About: JohnU

Website: http://jau1.elance.com

Profile: I am an American freelance researcher, writer and recruiter who has lived, worked, or studied in the USA (Born & grew up there), Australia, China, the Philippines (Over 5+ years; 4 years with a leading executive search firm there) and now Vietnam (Please visit my blog at: http://www.vietnamwartravels.com). I am also open to freelance projects related to research, writing, HR, recruiting or Asia in general (see my main freelance work profile and portfolio at: http://jau1.elance.com).

Posts by JohnU:

  • Nearshoring: Outsourcing to India without the pain

    In recent years, three offshoring models have emerged – outsourcing to distant locations, homeshoring (that is, keeping the work at home) and nearshoring (a compromise solution) – with the later model increasingly offering a more competitive and attractive alternative to the other two offshoring models.

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  • Portfolio careers: Learning how to do the hustle and thrive in globalization

    Nervous American, British and other workers in Western or developed countries who either fear loosing their full-time jobs or have already lost theirs due to offshore outsourcing, need to realize that their outdated notions of work and what constitutes a career is fundamentally changing forever. In fact, they need to learn how to hustle because full-time employment (unless you work for a government bureaucracy) is on its way out while having a so-called “portfolio career” is in and this will continue to be the trend for the foreseeable future.  Read more

  • If you can’t compete with them, why not join them?

    Some years ago, I recall reading an intriguing article in Business week entitled Subcontinental Drift: More Westerners are beefing up their résumés with a stint in India. The gist of the article was that a new bred of expatriate worker, not the traditional Non-Resident Indian (NRI) or highly paid Westerners expatriate, were “chasing their jobs” to India and according to NASSCOM at the time, some 30,000 firangis or foreigners were already working for Indian technology and outsourcing companies – triple the number from 2004. Read more

  • The shifting landscape of outsourcing

    A.T. Kearney has just released its annual Global Services Location Index™ (GSLI) for 2009 and found that some outsourcing stars are already starting to fade, namely those in Central and Eastern Europe, while others, especially those in Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, are still on the rise. The reason? Costs are rising. Read more

  • The Philippines: India’s outsourcing step child

    The Philippines, with is 90 million plus people at home and a growing Diaspora abroad, has long marketed itself as the third largest English speaking country in the world and as an alternative location to India in the world of outsourcing – especially in voice related work (See the May 30, 2009 Wall Street Journal article entitled: Philippine Call Centers Ring Up Business). After all, even Indian based call centers will concede that the Philippines is a more attractive place to do voice related work as the Filipino accent is much easier on North American ears and bluntly speaking, Filipinos are simply better at being customer service representatives than Indians. Moreover, having been a former colony of the USA, there is a great affinity towards and understanding of American culture in the country. Read more

  • The growth potential for outsourcing: Just a mirage?

    With much of the developed world mired in the deepest recession in living memory and with many companies under enormous pressure to cut costs just to survive, one would assume that the decision to outsource would be easy and new demand for outsourcing services, processes or functions would be increasing exponentially. However, the current reality is proving to be much more complicated than this. Read more

  • In Outsourcing will China really be a contender to India?

    With the global export slowdown hitting its manufacturing sector hard, China’s government is turning its attention to boosting its service sector and is laying the groundwork to grab a bigger slice of the US$1 trillion plus global outsourcing market – putting India on notice. Sure, India has an enormous pool of talent to draw upon and a big head start advantage but China also has an enormous and well educated population, a largely untapped domestic market for outsourcing, numerous small or medium sized cities offering competitive cost advantages, and excellent transportation and telecommunications infrastructure. Moreover, the government now plans to offer more perks to outsourcers in 20 pilot cities in the form of tax breaks, subsidies and IP protection.
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