Is the World Flat?

For most people in my generation, I believe Friedman's book was basically old news. By the time I read The World is Flat, I had already hired, sourced or partnered with foreign Software Developers, Mechanical Engineers, Transcriptionists, Operators, Customer Service Agents, and IT Support professionals and had accepted it as a normal way of life. I've lived in or toured foreign countries on nearly every continent; I speak a foreign language and fumble around with 2 others. I come from a multi-ethnic family, and I concur for the most part with Jared Diamond's philosophies about the global distribution of true intelligence. I'm also grateful for the brilliant minds that came to America to foster innovation and invention for the cause of Democracy. So is the World Flat? In my mind, there is no doubt. However, the millions of senior professionals ahead of me by a generation or so may not feel the same. To them, the world is only as flat as we allow it to become. As an intrapreneur who understands this, you may well confront that situation as you push forward in your company.

My first realization of this came on around my 40th day at Gallup. I was in a large auditorium where the IT managers were presenting FAQs on their accomplishments over the past year. Impressively, they had achieved a little over 400 software releases, with an internal staff of roughly 150 developers. One of the "myths" they openly dispelled was that we might move toward using Outsourced Developers in the future. Their experience was that they could not find equal quality or sufficient price savings to supplant what we were currently doing.

Two weeks later, I participated in a small planning committee where we decided that a major focus for our marketing efforts would be to improve our website as a prelude to more intense online marketing efforts.

Subsequently, I engaged in discussions with our IT department to get the ball rolling on our new website. The first red flag for me was that our internal costs were astronomical. Easily 10X what I would expect to pay an outside U.S. based contractor for the same work--let alone a developer in India. True, these costs weren't real to the company, rather a synthesized figure used to distribute overhead and support costs across workgroups...however, it still impacted my team's bottom-line. The second challenge was that we were bounced around between 4 or 5 decision-makers for several weeks just trying to figure out the process for getting a project into our IT department and prioritizing that project. The third and most telling obstacle was when we were told that even if our project was priority #1 for all IT development within the company, it would still take about 6 months to reach completion!

It took me less than 60 days to go from concept to revenue in my startup Garage Mahal, so as you can tell, 6 months seemed like forever.

As an intrapreneur, one is given two options at a time like this. Option 1) Get upset and throw the IT department under the bus, or option 2) try to work around the situation. A few years ago, and I might have opted for number 1, but we decided to take the other route. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Now, back to the real issue--optimizing corporate processes to keep up with globalization. As intrapreneurs, I think it is our duty to push against tradition as stiffly as possible if it will help expose and fix a weakness. The contract I signed with Gallup was to provide more value to the company than I get paid. We have all signed that contract as Tim Sanders points out in his Love is the Killer App. Anything less than continual pushing for improvement would be a breach of that contract. My objective at this point was to dispell the protectionist mindset and introduce the possibility that outsourcing could increase productivity and imrpove the engagement of our current full-time developers at the same time. My agenda wasn't to "win" the debate, but to bring value to my employer.

Maybe you have a great opportunity at your company to talk about globalization or outsourcing. Maybe it's helping align compensation packages with performance accountability. Perhaps it is looking to find a better paper vender when you find out your packaging costs are inflated because your procurement officer gets a Christmas "gift" each year from the current vendor. Whatever the opportunity looks like, don't shirk your responsibility by simply chalking it up to "that's the way it has always been done." Look for, seize, and execute on opportunities to make your voice heard. Veterans at your company may not have had the same benefits of growing up in the world we now live in. You can add significant value to their decision-making.