Why Global Talent is like a Die Hard 2 DVD

May 03, 2023

Friends, Romans, Extreme Outsourcers - lend me your ears.

I’ve spent the few years studying and analyzing the “offshore market” and looking for what my BIG move is going to be (I’ve decided…will go public soon).

I’ve reached several conclusions.

One of these conclusions is that we are in the first inning.

While Fortune 1000 companies figured out BPO in the 1980s - the “bottom 90%” of companies still aren’t using this incredible talent pool.

Despite the proliferation of “headhunters” on Twitter that might indicate otherwise - the market is still insanely immature - and most companies don’t know about it.

Of course, this is one of the reasons I’m about to make a big bet in this space.

The TAM is huge, and there are no dominant players.

Another conclusion I’ve reached - which is more relevant to you, dear reader, is the relationship between global talent and software.

Before making the connection - I want to to relay a story.

In 1959, Isaac Asimov wrote a remarkable short story titled "The Feeling of Power."

The setting is a distant future where humanity has become heavily reliant on computers and machines to perform even the simplest of tasks.

Warfare is entirely carried out by expensive machines.

Eventually, someone figures out that rather than risk an expensive supercomputer in a battle, they should suicide an inexpensive human being into the enemy’s machine, to destroy their expensive supercomputer, cheaply.

It’s a great/spooky story.

Sometimes, humans are less expensive than machines.

The point of this example is that offshore can be a transitionary step:

  • Before software gets good enough

  • Before software gets cheap enough

  • Before software gets flexible enough

Picture an Amazon warehouse (parodied incredibly by South Park here)

Do you think that Bezos wouldn’t automate the WHOLE THING if it was economic to do so?

Of course he would.

BUT - a $20 an hour “picker” that works in an integrated process alongside a shit load of automated robots, as of 2022, is the most economic packing methodology.

It’s the same in your business.

So many people are spinning their wheels buying another “Really Good CRM” - which is often expensive, inflexible, and not quite good enough.

What do I do instead?

Hire a good back office assistant based in South Africa for like $10 bucks an hour and have her go in every night and do all sorts of awesome custom stuff on top of our basic CRM.

That doesn’t mean I don’t think the CRM will eventually get good enough to do this.

It means that I have problems now, that can be solved economically now - and the solution is easier than you think.

Man PLUS Machine.

Not MACHINE MACHINE MACHINE.

Just because those venture backed software companies can write a good landing page (AUTOMATIC SALES FOLLOWUP IN ONE MINUTE) doesn’t mean they can deliver on it, economically!

How’s this relate to a Die Hard 2 DVD?

Offshore (headhunters, staffing, whatever) is kind of like how Netflix got started - “low tech” bet, that is waiting for a day when the technology is good enough.

Netflix got started sending DVDs in the mail - and has leveraged that into becoming a streaming monster.

I’m betting (I don’t know if this is true) that the Netflix guys knew that streaming would be a thing eventually, but in the meantime, they could get ready for that day while building a great brand and cashflow.

So much of the work I’m doing with private equity dudes and dudettes, SMBs, & holdcos - will eventually be solved by software - but for now, offshore is solving so many of the problems, and lays the groundwork for the eventually software solution.

Offshore is transitory, but highly useful - just like DVDs in the mail.

In closing - don’t be afraid to use human beings to solve some of your problems.

I’ve found it can be faster, easier, and more flexible.

Yours in Outsourcing,

Jon

Poem of the Week, Because Everyone Needs more Poetry in Their Life:

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

   Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

- Walt Whitman