outsourcing

Huffington huffs about outsourcers

Eclectic commentator Arianna Huffington is weighing in on outsourcing--and naming names.

Huffington, who dropped out of a bid to become California governor in the state's recall election last year, has a Web page titled "The Greedy Dozen," on which she identifies corporate leaders she says have sent American jobs abroad and contributed to Republican causes.

The finger-pointing comes with name-calling flair. "Michael 'Dude, you got outsourced!' Dell" is Huffington's name for the chairman of Dell, which she says is employing close to 3,000 people in India while donating thousands of dollars to … Read more

Intel expands abroad--again

Intel to expand Irish manufacturing facilities Intel said at its stockholder meeting today it plans to spend $2 billion to build a new plant in Ireland. This isn't a radical change in strategy. Long before outsourcing became a hot potato, Intel was busy creating a network of manufacturing and research facilities around the globe. Craig Barrett figures it this way: If Intel is a global corporation that derives most of its revenues from non-U.S. sources--72 percent, to be precise--why not expand its footprint around the world? (For what it's worth, the Americas accounted for just 28 percent … Read more

Good, bad or indifferent?

Study supports controversial offshore numbers Both the pro and con camps now have new numbers to back up their arguments. The revised Forrester numbers project a loss of 3.4 million U.S. jobs over the next 11 years. Depending on where you sit in this debate, that's either major cause for alarm or business as usual. The upward revision is only slightly more than the 3.3 million figure Forrester came up with two years ago.

But here's what caught my eye: The report suggests that all the noise made by antioffshoring activists has paradoxically, helped accelerate … Read more

Lies, damned lies....and statistics

Monday's D-Day for outsourcing junkies when Forrester Research issues its long-awaited study on the number of American jobs being sent offshore. Forrester helped fan the fires of this debate a couple of years back when it predicted the U.S. would lose 3.3 million jobs. I can't help wondering whether offshoring would have turned into such a big campaign issue for 2004 had the economy not undergone a recession and subsequent slow-growth recovery. John McCarthy, who authored the original report, complained to the Wall Street Journal earlier this spring that he was miffed how people were seizing … Read more

Indian election: What does it mean?

I wonder whether the preliminary results of India??s parliamentary vote will impact the country's future as an outsourcing hotbed. Looks as if the ruling BJP is going to lose a lot of seats to the Congress Party. Could that result in a cooling--or even reversal--of India's welcoming stance on foreign-owned companies setting up shop?

Floor is open. Who will last the tango? Meanwhile good news on the jobs front in Silicon Valley. After announcing a helluva strong quarter, Cisco announced plans to hire up to 1,000 salesmen and engineers--mostly in the United States.

Lieberman gets religion

What do you know? Joe Lieberman says Uncle Sam needs to think up new ways to deal with the human costs of offshore outsourcing--including the possibility of wage-loss insurance.What was once a far-out idea is quickly gaining currency with the mainstream. The same sentiment was reflected in the results of the CNET-Harris Interactive poll we published last week. My take is that the numbers reflect the enlightened self-interest of many--though not a majority--in the business world.

During the TiE gig, I broached the question, only to have Sequoia Capital's Doug Leone dump all over it. I didn't … Read more

Indian ex-pats in the Valley

Received some interesting feedback on my last post. Several readers took me to task for mentioning the race issue, accusing me of searching out an issue that does not exist. Maybe, maybe not.

On Friday, I dropped by the offices of The Indus Entrepreneurs, which was hosting a press reception in advance of their big conference later this week. One of the folks I spoke with was Kanwal Rekhi, one of the big names in the Indian-American high-tech community. Rekhi is aware of the "Lou Dobbs" effect, but he nonetheless believes things are a lot better for Indian … Read more

The color of outsourcing

I've received several private e-mails from Indians working in the U.S. since we began publishing the offshore outsourcing special on Tuesday. Their big concern: a possible racial backlash against foreign-born workers.

To their credit, the hired help in Washington has refrained from playing racial politics--so far, at least. But with more Americans worried about losing their jobs, all it takes is one demagogue to ignite an uproar.

Admittedly, my antennae aren't as sensitive to the nuances of this issue as someone from, say, Bangalore, working in San Mateo. But you have to ask whether there isn't … Read more

So much for guts

Kudos to Craig Barrett of Intel for taking part in the op-ed roundtable. Unfortunately, he was the only big-time tech CEO with the guts to go on the record. (I'm sure T.J. Rodgers of Cypress Semi would have agreed, but I didn't ask.) Once the PR handlers heard about the topic, they ran for the hills. Truth be told, some of the explanations got quite creative. Without mentioning names, suffice it to say that they wanted no part of anything that even remotely smacked of controversy.

Why not?

Seems to me that sticking your head in the … Read more