Onshoring Their Personal Lives...

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10922597.post-31168508824323009352007-06-04T13:26:00.000-04:002007-06-04T13:26:56.759-04:00Onshoring Their Personal Lives...<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><blockquote>When David San Filippo decided to create a tribute video in honor of his sister's wedding, he could have gotten a recommendation from a friend or looked up video editors in the phone book. Instead, he did what big corporations have been doing for more than a decade: sent the work offshore.On the Internet, Mr. San Filippo located a graphic artist in Romania who agreed to do the whole thing for $59. The result was a splashy two-minute video with a space theme and "Star Wars" soundtrack. It won raves at the wedding. Via <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118073815238422013.html?mod=blogs">WSJ read the full article here</a>. </blockquote>Enough of all the shady 'make money online' schemes. Squash the illusion that Google ads will make you and instant millionaire. Get real and feel the wind on your face(My take on Natasha Bedingfield). The opportunities abound in the next phase of off-shoring. As I read the Wall Street Journal article on off-shoring personal tasks, it became apparent to me that very little stood in the way of Nigerians, in terms of ripping the full dividends of this trend. We speak English, we have able labor, we have a huge market, though the PR isn't the best now, that is easily surmountable. What are we waiting for? <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118073815238422013.html?mod=blogs">Please read this article.</a> Multinationals have sort cheap labor outside the shores of their Western hosts for a while now. No points for guessing that the trend fueled the growth experienced by India and China. The units in which jobs are outsourced is fast becoming smaller and in little or no time it will become practical for Dele to complete a wedding invitation, menu, and hologram design, wedding program, and a thank you note for Mr. Smith's forthcoming wedding. I'd dare to say $200 bucks for a few hours work is good money in Nigeria. Mr Smith is happy because he save $400 bucks. Dele's can hit the club because he just made good money. It is a win win situation. So why aren't we doing it now? Because we aren't prepared, it is said that fortune favors a prepared mind. My brothers and sister now is the time to train yourself in basic applications. I'd rather sit at my computer and roll out a steady stream of graphic art, than wait for the government to do something. <blockquote>An example; The approach relies on the same model that drives corporate outsourcing: labor arbitrage, or benefiting from the wage differential between U.S. workers and those in developing countries. In the U.S., tutoring services charge $40 to $60 an hour for math help. Some skilled tutors in India are paid $2 to $3 an hour. In India, $20 is enough to buy a week's groceries for two people. <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118073815238422013.html?mod=blogs">via wsj</a></blockquote><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118073815238422013.html?mod=blogs"></a> There is also room for entrepreneurs, the big thinker types, to seize the wage arbitrage opportunities that will subsequently present themselves. I have always opined that unlike in the western economies where premium is paid for identifying opportunities, in Africa the premium is paid for the mobilization of resources. Opportunities abound a dime a dozen. Labor is cheap, labor is suppressed therefore willing participants, information isn't easy to come by, so your trade secrets extra safe. Many will read this and focus on the challenges such as PR, electricity and unavailability of high speed internet. I read this an see reasons for investors to justify the huge cost outlay that is associated with the provision of such infrastructures. This is my take on the WSJ article about <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118073815238422013.html?mod=blogs">Offshoring your personal lives</a>. Visit <a href="https://www.omodudu.com/">AltNigeria.com</a> sometime next week for a straight-faced(technical) take on the same article. I am an apologist of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat">Flat World Schoo</a>l, I think that is obvious by now.. </div>Omodudu