Outsourcing

Several years ago there was a book that came out by Thomas L. Friedman called The World is Flat.  It was about globalization, which I view as something like a glacier.  It's move toward us, and sometimes it might feel as if it is happening very slowly, but in reality it is moving at a rapid pace.  We work with global partners on a daily basis. I am of the opinion that this makes our leadership and management skills all the more important, as we are asked to oversee engineers working in Russia, India, or wherever.  Communication skills are not always a strong point for engineers.  But when there are thousands of miles and multiple time zones in the mix, it makes it all the more difficult.  But it will become increasingly difficult for US engineers to compete with the multitude of engineers graduating from China and India every year.  I believe our best opportunity to succeed in this environment is to maintain the highest level of technical expertise, and to develop our leadership skills.  As globalization continues, rudimentary engineering tasks will be offloaded, and it is only the highly technical, high risk engineering that will remain in the US.  But at the same time, there will always be a requirement to oversee and manage the offloaded work.  Sometimes this will involve exotic (and not so exotic) locations around the world.  Globalization can be as much of an opportunity as it is a challenge, if we approach it with the right attitude and the right plan.