As an analyst, I love to challenge ideas - and here's yet another opportunity presented in this "must read" article from today's BusinessWeek online issue - Beyond Outsourcing, to Worldsourcing". The author talks about how we used to live in a world called Global 1.0 in which all business ideas and innovations came from the West, ignoring all that lesser-developed countries had to offer. We supposedly are now in a Global 2.0 paradigm in which the rise of the Asian middle class primarily drives our current absorption in "worldsourcing", leveraging the unique cultures and ways of operating that countries outside of the West are bringing to modernize the ways we do business.
I get it. I like it so far. And worldsourcing is kind of a cool term too, actually, isn't it?
But here's the clincher -> he says that Global 2.0 "turns strategies such as outsourcing and offshoring on their heads."
Wh-wh-what?????
The mere fact that we live and operate in a global economy (or 2.0 as he puts it) implies that outsourcing/offshoring/global sourcing (call it what you like) is the only way to survive business wise. And furthering my proposition that companies are now outsourcing finance with an FAO 2.0 mindset, we see innovation, creativity and new ways of doing business abounding, all literally being propelled, in such a case, but leveraging third-party expertise to improve products and services being brought to market.
This author was doing so well until this blunder. It proves that there's still a huge misconception that outsourcing is all about job loss and limited career choices. I see this time and time again - and BusinessWeek is no exception (and it's quite the well known, global publication at that!).
All FAO service providers that I know are engrossed deeply in "worldsourcing" by expanding their capabilities, amping up their hiring and retention strategies, broadening their geographic reach and helping deliver more innovation and flexibility around the globe than ever before. They still have to provide intense education, however, about outsourcing, including the human resources part, because as seen today yet again, it's still very much a top-of-mind issue. And with Finance being such a "close to heart" business process, it's even moreso at that.
"Finance Worldsourcing"...how's that? It takes away the "out" part which may minimize part of the problem and emphasizes globalization. Hmmm. Something to think about as we enter the weekend...
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