As stated regularly in my other blog entries, the world of outsourcing is becoming more mature year on year. There is a vast array of process that can be outsourced; everything from lower skilled jobs in call centres to risk analytics in banking. From BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) to KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) there is nothing sacred in the world of global economics. Consequently, where does that leave today's youth? What subjects should they study that can never be outsourced? To determine this list we must first look at where outsourcing has come from and where it could possibly lead.
Outsourcing has been around for as long as people have been in business. It simply means letting someone else do something within your business if they are not actually part of it. The first time a debt collector was used to settle a debt rather than the lender, this was outsourcing. The debt collector took a cut of the total amount and became a supplier of services.
The explosion of outsourcing happened in the mid to late nineties with the Y2K projects. These repeatable, easy to describe development tasks were shipped out initially to India as the talent pool and infrastructure made it cost effective and ensured this massive project was completed on time. In this case all that was required was a scaling up of the workforce to guarantee success. From that time a number of close relationships were forged between large western organisation and Indian service providers. It was then realised that the scope of services could be expanded. Of course there were a number of trail blazing organisations already ahead of the curve but most people will agree this was a pivotal time for outsourcing.
Things have moved from there. The array of services on offer is staggering, with more being added all the time. It is difficult for people in the industry to keep up with the offerings. Niche service providers are becoming even more niche. From companies that will look after your ranking in search engines to a recent company I came across that owned a 3D imaging system contracted to model complex structural units in airplane engines and provide measurements to manufacturing companies. The move from low skilled labour to high experience skilled professionals is continuing. So, what course should someone study if they want to have a well paid job with some guarantee it won't be outsourced to somewhere of lower cost?
A few years ago there would have been a long list of jobs that fitted into this category. This is being whittled down with the growth of outsourcing. Let's look at a few of these starting from the top down.
Upper management within an organisation could not be outsourced. There is the concept on non-executive directors but the top level executive directors in charge of strategy in a business unit need explicit knowledge that cannot be outsourced. They are the ones that define corporate direction, a core function of any business and therefore not something anyone would recommend outsourcing.
Middle management still perceives themselves as beyond the grasp of outsourcing although, with the trend of matrix management, often managers don't have to actually understand the work being done; orchestration of the individual work items is all that is required. You can perceive a time when middle management of some functions could be outsourced although it would be a brave company that would start down this route.
Below these levels of management the list of possible jobs within a corporate structure is extensive. The problem is that many of these jobs can now be outsourced. Where will always be a need for all skill sets within any country but if a student wants to study one of these skills they should pitch themselves at the expert level and strive towards the upper end of any skill I the hope to secure continuing work?
Working with 2 examples the computer programmer and accountant. Both of skills are in current demand locally and in outsource locations, how long this remains the case is a matter for the spread of outsourcing. As outsourcing becomes the norm for companies of all sizes the local demand may start to flatten off. This means that a large company who has an in house staff working in a particular functional are either already outsourcing or have considered it and will consider again as the market in their sector matures. For smaller organisations who might find it difficult to outsource a function due to its size, there is a new breed of outsource vendor hoping to cash in to their reduced requirements.
Parallels in outsourcing have often been drawn to the industrial revolution. At that time the skilled labourers in the farms were replaced by mechanisation and the local populace moved from the countryside to the towns and cities. Taking this parallel further it could indicate that the labourers within a corporate organisation will be shifted to low cost areas leaving the managers behind, much in the same was as the farm owners remain with just a skeleton staff to manage what was once run by scores of individuals. The skills of the manager have shifted from local man management to running a mechanised farm, just as managers in today's organisations are learning the skills to manage remote vendor companies instead of teams of local people.
So perhaps the skills to study at university are management coupled with some of the core outsourceable skills. This gives today's graduates a mix of managerial plus some of the core skills that will be outsourced providing them with the ability to communicate with outsource vendors of their skill functions as they climb the corporate ladder to the levels where they will no longer require their core skills. Alternatively, they could work towards a career that required face to face interaction or something outside the corporate sphere.
