Posted on 01/30/2008 10:07:42 AM PST by CarrotAndStick
Countering the rancour in the West against outsourcing of jobs, the chairman of IT major Wipro [Get Quote] has said India was not stealing their jobs and its businesses were moving into developed countries, which did not have enough skilled graduates to compete in the global economy.
"What is of concern is how serious a shortage of technical talent is building up in the western world. Global companies are going to where not enough young boys and girls are getting into math, science and engineering. That trend is not being reversed," Azim Premji said.
Premji said that as Wipro expands into other countries, it often has to hire graduates from other disciplines and then send them to its campus in Bangalore to be trained in software engineering and other technical skills.
Premji said the talent shortage makes a mockery of the claim that India is stealing jobs from the West.
"Making rhetoric of jobs getting displaced in North America or Europe is not answering the question," he said. "Jobs are getting displaced because there's not enough talent there to fill those jobs."
Premji said that with the company's Canadian operations growing rapidly, it will need more and more skilled graduates here. He said he expected Wipro's Canadian business to grow by 50 per cent a year as it takes on new clients, while hiring more Canadian engineers, executives and technical staff.
"Canada is a focus market for us," Premji said over lunch at an Indian restaurant in Mississauga, just west of Toronto. "We believe we can grow this market quite aggressively."
Until now, Canada has been a small part of the Wipro empire. Its 500 staff in Toronto, Windsor, Ottawa and Calgary help generate about $100-million of the global company's $5-billion in annual revenues.
The bulk of its staff works with Nortel Networks developing telecommunications switching equipment.
But the Canadian operation has gone from three clients to 20 in the past 18 months while adding 160 staff and setting up a dedicated sales team.
Moving beyond telecom, Wipro is also courting Canadian insurance firms and energy utilities.
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I read last year the the USA had two million jobs out sourced from the US
but we had seven million out sourced into the US.
The U.S. government is allowing them to be handed to India all in a nice lil gift bag.
Have you talked with any average high school grads lately?
OK, so when a friend’s son graduated 4 years ago summa cum laude with a degree in computer science, why did he have a hard time finding a job (almost 6 months) ? He’s sober, intelligent, well-spoken, wears his pants up around his waist and not hanging off his backside, and has a good degree from a good school.
Why, I say ? Because companies are stuffed with H1B visa holders or are offshoring these jobs.
If they want Americans, they have to provide some jobs.
That’s not the whole story. There are at least 10% of kids in any graduating class that have skills and aren’t talking or acting like morons.
I think the problem is this: just 20+ years ago you could get an IT job right out of high school or college, spend a few months or years in an apprentice-type situation for minimal pay, then get an entry-level job and salary if your skills were on that level by the end of the apprenticeship.
Now ? You need a college degree with skills in very particular disciplines and some experience - no training, no learning curve, nothing. Look at the want ads - they are very specific in naming certain specific technologies. Companies want someone else to train talent, but they only want to pay trained talent the same as an Indian in India commands. So, they get H1B people or outsource to achieve this aim.
IMO they miss the boat - they lose out on hiring talent who are not only capable of learning new skills to complement the ones they already have, who have proven troubleshooting skills, and good business knowledge, all things that make outsourcing such a crapshoot for quality.
The jobs are there. The problem is that your friend’s son is valuing his labor higher than his competition. Employers are rational consumers, and will usually choose the more cost-effective option. It’s sad that so few people understand this basic economic principle.
The only way to get around this reality is to have government skew the rules in favor of citizens, which creates inefficiencies and increases costs and inflationary pressures.
Which do you think most people would prefer: artificially high prices and wages, and more government intervention in the economy... or lower prices and the freedom to hire anyone we choose?
No one’s stealing shit.
US companies are CHOOSING to place jobs there.
For a variety of reasons.
American whining about the workings of a global capitalist economy are something. When the benefits (cheap clothing, consumer items) from China flooded in starting in the 70’s, no one really complained. Even now, Chinese goods dominate the market, despite being the products of fascist totalitarian regime with the largest Gulag System. Many goods are the products of those employed in slave labor camps by the Party and the Army.
India went a different route than China by seeing a market niche and exploiting it.
If America didn’t want it, why allow it to happen. After all, it’s not a new process. BushOne started it, Clinton opened the floodgate, and Abu has kept them open.
He's talking about four years ago, when they weren't.
The problem is that your friend’s son is valuing his labor higher than his competition.
In Bangladesh.
Employers are rational consumers, and will usually choose the more cost-effective option.
In Bangladesh.
It’s sad that so few people understand this basic economic principle.
It's cheap wages. Cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap. As in, dividing by zero, or as close to zero as you can possibly get.
Period.
The only way to get around this reality is to have government skew the rules in favor of citizens, which creates inefficiencies and increases costs and inflationary pressures.
Yeah, God forbid you have to actually pay somebody.
.....the freedom to hire anyone we choose?
I think you just handed us your business card.
The dirty little secret of outsourcing is that these are not true "market clearing wages."
The employers/outsourcers are arbitraging payscales based on different social support systems and, in the case of socialist countries like Mexico, China, and India, cost-of-living subsidies as well.
Mexico has always subsidized the cost of corn flour and tortillas, for example. With staple food costs low, Mexican wages remain nailed to the floor.
See other posters' comments above for discussion on Chinese forced (stolen) labor. Some subsidy.
That's why my company's helpdesk went from, mostly, US citizens in Kansas who you could understand to Indian citizens in India that you can't understand, or make them understand you.
Yeh, there's no US jobs being outsourced. </sarc>
>>The employers/outsourcers are arbitraging payscales based on different social support systems and, in the case of socialist countries like Mexico, China, and India, cost-of-living subsidies as well.
Well, labels are easy. The US has more “socialistic” programs than these countries; the US has employment insurance, SS, food stamps, medicare, medicaid etc, etc
There no benefits for individuals like that in the countries you mention. Their macro socialistic policies are not in play in the various outsourcing industries, particularly in India, where the IT/SW Industry is probably the least regulated next to Bollywood.
Whatever the reasons employers are doing it is besides the point. A competitive advantage was seen and acted upon.
When Americans were offered a cheaper TV or cheaper pair of pants that were made in China and not in SouthCarolina, they jumped to it.
American IT Execs did the same when offered a similar product for less money.
Yeah, that’s why my company replaced me with someone in India, after 28-1/2 years of faithful service with excellent performance reviews, promotions, and merit raises. I also had kept up my certifications.
A year later, my company hired me back...but is paying me less than they were before...but now they’re talking about outsourcing some of the positions on our new team.
Nah, India isn’t taking our jobs.
Lemme guess--you get to fix the shoddy work coming out of India?
It would be so much better if those durn Indians would just form their own companies to out-compete American companies, rather than work for American firms at global market wages.
</sarc>
They’re not stealing them. We’re giving the jobs to them.
I’m convinced MBAs can only gut companies to make money.
Well, it is easier to tear something down than build it.
No — this particular customer pushed back when my company wanted to outsource their service.
When workers compete in a level global environment then we’ll talk about “global wages”, hmmm ?
When India has the same regulatory and tax environment as the US, then I’ll buy the bs about global wages.
When we’re competing against people who can survive on $2 per hour, that’s just plain suicide.
When Indian companies pay a 35% tax rate on their profits, we’ll talk about global wages.
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