The Challenges Your IT Staff Will Face During Outsourcing.

This article highlights one of the unexpected results of outsourcing. After you close an outsourcing deal and downsize your IT staff, your remaining staff may have identity crisis. The is mainly do to their inability to let go of the control over task they have become accustomed too. Burger king found this transition so complex they has to implement a special management team just to guide the process. Just like we learned in class, outsourcing makes since because it allows "the company  the opportunity to focus internal resources on strategic projects that help differentiate the business." 


Different Companies will handle the transition differently; however, I think a company should be very careful when they outsource not to upset employees that will lose their job. The last thing a company would want is negatively publicity that affects sales to the point that it offsets any increases in sales. 

Is Foxconn’s Working Conditions Hurting Apple’s Image?

There have been a string of suicides at the Foxconn industrial complex in China where products such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad are made. Why? This is because the average salary of a Chinese person is just over $4,000 a year and the workers in the Foxconn factory make 51 cents an hour while working 60 hours a week. Disturbing? Indeed.

What effects does this have on Apple’s image? To know their very pricey products are made in factories with regulation so tight that people are killing themselves. A few year back Nike ran into a similar debacle with their factories and they were labeled for exploiting cheap labor. Yet, their company still strives very strong. Is there going to be an Apple boycott in the near future? I highly doubt it. Americans thirst for consumption with little thought of what goes into making them. This does not cause a problem. At the same time Americans thirst for consumption at a cheaper price. This is passed to management and in their decision to outsource where they can exploit cheap labor as Apple does in China. What is shocking is that Foxconn’s CEO is worth 5.5 billion compared to Steve Jobs who is worth 6.1 billion. This is just a clear example of the disparities in wealth in China and their implications.

Will Apple’s image suffer? Not yet, but if things continue to get worse Apple will need to think wisely about who they outsource to. In the end, it could cost them a lot more in image diminishment than they save from cheaper labor.