The Outsource Inoculation

Today, the trend of offshore outsourcing (O-O) is escalating. The simple reason: other businesses are positioning and packaging their value proposition to highlight how they can do your work more efficiently than you due to some combination of lower cost, higher skills and better management. For professionals concerned about career survival, project management can help. By developing several specific skills, project managers and team members — in fact, managers of any kind — can take steps to inoculate themselves against the O-O fever.

First, you must determine how susceptible you are to O-O. To diagnose your current condition, answer the following questions:

1. Are you working in a high-margin industry, or for a high-profile government agency?

2. Is your organizations one of the top two in your market in both share and growth? 

3. Does your workgroup generate revenue or provide support to one that does?

4. Can you prove you add value (vs. overhead) to your enterprise?

5. Are you out of work or about to be?

6. Is your enterprise in the process of …