Subscribe to this blog
I just finished Robert Kennedy’s ”The Services Shift”, a book on the globalization of services, with an emphasis on Information Technology.
Kennedy is a Professor at Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He also runs the William Davidson Institute — a fairly prominent think-tank that focuses on business and policy issues in developing countries.
This book is a goldmine:
- IT managers will find very detailed and clear information on what, when, where and how to offshore
- Outsourcing vendors will find relevant and not-so-well-known information on industry trends.
But hold on, there is more. Because the book goes far beyond the technicalities of services offshoring, literally everybody would benefit tremendously from reading its sections 1, 2, 6, and 7.
In fact, if you think the book is of no concern to you, consider one mind-blowing statistics shown in it: in the USA, services represent a staggering 83% of the country’s GDP.
The author managed to stay away from politics and partisanship. The book carries nothing like Lou Dobbs’ low-level propaganda or Thomas Friedman’s provocative views.
Kennedy sticks to the facts, and demonstrates brilliantly why the globalization of services is an unstoppable trend, at least for any foreseeable future.
Consider “The Services Shift” a wake up call. A new economy has emerged, and it is a global one. Liking or disliking this global order we have created is everyone’s prerogative, ignoring it is just not possible anymore, whatever our role in our society is.
The price to pay for the US to retain global leadership is to acknowledge this situation, accelerate innovation, create disruptive business models, and more importantly prepare our children to live in a world that will be changing at an always faster pace.
I will definitely elaborate on some parts of this book in future posts. In the meantime, do yourself a favor: read it!
Purchase the book on Amazon.com
Remi
www.vsisoft.com
