Now, a course on outsourcing: MIT shows the way]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 20:08:18 +0530
From: Suresh Ramasubramanian <suresh () hserus net>
Subject: [Fwd: [india-gii] Now, a course on outsourcing: MIT shows the way]
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [india-gii] Now, a course on outsourcing: MIT shows the way
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 09:03:16 -0500
From: Manjunath, Bharadwaj (Cognizant) <MBharadw () chn cognizant com>
To: India Gii <india-gii () cpsr org>

Now, a course on outsourcing: MIT shows the way
S Rajagopalan
Washington, March 2
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_596032,001300460000.htm
Outsourcing is here to stay. And the tacit acknowledgement comes from the 
redoubtable Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by starting a 
regular course on outsourcing at its famed Alfred P Sloan School of Management.
Whatever the current political rhetoric, the course that got under way last 
week is turning out to be hugely popular with business executives and 
management students. All 55 seats were picked up within 24 hours of the 
announcement and there is now a long waiting list.
It is the first course of its kind in the US, but more business schools are 
expected to follow suit soon enough. Students from Harvard, not wanting to 
be left out, have begun flocking to Sloan with requests to stand in the 
aisle and benefit from the guest lectures!
As on the jobs front, the curriculum on outsourcing is not without its 
Indian connection.

The course is the brainchild of two senior faculty members, one of whom is 
an Indian American. Dr Amar Gupta, a product of IIT Kanpur, has been on the 
MIT faculty for the last 25 years. "As managers, our MBAs will have to deal 
with outsourcing. But their own jobs could potentially be outsourced. So on 
several levels, students need to be able to think clearly and fully about 
this important issue," Gupta told the Hindustan Times from Cambridge, 
Massachusetts.

The course, he says, will make students aware of both the positive and 
negative aspects of outsourcing. "We know the pain that comes with lost 
jobs, but people don't necessarily appreciate some of the benefits we get 
every day because of outsourcing." He talks of lower consumer prices and 
higher dividends because of the corporate turnaround due to outsourcing.

While the average American may frown upon outsourcing, many of the MBAs who 
have signed up for the course look at it differently. They view it as a 
positive. The aim of the course, says Gupta, is to make students understand 
all aspects of outsourcing so that they will have all the requisite skills 
when they go into the market.

The course, designed by Gupta and former Sloan dean Lester Thurow, includes 
case discussions of different delivery models, value addition and impact of 
business and policy environments. Students will get an opportunity to hear 
and interact with top corporate leaders with first hand experience of 
outsourcing as also policy makers and labour leaders.

As Gupta puts it, students can acquire skills that could lead to "win-win 
solutions" for all instead of looking at the evolving global business 
environment as a "zero-sum game".


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