Tag: Outsourcing

In the spirit of "Bull Durham", "The Natural" and "Field of Dreams", the upcoming movie, "Moneyball", looks to be the next great American baseball film. I am excited yet conflicted. I am a big fan of those movies but I happen to be a bigger fan of Michael Lewis’ book upon which the movie is based. And I am concerned that Hollywood will sift past Lewis’ exhaustive research, dodge his insightful observations and a string together a few pieces of Billy Beane’s life in the hopes of creating a romantic sports movie (a spormance).

Whenever a company chooses to outsource, there is a certain relinquishment of control. It is simply neither possible nor desirable to hold tightly to the reins of all aspects of an outsourced project. It stands to reason, therefore, that studies in the industry have revealed that many in IT management either are dissatisfied with their outsourcers or feel their outsourcers have “made up” work to pad their billings.

There once was a time when "settlers" were a hearty bunch. They were determined, adventurous folks who risked all to head out from their homes in the East to grab a piece of the unknown in the West on the premise of “what might be.”

Seldom do the worlds of mainstream network television programming and IT collide. But when they do … it’s comedy. Or at least NBC thinks so. The network is promoting a sitcom called ‘Outsourced’ about an American thirty-something who goes to India to manage a call-center.  Inevitably, comedic culture clashes ensue. Cringe-worthy clip here (SFW but not funny).

There's a big bias towards skill in our culture -- smart and creative trumps hard work and grinding it out day after day.