Move the Jobs, not the Labor

Travis Northcutt is a college student and a thinker (mutually exclusive for some of his classmates). You can find his thoughts at flatworldblog.com.

In the Flat World, labor no longer has to move where the jobs are.  Now, the jobs can be moved to wherever work can be performed with the most speed, the highest quality, and least cost (pick two).  Raj Sheelvant wrote an excellent post about this "globalization of labor."  He says that ten years ago, globalization meant moving goods (import/export), moving capital (FDI), or both.  Raj identifies three things that have changed this trend: Demographic Shift, New Markets, and Technological Advances.  Of these, I think technological advances is by far the most important.  Communication has become so cheap that companies (or individuals) in developed nations can easily outsource work to areas with a far cheaper labor pool.  Cheap communication, combined with a growing trend of ambition for learning in developing nations (India, China, etc.) and advanced work-flow software means that even intellectual, high value-added work can now be split up, sent wherever it can most effectively be accomplished, and seamlessly re-integrated.

What are you doing in the Flat World?  The challenge now is not to fight against it (I just shake my head when I hear people complaining about outsourcing) - the challenge is finding a way to gain or maintain a competitive advantage on a playing field that is more level than ever.