Professionals work along a distinct hierarchical structure in an office. In the field of outsourcing, the offices around the world work along a single hierarchical structure. Consider this picture of outsourcing: The outsourcing customer (The U.S., the U.K., Japan, etc.) occupies the top managerial positions, while the service providers (like India, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Morocco, the Czech Republic, Russia, Eastern Europe and many others) share the next hierarchy level. The following similarities can be drawn between an office and global outsourcing structure:

· The manager of any company looks for suitable candidates for a particular work. Similarly, the customers look for outsourcing in India, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Morocco, the Czech Republic, Russia, Eastern Europe, and many more countries for a particular sphere of outsourcing.

· Just like any manager interviews candidates for a particular position taking the help of consultancy or media, the outsourcing customers gather good professionals/companies in a said field from different countries with the help of advisers.

· A simile can be drawn between managers who negotiate the salaries with selected candidates and the outsourcing customer who settle for the low-cost outsource destinations.

· Deadlines and quality are the looming factors attached to both.

India reached the second hierarchical level owing to her first mover advantage, stress on engineering education, ability to create the global delivery model, stress on quality, and its efforts to open up the US market. It is amazing to see the kind of projects that are handled — Sales and marketing outsourcing, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Design and architecture outsourcing, Database outsourcing, Website design, development outsourcing, Programming, Software and database outsourcing, and many more. Soon China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Morocco, Eastern Europe and other outsourcing destinations too joined in by picking up the tricks of the trade. China is now emerging as a strong competitor.

This kind of hierarchical structure works best for service providers by imbibing quality, an eye for detail, and as much business and revenue. Once the work is assigned, the outsourcing customer can concentrate on innovation because they have ample time in their hands. On the other hand, the small players can put their efforts into performing a said task efficiently, thereby contributing to the organization’s progress and in turn a country’s progress. An added advantage is not only assimilation of profits, but also in getting the broader view of how the outsourcing customers play their part.

The countries are getting so much work that there could soon be a third level of hierarchy created where the work of the service providers are further outsourced to smaller countries. Thus, reiterating the basic idea of outsourcing — a medium to unite nations for a common purpose and build a richer World.

Publilius Syrus, roman author of the 1st century, rightly said: “Where there is unity there is always victory.”

Sad that we understood this broader picture only by the 20th century!