The thing I didn't like to much about this chapter is in his discussions about 'technology advances" and their impact, its hard to find anything original in this 600 page book. A lot of this analyses came out even before the dot-com era. Check out Global Paradox by John Nasibitt written in 1994. But I will give it to him, it's been a while since someone has really exploited outsourcing.
The thing that caught my eye the most is when he talked about it's not the corporations low-level, low wage jobs that are being outsource, but the white collar globalization. Its interesting how finance and accounting services for GE Capital world wide are managed from India. Or how American Express processes internal financial interactions for all of Asia. Makes getting your MBA a must these days if we want to stay ahead of the low-cost labor economies. These "empowered individuals" are some what being exploited to a point though. Multinational corporation's are going around the globe looking for cheap labor, finding the poor in developing places, and pay them a fraction of America's wages. You only hear about the great jobs like the call centers where they have to change their accents, and start calling each other Bob and Ivy.
On a good note though, there are many benefits to globalization, especially the technology that is being developed. Whether its the lady In Salt Lake City working for JetBlue, how the military has flattened through letting low-level officers make decisions b/c of technology, or students can be tutored by people in India for cheap. I wish I had those opportunities earlier in my life. I could of sit at home playing X-Box and working for McDonald's at the same time. It's creating a better standard of living for most, even people in low-level economies.
The thing that caught my eye the most is when he talked about it's not the corporations low-level, low wage jobs that are being outsource, but the white collar globalization. Its interesting how finance and accounting services for GE Capital world wide are managed from India. Or how American Express processes internal financial interactions for all of Asia. Makes getting your MBA a must these days if we want to stay ahead of the low-cost labor economies. These "empowered individuals" are some what being exploited to a point though. Multinational corporation's are going around the globe looking for cheap labor, finding the poor in developing places, and pay them a fraction of America's wages. You only hear about the great jobs like the call centers where they have to change their accents, and start calling each other Bob and Ivy.
On a good note though, there are many benefits to globalization, especially the technology that is being developed. Whether its the lady In Salt Lake City working for JetBlue, how the military has flattened through letting low-level officers make decisions b/c of technology, or students can be tutored by people in India for cheap. I wish I had those opportunities earlier in my life. I could of sit at home playing X-Box and working for McDonald's at the same time. It's creating a better standard of living for most, even people in low-level economies.
3 comments:
This chapter frightened me a bit. It made me feel like having an MBA wasn't enough to compete on the global market. With "white collar" jobs being outsourced I thought there was really nothing left for me.
I do not agree with your comment "These 'empowered individuals' are some what being exploited to a point though."
Though these countries are a sources of cheaper labor I would not say that we are exploiting them. Thanks in part to outsourcing the quality of life has improved dramatically. And though the wages are lower they are more than enough to live a good life.
This chapter frightened me a bit. It made me feel like having an MBA wasn't enough to compete on the global market. With "white collar" jobs being outsourced I thought there was really nothing left for me.
I do not agree with your comment "These 'empowered individuals' are some what being exploited to a point though."
Though these countries are a sources of cheaper labor I would not say that we are exploiting them. Thanks in part to outsourcing the quality of life has improved dramatically. And though the wages are lower they are more than enough to live a good life.
I agree with you Erica. This chapter made me feel that having an MBA isn't going to cut it. I was feeling pretty confident about having this degree and like I was learning alot, but this chapter kind of made me second guess its worth. However, I think that the MBA is more valuable than the impression I got from this book. I do not think that they will outsource all our jobs, I think he was going a little bit overboard in this chapter...
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