Thursday, August 17, 2006

Is the World Flat for Marketers?

In Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat, he describes how the playing field in the world is flattening out. Experts now recognize the top rate talent graduating from India, which graduates a frightening number of engineers and MBAs each year. New graduates are highly sought after by international firms, receiving compensation packages of up to $200,000 a year, which is as much as some Harvard business school grads.

There is no doubt that international competition for prestigious jobs is becoming more intense. Even Radiologists who are highly demanded in the US can be replaced by essentially equally qualified physicians in India for a fraction of the price. Hospitals can easily send x-rays overseas in the middle of the night to India where it is the middle of the day.

Friedman points out that outsourcing has taken place repeatedly in history, and it has been very beneficial to the ones doing the outsourcing. It not only allows workers to place their efforts in more sophisticated endeavors, but greatly benefits consumers by reducing price. I definitely enjoy low cost electronic products. Competition encourages us to raise our own level of performance and accomplish great things, for example the space race. Furthermore, as people in China and India get more residual income from economic success, they can buy more US products.

Marketing is one of the most difficult occupations to replace because it requires creative abilities. If your job requires face to face selling, how do you outsource that? Ultimately the flattening of the world is a great thing, not only for the prosperity of our fellow world citizens, but for the prosperity of America. With countries like India and China wanting to dominate us, we will have no choice but to raise our level of innovation and productivity or face the consequences of becoming a second rate economy.

Source India's B-School Grads Now Rake in the Big Rupees

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