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Outsource: Competing In The Global Productivity Race Edward Yourdon’s New Book Helps “Knowledge Workers” Put Emotion Aside to Look at the Facts of the New Economic Reality Upper Saddle River, NJ – October 4, 2004 – Outsource: Competing in the Global Productivity Race, from New York Times best-selling author Edward Yourdon, helps to cut through the storm of emotional debate over the most sweeping economic trend of the past several years- the offshore outsourcing of service-oriented jobs. Offshore outsourcing represents a true sea change, Yourdon says, and he’s written this book to help knowledge workers potentially threatened by this trend. He guides readers to understand the facts, and advises them how to remain nimble, competitive and prepared for the future. Outsource publishes this week by Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference. The controversy surrounding jobs outsourcing is being discussed on the Presidential trail, and is also reaching into conference rooms across the country. The charged politics- on national and individual levels- too often obscure the facts of this new economic and business reality. The current focus on information technology threatens to overshadow the existence and growth of outsourcing in new fields, such as insurance claim processing, clinical trials, financial and market research. Yourdon, whose 1993 best-seller Decline and Fall of the American Programmer was arguably the first book to discuss the coming outsourcing trend, urges readers to take deliberate pause to consider their own “personal value proposition.” That is, how their value to an employer compares with the proposition of lower-cost and equally productive workers from elsewhere in the world. His common sense advice for knowledge workers includes eight concrete strategies. These include, “Look for innovative or specialized niches,” and “Be Proactive,” or start considering alternate job or even career decisions while still employed. “The simple message,” Yourdon says, “is: do it now, while you still have some opportunity to influence the outcome.” “In Outsource, Ed Yourdon conveys a nuanced understanding of a topic that too often has fallen victim to exaggeration and oversimplification. Will “your” job move offshore? That depends. Yourdon explains what it depends “on” and what to do about it,” writes Robert Austin, Harvard Business School Associate Professor and co-author of Artful Making. ABOUT THE BOOK Chapter Three provides a snapshot of outsourcing within the IT environment- the most affected industry to date- by breaking out its various sectors, including data entry, call center/help desk, and the full-fledged creation and marketing of software products. Chapters four and five discuss the lesser-known forms of outsourced work – i.e. claim-processing work, financial research, back-office legal work- and how and why these new fields will no doubt become increasingly outsourced. Yourdon also infuses Chapter Five with projections for the next several years, which pivot on the realization that many of these newly affected industries are experiencing a level of outsourcing experienced by IT companies a decade ago. Yourdon then shifts the book’s focus in Chapters Six and Seven to provide practical insights and career advice for both individual knowledge workers and suppliers of knowledge-oriented services who are struggling to stay competitive in this economy. Yourdon mentors in a straightforward manner, encouraging readers to consider certain of their personal variables, such as salary, flexibility and the relative “commodity” nature of their particular skill sets. In Chapter Eight, Yourdon jumps to the other side of the table, writing from the perspective of a company looking to obtain outsourced services. He advises them with such tips as, “Don’t Outsource Core Competencies” and “Start Small.” Yourdon uses Chapter Nine to venture his own recommendations for how the U.S. government can have a positive impact on the knowledge-oriented economy, and Chapter Ten concludes the book with some final thoughts, including other trends of significance within the U.S. economy. Outsource includes helpful statistical charts and has an accompanying Web site: http://www.phptr.com/title/0131475711 . The book will be available through major chain and independent booksellers nationwide and through online vendors at a suggested retail price of US $27.99. About the Author A New York Times best-selling author, his two dozen books include such classics as Decline and Fall of the American Programmer, Time Bomb 2000, Nations at Risk, Death March, and Byte Wars. Several of his books have been translated into Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, German, and Polish. He has testified before the U.S. Senate on the Y2K problem, has served on advisory councils of the U.S. Defense Department, and has been a board member of numerous high-technology companies in the United States and India. Yourdon received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from MIT and has carried out graduate work at MIT and the Polytechnic Institute of New York. He has been appointed an Honorary Professor of Information Technology at Universidad CAECE in Buenos Aires, Argentina and has lectured at MIT, Harvard, UCLA, Berkeley, and other universities around the world.
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