Dilbert on Outsourcing

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Actually I am somewhat a fan of “outsourcing”. That is – when a company decides not to expend time or energy on tasks that fall outside focus of their core business. I think outsourcing has gotten a bad rep, mainly because companies have either outsourced for the wrong reasons, or because they have mismanaged the outsourcing. For instance, should a bank hire and manage an in-house web development team? There is a strong argument for hiring an outside firm that specializes in web development, instead of hiring, managing an internal team – otherwise the bank in part must become experts in web development. When a firm loses sight of what their core market strengths are (innovation? quality? operations?)and outsources this – their days are numbered.

The Dilbert comic is even more amusing. There’s nothing wrong for a company who has an innovative idea or business model to field out the majority of the non-critical, established tasks in order to be first to market, or to gain a competitive advantage. But in this case, the company starts out with a “me too” idea, in a crowded market and outsources everything. This only works in established, mature markets – for instance when Best Buy ‘manufactures’ their own brand of TV’s – outsourcing everything. Then again – Best Buy’s core competency is in retail distribution, so outsourcing the product makes sense. I’m actually surprised we haven’t seem more of these Dilbert companies.