Category Archives: Outsourcing Articles

A 35% outsourcing tariff?
Donald Trump wishes to impose a 35% tariff if multinational companies engage in outsourcing. He wishes to bring jobs back to America which is a noble cause. Donald claims that China engages in currency manipulation. Additionally, for years, China has been dumping cheap products into the United States which creates brutal competition which local companies can’t normally survive.

3.2 million American jobs were lost during the trade deficit with China betwen 2001 and 2013 mostly coming from the manufacturing sector. Trump’s policy could reverse thirty years of U.S. trade policy. Having an outsourcing tariff could stop the outflow of American jobs overseas. But, the reason American jobs go overseas is because there is such a shortage of quality labor here, that it stops being cost effective to do business here. If the cost of labor would be lower and the quality higher, jobs would be flowing to the United States from other countries. In fact for those of you who wish that labor would flow to the United States — the only way that would happen is if America turned into a semi 3rd world country with shanti-towns and slums everywhere. In that consdition, we could accommodate the cheap labor that would make us the industrial king of the world. But, don’t despair, because America is already halfway through the conversion to 3rd world. Just take a drive through Central California. You will see less than 5% of the population is American and half of the population doesn’t even speak English or have a High School Degree.

I personally feel that outsourcing is good because it makes it easier for American businesses to have choices for who they hire. Although there is unemployment in the United States, it is very hard to find qualified and talented individuals to work for you as employees, or outsourced help. It is also hard to find quality people in foreign countries to help. Taxing outsourcing would put many overseas service providers out of business. The result would be that local companies would have less competition and be even more overloaded than they already are making it even more difficult, expensive, or in many cases impossible to find quality help anywhere in the world.

I feel that Mr. Trump understands many things about economic theory and currency manipulation. However, I don’t think that he sees the situation from the point of view of American companies who are forced to outsource because they can’t find reliable help on the home front. It is almost impossible to find a decent programmer anywhere in the world these days. If anything, creating artificial taxes and boundaries disrupt the nature of the economic ecosystem. What would help the world is to create more supply in the United States of critical jobs so that companies would not need to outsource in the first place. Proactive solutions make more sense to me as they make the United States strong in the long run.

Imagine if our government helped programming companies and call centers in the United States become more competitive? I propose huge outsourcing centers to be built in Arkansas and Oklahoma where land is ultra-cheap. Labor and other resources are also very affordable based on international standards in that area as well. By creating ultra-efficient systems and companies there offering the highest quality of service at really low prices, the United States could put foreign outsourcing companies out of business and possibly even import many of their staff members to the United States. I favor winning the competition by fighting smart and not by imposing artificial dampers to the flexibility that American corporations deserve!

You know how dating relationships go? It is exciting, there is suspense. Will she like me you think? You are so relieved when she not only likes you but wants to see you — regularly. Then, you go out, you learn about each other and fall in love. Then issues creep up, the family doesn’t like certain things about you and you can’t stand them. Sound familiar? Unless you’ve had an arranged marriage, you are probably familiar with all of these issues. With an arranged marriage, the family basically chooses you, so it is less likely they will have issues about who you are as a person as far as the big things go.

Outsourcing relationships are similar. We start out being wowed by the salesperson. We are excited that someone will be able to do our work. We like something about the company and forget that doing business is not that simple and that most companies are just not that responsible and just not at all loyal to the little guy. You get involved, they start doing work and all is well. Then, you find that they don’t do the work with the care you want. Your prized worker Sylvia quit and was replaced by Samantha who never emails you and just doesn’t care. The boss is no longer getting back to you unless you bombard him with emails. What happened to the love?

You have to understand that outsourcing relationships go through phases. You will go through different call center reps, different programmers, and different medical transcriptionists all under the same roof at the outsourcing company you chose. The critical point is that the boss has good standards for who he hires not some of the time but all the time. The next critical point is that you got to know the workers and technical manager instead of getting to know the salesman who will be out of the picture the minute you sign the contract. It is also critical that the boss is on your side when you start having trouble with one of his workers.

In all honesty, it might be easier to hire a freelancer directly rather than an outsourcing company. You will not get good care from most companies unless you offer them a huge contract — and even then there are no guarantees. But, try your luck and remember my point. Six months later after you have gone through a few workers and seen the outsourcing company at their worst, do you still like them? Are you still impressed by the salesperson or do you think that he and all other salesmen are full of it? Just remember — it never ends the way it begins!

Okay, this nightmare was not so bad, and Kinko’s was very nice about fixing the problem. My issue is how this problem happened in the first place.

I am a regular client of Kinko’s for book publishing. I like the way they can do a fast publication of 100 or so copies of my course that I sell. They give me a very attractive vinal backing and spiral binding with a clear cover. My customers like it and it gets the job done cleanly. I have been using Kinko’s for decades, and they have been my book publisher for about five years not without issue until quite recently.

I dropped of an order for my book. They got the specifications, did a scan of the materials and gave me a price. Unfortunately, they did not scan the back of the 58 pages in my original. So, they published 70 books that had page 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, etc. Every other page was skipped. I can understand that all of us make mistakes from time to time. But, how is it possible not to check your work before you send it to your outsourced printer? And how is it possible that your outsourced printer would do $700 of work without double checking to see if any pages are missing, let along half of the pages. Yikes! You don’t need a PhD in printing to figure this one out. I was also not given a chance to check their proof. I didn’t think it was critical as they had never blundered before. I thought I was dealing with professionals here.

In any case, I had to go back a second time to give them the original again. This time they gave me four proofs which were all correct. They will have the 70 copies done by tomorrow and shipped to their location by 10am. I also got 30% off. So, I am not too upset. But, seriously, a one minute double check of the work would have saved Kinko’s $500 in damages! How do they train their people I ask?

The other issue I have with Kinko’s is that they are always understaffed or tightly staffed. The problem with being short-staffed is that there is less slack time to double check work, get proofs out, and get work done on the spot. It would be easier for me if they could do the job in house and just let me come back after a few hours to pick up the work. Nobody does it this way, but that is the easiest for the client. The other problem is that you generally have to stand in line and wait for 5-20 minutes per order. If they had more staff, there would be less waiting, faster output, and fewer mistakes. Oh well. They are not a bad company by any standard, but they could be better in my opinion. More training, more staff, and more double-checking. These are the same criticisms I make about everyone including my own company!