Do I believe in Protectionism? Absolutely, I do.
Several years ago, I took a business trip from Dallas, Texas to Appleton, Wisconsin. Halfway through the Midwest Airlines flight--somewhere over Ohio--I got bored and reached for the in-flight magazine. As I thumbed through the pages, I bumped into an article about a paper mill located near Green Bay that had tried to implement an ERP software package. After spending $20 million on the project, this company decided to seek Chapter 11 protection and new management.
That’s the type of protection I believe in--protecting a company from misguided management. Are there other times when we need protection? Sure there are.
The New York Times (registration required) reports that the external affairs minister of India had this to say about outsourcing software jobs, “The U.S. has to realize that by outsourcing, its companies remain competitive and save jobs.”
Ka-what!
If you’ve read It’s Not the Big that Eat the Small...it’s the Fast that Eat the Slow by Jason Jennings, you might hold an opposite opinion. Speed and agility create a competitive advantage--not cheap labor.
What’s the biggest problem I’ve experienced in the software field? People with little, if any, software experience end up managing projects and making poor decisions. Let me share a leadership concept with you:
You can’t manage what you don’t understand; you can’t understand what you haven’t done.
We need to be protected from people who don’t know what they're talking about; we can accomplish this goal through education. When you read this article by Jon Strande, you’ll see why it’s critical that we make an apples-to-apples comparison regarding outsourcing.
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