President Obama’s speech to Congress this week has certainly put the proverbial cat among the outsourcing pigeons (note to self: “Outsourcing Pigeons” is a great name for a rock band, as well as a potentially interesting Sunday afternoon pastime): his promise that his administration his administration “will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas” has led to vast acreage of comment in the business pages and the blogosphere alike.
Of course it’s hardly awash with specifics, that question – what about all the corporations who’ve already offshored jobs, for instance? – but, rather like similar comments Obama made on the campaign, his words have led to a frenzy of debate, particularly in India where several already-antsy BPO pundits have all but proclaimed the death of the country’s outsourcing industry (and where the not-exactly-spin-shy NASSCOM, on the other hand, put out a press release praising Obama’s speech for including an attack on protectionist policies). Once again, as with the campaign comments, it’s too early to see the true significance of this latest pledge – but that’s no obstacle to a good burst of hypothesis, conjecture and all-round speculation and I applaud it wholeheartedly: let me have your own thoughts.
The crisis which prompted Obama’s pre-budgetary oration continues, of course, to rage more or less unabated; to commemorate six months since the beginning of what might (will, in fact, at least here) be called the main phase of the crisis which commenced with the takeovers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the collapse of Lehman Bros, the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network will be running a content series deviously entitled “The Crisis: Six Months In”. Along with some other goodies we’re going to publish a collection of your own thoughts on events (rather like our Year in Review and Year Ahead features at the tail-end of last year), and I’m looking for a few lines from you on each of the following three questions:
- What have been the biggest consequences for the shared services and outsourcing space of the economic crisis over the last six months?
- Specifically (and in as much detail as you can give!) how has the crisis impacted upon your own organisation?
- Six months in, what’s your perspective on how you see the space developing over the next six months?
We’ll be publishing this feature in the middle of March so your deadline, ladies and gents, is March 9 – I look forward to receiving a cornucopia of wondrous opinings at jamie.liddell@ssonetwork.com
(On the subject of great content: don’t forget to check out the Latin American shared services roundtable, the transcript of which I – at long last – put up on the site today. Check it out and let me know your thoughts.)
I’m off for an interview: in my absence, take a look at this. “Fun”, eh?
Tags: 2009, America, BarackObama, BPO, crisis, financial, Latin, NASSCOM, Obama, Offshoring, Outsourcing, pigeons, predictions, roundtable, Shared Services, sharedservices, sourcing, SSON, summit, transformation, US
