A WEE OUTSOURCING QUESTION….Dan Drezner points today to a Washington Post article about outsourcing. The story quotes a Boston Consulting Group report that says American companies should get off their duffs and outsource more:
That is partly because the potential savings are so vast, but the report also cites a view among U.S. executives that the quality of American workers is deteriorating….”More than 40 percent of the companies we talked with expressed significant concerns about the erosion of skills in the work force,” the report states….Midlevel engineers in low-cost countries, the report adds, “tend to be more motivated than midlevel engineers in the West.”
Now, this may be quite true. But I have a question: did 40% of the executives they interviewed also express concerns about the high cost and low skills of American executives?
No? I wonder why? How much do you suppose General Motors could save by firing everyone above the level of vice president and replacing them with hardworking, highly talented, and incredibly well educated executives from India willing to work for $100,000 a year?
