Welcome to the Services Shift Blog

Welcome to the Services-Shift blog. I started this initiative in January 2009 as a forum to discuss business, strategy, and economic issues surrounding the topic of offshoring (sometimes referred to as “offshore outsourcing,” the “globalization of services” etc.).

I will use this first posting to introduce myself. The next few postings will focus on the book I have been working on for the past year – The Services Shift: Seizing the Ultimate Offshore Opportunity

NOW AVAILABLE: The Services Shift: Seizing the Ultimate Offshore Opportunity

I am a Professor of Business Administration at Michigan’s Ross School of Business (www.bus.umich.edu). I teach in the MBA, Executive MBA programs and serve as Director of the School’s Global Initiative—meaning lots of international things land on my desk. The majority of my time is absorbed with running the William Davidson Institute (generally referred to as “WDI,” http://www.wdi.umich.edu/), where I am Executive Director. WDI focuses on business and policy issues in developing countries and is an amazing place. Bill Davidson has been quite generous and encourages us to think big. We have substantial initiatives in five areas:

1. Research, where we act as a bridge between pure academics doing theory and empirical work, and leading edge organizations operating in the field. Our research initiatives focus on:

• Base of the Pyramid - operating at the base of the economic pyramid;
• Globalization - the globalization of services, the initiative that has led to the publication of this book;
• Green Leap- Leap Frog Technologies for sustainable development;
• Business Health Care- the business of health care;

2. Executive Education– the Institute runs about 40 programs each year in around 20 countries. Most programs involve sending faculty from Michigan and other leading business schools to deliver programs in developing countries;

3. Development and Consulting Services – the Institute delivers capacity building programs in developing countries. Core competencies include: higher education development (particularly business schools), monitoring and evaluation, policy, and private sector development;

4. Educators Outreach and Faculty Research – the Institute has established a case writing operation. We have developed about 90 cases distributed on two sites. We have a staff of six, with four full time case writers, an operations person, and a director. Cases developed with faculty are available from the Ross School.

GlobaLens - All international cases (from Ross and other sources) are available on GlobaLens, a site that focuses on “Cases, Courses, and Community” for International Business Educators.

5. Supporting International Activities at the University of Michigan – this is a catch all category for generalized support. WDI supports research, travel study courses for MBAs, summer internships, international research at Michigan’s Schools of Medicine and Public Health, a speakers’ series, and many other events.

I have been studying this offshoring phenomenon for about 10 years. More on that in my next post.