Compared with the past, it is not uncommon that today’s companies and organizations move functions out of their business and relocate it to another country. There can be different reasons for doing it, but basically companies decide this because of the two factors; cost and efficiency. The movie “Outsourced” is about exactly this. By seeing it you will get knowledge about this process, which is called outsourcing, and has become more and more usual the last years.

There are many benefits associated with outsourcing apart from the cost savings. Examples are liberation from managing none-core functions, increased productivity and efficiency, improvement of customer service, as well as it also will be a lot easier finding skilled expertise. Outsourcing gives companies a lot of advantages. When they avoid managing none-core functions themselves, they can have more focus on the core competencies. The increased productivity they are given by outsourcing contributes to better efficiency. Furthermore, they can service their customers faster in addition to provide better quality. When companies outsource certain functions, they also get rid of the risk connected to accomplish the function themselves. Last but not least, outsourcing provides access to resources at lower costs as well. And this exactly, is a big challenge faced by companies nowadays, finding skilled resources can be defying.

Benefits of taking part of a work production to a cheaper country are much referred to in the movie Outsourced, but there are also something else that encloses outsourcing which is reflected, and that is disadvantages. When the main character, Todd Anderson, has to move to India with his job because it has been outsourced to a call center down there, his life meets a lot of challenges. Thing does not go his way in the beginning of his stay. At the same time as he has to handle the newly globalized world and the spirit of India, he also meets the challenges of not understanding the cultural differences. Challenges like this are common when outsourcing a part of a company, particularly reasoned the new culture, the new mode of living, and generally the new surroundings.

The Indian culture is very different from the American culture. America is a mixture of different cultures, while the Indian culture is more unique and has its own values to maintain. In comparison, the Indian culture is more based on family honor, religion and morals. In America, on the other hand, they are very patriotic and they love weapons and violence. If they take a break from their weapons, they can be found at McDonalds with a cheeseburger well placed in their hand. While American people do this, the Indians spend time visiting a sacred river to burn their dead. The Indians are very rich in traditions when it comes to religion, festivals, music and dance, architecture, language and literature. Additionally, they also have number of rules. When tourists in India visit holy buildings for example, it is very important that they cover bare skin, especially shoulders and arms. One example from the film that refers to Indians and their rules is when Todd is served finger-food by an Indian family, and uses his hand to eat a bit of it, before putting the same hand back into the bowl. Todd does not understand why the Indians look at him with such a strange and surprises look, until the father of the house gets up and demonstrates how he uses his left hand after a lavatory. Obviously, there are a lot of differences from one culture to another, and integrating to a new country is not always an easy process.

The new surroundings were totally unfamiliar to Todd, but still he managed it quite well after a while. You may ask yourself what is needed to handle a situation like that in a best possible way. There is no specific answer to this as the solution depends on the whole situation, but one aspect very clear is that getting to know the culture is important. Asha, one of the workers at the call center in India, teaches Todd that he should learn more about her country. Therefore, she makes sure it happens. Todd realizes that he has a lot to learn, not only about the new country he seems to be living in for a while, but also about himself. The best way to accomplish this is to start respecting the people in addition to the culture, and to be more open to all the new. This matches quite well, not only in the film’s case, but in similar situations in everyday life. Regardless of what one are going to do and what job one will undertake, it is very clever to get to know the place and the culture you are settling in. During the “get to know” process one should have in mind that a way to avoid culture clashes is firstly to respect and be willing to try something new. Accordingly, to know the people and the place more than only from the outside makes it a lot easier.

Outsourcing is seen as a strategic move that can help businesses to gain a competitive advantage, and we understand that companies choose it mostly because of this.

All said and done, outsourcing definitely achieves more time and opportunity to grow a business, and it would not be wrong saying that accomplish this process is a clever step for many companies to take. Due to that the globalization of the world increases, outsourcing has, and will probably keep becoming a bigger part of the world.

Sources:
- http://www.outsourcing.com/

- http://www.outsource2india.com/why_outsource/articles/benefit_outsourcing.asp

- http://www.davidreiser.no/cms.cfm?nPageNo=5072&menuid=5&nMenuID=2429#kul

- http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

- http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing