I think that the people in the Midwest who live near those defunct factory buildings need to think about this. If your only goal is to force people to pay you far more than a market wage for your service by creating artificial market conditions, you will end up in shatters. The key to winning the game of business and or outsourcing is to be able to maintain a constant demand for a service, and not just to be able to hold companies temporarily hostage using unions.
If you live in America, it is easy to make money here. But, what if you trained yourself by trying to sell in Asia. Asians are tough customers, and it is a lot harder to sell to them. First of all the culture is different. Their needs are different. The language is different. Their perception of you could count very badly against you as well. Last of all, price competition in Asia could count against you.
In America, people command huge wages. Even for unskilled work, you sometimes have to pay up to $20 per hour. Our neighbor Canada is not much cheaper, although their sluggish economy lends itself to somewhat lower prices. Mexico has abundant inexpensive labor, but their manufacturing is not as well developed as China unless you are in an industry they excel at.
So, if your goal was to sell to the hardest customers in Asia, if you survived, you would be the toughest, most adaptable, innovative bastard that ever lived. I would bow down to anyone who could meet this challenge.
Guys like Mark Zuckerburg, love challenges. That is why he is so successful. He is in China now running in the smog. He calls it a smog run. He is a loveable nut, and out to make a difference. He even learned to speak excellent Chinese if you overlook the fact that he speaks this tonal language in a monotone.
For America to compete in outsourcing, costs need to be low, and a lot of innovating would be necessary to get those costs down.
For people in India to do well in outsourcing, quality needs to be a lot higher. Indians try to over-capitalize on price. But, if the quality of your service is horrible from the first time you answer your phone until the last email where you get dumped, you are not going to excel as a company. You can compete on price, quality, customized service, or anything else. My suggestion is to be competitive in as many ways as you can. That way you can win the game.
I don’t know what BPO owners do. I know that call centers are very competitive. But, the other outsourcing industries do not seem to have bosses that ask themselves daily — what else can I do to compete? Maybe they should!