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CSR and Remote Outsourcers

When I was an adjunct professor, one of my favorites topics to teach during the Introduction to Business course was Corporate Social Responsibility.  Why?  Because I think most businesspeople want to do the right thing.  Different people just have different ideas of what the right thing is.  Profit maximization is sometimes cited as the ultimate goal.  Then other priorities and stakeholders have to be taken into account.

In my life, I have a whole hierarchy of how I shop and how I choose with whom to do business.  I think we all do.  Two things I prioritize is buying local and buying American, if I can.  I’m a reformed globalist.  I spent years learning and teaching about the benefits of globalization.  I earned tons of money working for and investing in corporate American.  But I’ve witnessed that in practice the downsides are more pronounced, harder to mitigate, and more concentrated than anticipated.

Barely a day goes by that I’m not solicited to do business with outsourcers who are not in the United States.  The biggest campaigners are marketers, virtual assistants, and accountants.  Yes, they contact me to outsource my business to them.  They offer me great rates.  One person offered to charge me about 25% of what a bookkeeper here in the US could cost. 

I choose not to participate.  I know what will happen.  Today, they will do my work for me.  Tomorrow, they will take my work from me.  I see it coming.  One of the groups I hear from constantly is an Indian-based joint venture connected to a national American accounting firm.  The Indian-based group is marketing to me directly using their name.  How long until they no longer need to ally with the American firm and just contact me under their own name?

 I also think about all the local people who would like to be bookkeepers. I’ll share my business with them first.  What about the next generations?  If I don’t preserve our industry what jobs will they have when it’s their turn?  Will outsourcers in Asia and Africa hire students from ODU and NSU to do the work?  How likely is that?  And if I use foreign-based people in other industries, how will our businesses survive.  My business exists because of small to medium sized businesses in this area.  Like one of my mentors said, “If you don’t exist, we don’t exist.”  It’s an ecosystem. 

My extensive education and free market bias would make me say, but James, business should go to the people who can do the same job at the lowest price.  But, I’ve realized over the years that part of my responsibility is preserving industry and jobs not only for myself, but also for my community and people.  So I now make decisions partly based on what is good not just for my bottom line, but also what’s good for our community.

I ask that everyone else do the same.  You might come to different decisions than I do, but I only ask that when you make decisions you consider the wider consequences of that decision.  A $3 an hour virtual assistant is good for your profit.  But do the long-term costs outweigh that short-term benefit?

When I was an adjunct professor, one of my favorites topics to teach during the Introduction to Business course was Corporate Social Responsibility.  Why?  Because I think most businesspeople want to do the right thing.  Different people just have different ideas of what the right thing is.  Profit maximization is sometimes cited as the ultimate goal.  Then other priorities and stakeholders have to be taken into account.

In my life, I have a whole hierarchy of how I shop and how I choose with whom to do business.  I think we all do.  Two things I prioritize is buying local and buying American, if I can.  I’m a reformed globalist.  I spent years learning and teaching about the benefits of globalization.  I earned tons of money working for and investing in corporate American.  But I’ve witnessed that in practice the downsides are more pronounced, harder to mitigate, and more concentrated than anticipated.

Barely a day goes by that I’m not solicited to do business with outsourcers who are not in the United States.  The biggest campaigners are marketers, virtual assistants, and accountants.  Yes, they contact me to outsource my business to them.  They offer me great rates.  One person offered to charge me about 25% of what a bookkeeper here in the US could cost. 

I choose not to participate.  I know what will happen.  Today, they will do my work for me.  Tomorrow, they will take my work from me.  I see it coming.  One of the groups I hear from constantly is an Indian-based joint venture connected to a national American accounting firm.  The Indian-based group is marketing to me directly using their name.  How long until they no longer need to ally with the American firm and just contact me under their own name?

 I also think about all the local people who would like to be bookkeepers. I’ll share my business with them first.  What about the next generations?  If I don’t preserve our industry what jobs will they have when it’s their turn?  Will outsourcers in Asia and Africa hire students from ODU and NSU to do the work?  How likely is that?  And if I use foreign-based people in other industries, how will our businesses survive.  My business exists because of small to medium sized businesses in this area.  Like one of my mentors said, “If you don’t exist, we don’t exist.”  It’s an ecosystem. 

My extensive education and free market bias would make me say, but James, business should go to the people who can do the same job at the lowest price.  But, I’ve realized over the years that part of my responsibility is preserving industry and jobs not only for myself, but also for my community and people.  So I now make decisions partly based on what is good not just for my bottom line, but also what’s good for our community.

I ask that everyone else do the same.  You might come to different decisions than I do, but I only ask that when you make decisions you consider the wider consequences of that decision.  A $3 an hour virtual assistant is good for your profit.  But do the long-term costs outweigh that short-term benefit?