It should come as no surprise that even small accounting firms outsource your tax prep work to firms in India. And you are no longer surprised when you call about your cell phone bill and “Mike” really sounds like Jose from Guatemala.

I talked with a Mergers and Acquisitions firm not long ago and they told me the first question they ask any manufacturer here, is “Why not China?”

Why not indeed.

On one hand, it is very American to figure out how to drive all costs out of your product.  Seth Godin may tell us all to build in some proprietary excitement into our products and then charge for it, but is that realistic for the widget maker in Cleveland.  Some say it isn’t.

What we will never outsource is our creative force.  Our unique ability to think between the lines, hear what prospects and customers REALLY want and figure out how to get that product or service to them in the most affordable and efficient way.

I do think this creative force is being overlooked in American companies.  It is easier to outsource than to figure it out.  By figuring it out, I mean re-engineer, re-configure or re-arrange your old thing in a new way.  Not just have the knee-jerk reaction of going overseas.  Outsourcing might work for now, or even the next few years, but my sense is that it will not work for the long term.

This is from someone who first started outsourcing in 1982.  This was back when it was not going to China, but Japan.  Does that date me or not?

In a way, you are responsible for this outsourcing.  You went cheap – not good.  Now, not all of you are that way, but many did.  And when we got cheap things from wherever it happened to be, those manufacturing people figured out how to build cheap but better and better.  I can remember cheap Japanese toys, can you?  Now I think if it is made out of plastic it is not made here and as far as I can, those “cheap” things work pretty well.

Here is the challenge for American business leaders:  Before you allow your MBA’s and bean counters to convince you to take your stuff overseas, spend some time on re-thinking and re-arranging.  Fix your product in a new way.  What can you fix and make better, instead of just cheaper.

There was a story some time back about an American bike manufacturer who closed down their American plants and started building bikes overseas.  Maybe their development team thought of every single thing they could have to build a different kind of bike.  Maybe they hired the most creative minds they could have to create something new and exciting.

I am betting someone there simply said, “Hey, it is a freaking bike.  Let’s make it for 20% cheaper and make some money.”

There are thousands of companies who have figured this out, as evidenced by their open jobs.

What company do you know who got creative in-house rather than contracted out?  We all want to celebrate them.

Why Companies Go Contract is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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If you are about to take off with your own business, by all means read everything you can on the subject.  It is legal to learn from others who have traveled the startup journey.

Here are five examples of advice from my little book “StartUp, 100 Tips To Get Your Business Going,” that might be new, useful and even counter-intuitive.

1. Be friendly, but not so much. This advice is actually hard to pull off, especially with employees who are more skilled and older than you.  I believe it is one thing to be nice or friendly even, but it’s quite another to hang with them and drink beer all day on Saturday.  Your call.  Your perceived friendliness will be an issue with someone not in the group.  You want to be over-the-top fair with everyone.
2. Get excited about the little things. Many of the incremental improvements in a new company are fairly small and seemingly insignificant.  The entrepreneur needs to be able to get satisfaction out of these daily achievements.  They intuitively know that little things done well add up to a successful bigger event, a launch of a new software release, for example.  But along the way, you still must be able to get excited and more to the point, show it to your team.
3. Realize your sales people don’t work for you. The sooner you realize that all good sales people work, truly, for the customers and not for you, you will understand more about sales people than 90% of all non-sales people.
4. Ignore little things I knew we were well on our way to a good culture when one of our young sales reps brought his dog to work.  He didn’t even ask.
5. Don’t go with suggestion boxes.  They suck. I know there a lot of management gurus who recommend having suggestion boxes spread around a business, in person and even online.   If you need a box to generate such response, some other communication process needs fixing.  If you ask for suggestions, you have to react to each and every one.  Odds are, some will not be do-able.   Some are stupid.  Now, you have a negative moment in your company.  You have to tell the person that no, we are not getting a trampoline for those who need an after exercise break.  (An actual suggestion for me, once.)

Starting Your Own Business? Five Pieces Of Real World Advice is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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