabad or one of major cities in India. These people were working the phones in a customer service environment, many had college degrees, were semi-fluent in English so that you could hardly detect an accent. They were actually trained to watch United States news, baseball and sports events to where they could actually converse with you in a sort of virtual reality so that you felt this person really was located in the United States, but simply had an accent. So, that's a pretty important advantage because of time zone shifts. The best times for people to be contacted in the United States are the prime hours between the hours from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. at night, Monday through Friday, because that's typically when you're off work, or at home, and typically when you're in a position where you can answer the phone, or originate a customer support call about your account. Because the time zone shifts, for many of these countries that particular time slot falls right into the regular workday for them. That’s perfect for them because they get to come into work at their regular work time and talk to you at prime time for you. We’ve noticed this even from east to west coast with a three hour time shift. But it's much more dramatic with these other time shifts for having a customer call center. So that’s one major example of with how the Internet really works well for those countries.
Another advantage that works well at displacing American jobs to other countries is taking advantage of evening and night time for fresh productive work. For instance, you could be working all day long on an a project from a Management position, but the “Worker-Bees” might be located half-way around the world. You work all day, get all your specs for exactly how you want things done, then you can e-mail it or hand it off to these employees in these other countries. Then, when you’re getting ready to go home to dinner, they’re just coming in to work, fresh at 8:00 in the morning. So while you’re having dinner, relaxing, and sleeping at night, they’re working for you all night long on your project. So, when you come in to work the next day, you’ve had an extra team of people for you that have worked eight solid hours on your project. You can pick up the ball and get rolling on it, unlike your competitors who still have to do the same work you had done in another time zone. That’s a big advantage to the American management person to have this resource that works all night for you, awake, alert and efficient because it’s the regular day shift for them. Again, another advantage of the Internet pushing jobs overseas and over to these other countries in the second tier.
The third advantage has to do with the internet speed activity allowing you to do a lot of things that you couldn't do before. There’s actually a book I read recently explaining that, because of the labor differentials and because of the Internet, when you drive up to the window at some fast food restaurants and ring a bell, the person taking your order is located halfway around the world. They enter your order halfway around the world. Then, by the time you drive through the bay, they’ve prepared the meal right there for you in the restaurant. They take your cash right there as you exit the restaurant, but the order-taking is halfway around the world. This works because they are much more efficient, it’s normal day shift for them. Managers have all the things available for them, and of course, the labor rates are less.
Another example of career shifting is in robotics. Right now there are robots that can even do surgery for physicians. You can actually go in and have surgery where the physician puts on these electronic gloves, looks at a computer screen, and actually operates on you through a computer screen. Well, clinics could take that exact same practice, put it on a fiber-optic cable, and you could have a physician halfway around the world performing surgery.
Another example is these new aircraft. I’m an aircraft pilot. I was a combat pilot in Vietnam. I fly airplanes now for pleasure, and it’s a lot of fun. But the most important future to the Air Force and to law-enforcement is using airplanes without pilots. Because planes can be placed in high-risk situations such as Afghanistan and over in Iraq, and if the airplane gets shot down you don't have a pilot who can be captured and tortured. Those problems are eliminated because the aircraft is flown through a fiber-optic cable and the pilot is safe at a keyboard. Now, it's come to such a level of sophistication that some of the combat missions in Iraq, I’ve been told, are actually flown at a fighter base in Las Vegas, Nevada. These pilots actually go in at Las Vegas and fly these drone aircraft from Las Vegas, then go home for supper in Las Vegas. So I don't know whether they get combat pay or not, but you can see where I'm going here. As Internet develops here more and more things can be done overseas. These other tier countries with much lower labor costs are going to be able to do these jobs, not only at lower cost, but even better than us, because they can do these strange hours.
Well, I hope this little talk has been eye-opening and not depressing for you. Use this information to make sure that your career and future will not be stolen from you due to the threats of global outsourcing. There are many professions that can only be performed “in person” effectively. This list is much smaller now but these careers are still out there. Remember also that these shifts also create new management positions and training for the staffs in these other countries that Americans need to be directly participating in.