Media Blast -- India Addition

Have had a very busy few days in India.

First, lots of interactions with our MBA MAP teams.

• First team up is working in Noida, focusing on Drishtee's microenterprise lending strategy.
  
• Spend the weekend in Hyderabad working with a second team focusing on Acumen Fund's healthcare strategy.
  
• Next up is two days of Ross alumni events (Delhi then Mumbai/Bombay).
  
• Then back to Noida Wednesday Thursday for some work with the Perot Systems team, working on skills

The real news, however, is promoting the book. For those of you who've read it, you know that Perot and India play a large role. Anurag Jain, Perot's MD for Asia Pacific and Head of the firm's Business Process Solutions business, had his team organize an absolutely fantastic couple of days.

• I appeared on Power Lunch, the midday program on NDTV, India's version of CNBC to discuss the book and President Obama's comments re: offshoring (sorry, no video)
• Had one-on-one interviews with a series of financial publications (The Financial Express, The Economic Times, Global Services Magazine)
• Then a "Wine and Wisdom" event where Anurag and I spoke about offshoring with a group of Perot executives and another dozen or so journalists.
• In Hyderabad, three more interviews, with Business Line, The New India Express, and the Deccan Chronicle.

I was on cover of the Saturday Economic Times. The article was about Obama's offshoring comments in the town hall meeting and the quote from me were pretty minor. There was a huge picture of Obama on the front page, with a pull quote from me directly responding to him. Wish the book was already released here in India. You can't buy press like that.

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Interesting contrast with the US journalists I have been interacting with over the past few months. Not saying one is necessarily better than the other.

1. My experience is that most US journalists are focusing on the story of the day. They want provocative quotes and I have to push to get references to the book included in the writeups. Here, nearly all the dozen or journalists who interviewed me had spent time with the book. Many had read substantial portions. The focus was very much on the book -- why I wrote it, what was the target audience, engaging me on the key messages, etc.
2. I have the sense that the book will be huge here in India. Judging by the journalists, it seems to hit on a set of issues that are top of mind here. All wanted to stay in contact for future stories. They were happy to work with me and the PR firm on timing release to match the book launch (unfortunately, not for a couple more weeks here in India). Several forwarded requests from their editors about whether I could do guest, or regular columns in their publications. We're doing fairly well in the US, but this market feels ripe. We'll see.

All in all, a very productive few days on the book front. Several pieces coming out in the US next week as well. Look for something in Forbes.com, and a guest blog on Horses for Sources. Also have a piece accepted in Financial Executive Magazine that should be in the May edition.

Detroit News Op Ed: Work Visas Stop Offshoring of High-Skill Jobs

Published a commentary piece in the Detroit News this morning, which was written in response to a very misinformed piece by Froma Harrop that ran about two weeks ago.

Here is the original piece by Harrop: Don't Expedite Offshoring with More Work Visas

Here is my piece than ran today: Work Visas Stop Offshoring of High-Skill Jobs

My submission tackled Harrop more directly, but the editors took out the direct references.

This should lead to some amusing venting in the DetNews comments section. As of 9:30am this morning, only one not-to-bad comment. But globalization tends to bring out the crazies, often with elaborate policy proposals that ignore basic economics or incentives. Should be interesting.

Thoughts on PR process

Have been doing quite a bit of PR. Lou has been posting the various links, so I won't recount them all.

Funny how it works. The book focuses on the trend toward global sourcing of services from developing countries. Most references are to India, the Philippines, China, South Africa, etc. I think I mention Ireland once or twice in passing.

So, a couple weeks ago, Dell announces it is closing its manufacturing operation in Limerick Ireland (about 1800 positions). Service jobs (about 2600 positions) will stay. The Guardian Newspaper from London reaches out to me for a comment. Most people seem to be saying "it's the end of the world. Ireland is doomed!!!"

My view is that this is predictable and actually a sign of Ireland's strength. Low-skill assembly work is a commodity. If those jobs didn't go to Lodz Poland, they would go to Romania or China. Ireland offers nothing special for low/medium skill manufacturing work and it's fruitless to try to hold on to that work.

On the other hand, the fact that most services positions (product marketing, service, accounting, etc) are staying in Ireland says something positive about the business and regulatory environment the country has created. My view is the Ireland is still well positioned to outperform most others in the EU as a hub for within-EU services.

Turns out this was a really unique view. It led to 3-4 more newspaper articles, and about 6 radio interviews. Apparently I'm a star in Ireland now, with lots of book pre-orders. One mention of Ireland gets a couple hundred book orders.

Things also look promising in India. Several of our research partners have agreed to help promote the book and we seem to be getting traction ahead of the March launch.

In the meantime, I'm working the highways and byways of the US publishing industry and things are moving slowly. Turns out, it's pretty difficult to scare up book reviews. Lots of interviews where I am quoted on offshoring/outsourcing topics. But it's a struggle to get them to mention the book.

Ideas appreciated.