Outsourcing Myths, BUSTED

Foreign companies outsource some of their labor to different 3rd world countries for a variety of reasons. For one, they say that the cost is cheap. Secondly, so that they can concentrate on their respective companies’ core competency. Sometimes they outsource because they can’t find that type of resource from their place.  There’s also that part where a company can’t really gamble on relying on its own resources so they outsource from another part of the globe, whose expertise in said field is relatively competent. This could also mean finding better employees and more opportunities to grow.

A lot of Internet Marketers say that Outsourcing is harmful not only to their nation’s economy, but also to their business. I say, screw that, I’m one example out of a hundred competent individuals who’s just about as capable, if not better than, as any foreign writer, SEO specialist or web developer.

Here are a few myths that I busted:

1) Outsourcing is bad because you can’t trust another country with your job. Outsourcing means you have to work with another guy that lives a thousand miles from where you’re seated; which means that you two need to have constant communication with each other or risk having tasks delayed or totally messed up. There’s also that myth about Outsourcing being harmful for their respective economies solely because they lose jobs back there. Well, let’s just take the US economy as an example: In a study, the US lost over 2 million jobs because of global trade in a span of 20 years, but it bounced back with 35 million jobs in just 10. this is because the US focused on a core competency of theirs- telephony, fiber optics and the like. In  that particular study, it mentions that many jobs that don’t show up do not end up being outsourced, rather because of innovations in business (business automation and innovations in how people do stuff; you know, the whole man vs. machine thing).

2) Cultural Barriers. In our defense, the Philippines is the only english-speaking nation in Asia and boasts some of the best teachers of the language. Also, we’re more than capable of adapting to studying, understanding and accepting other cultures other than our own. Racism isn’t even a damn issue in our country. So if you’re worried about Filipinos messing up your blog posts or Newsletters, think again- talk to me and I’ll prove that there’s nothing to worry about. What this proves is that cultural barriers never really exist especially if both parties have a common goal. In light of Outsourcing, if you want to make sure that these barriers never arise, just make sure you have a reliable project manager that can engage you both parties in an efficient manner. See? It all works out, especially if both parties are in it for the money and development.

3) You never have full control. A lot of Internet Marketers think such because their partners are in the other side of the world. Thus, they never know what their partners are doing, or how stuff is implemented back there. Well, this problem is inherent in any workplace internally. What to do? Set up expectations and define standards. You know, the thing they call “The Rules”. This is good because it protects both parties from getting screwed.