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There is a lot of worry in the developer community about losing work to India and other areas with cheap foreign labor. As the owner of a development firm we have outsourced work to Asia and other places across the globe. We don’t just do it because of price. There are some very smart people globally and we don’t like limiting ourselves by the borders. In fact we are considering building several Asian teams. But at CogWise Software we don’t just hire foreign developers. We have developers all over the world and have a tendency to mix our teams. Our teams end up being very multi-cultural. Part of the reason is we get a more competitive price across to our clients by developing with teams in Asia and South/Central America. But by mixing cultures in our teams we get a varied perspective on the work we do.

As a side note, we have lost projects to foreign firms a few times because of cheaper rates. We generally check in on those projects we lose because they are not satisfied with what they get about 70% of the time. Just because someone is cheaper doesn’t mean they do the same quality of work we do. There is a lot of work that goes in to a software development project that usually isn’t known at the onset. A firm like CogWise (my firm) will fill in the blanks and help build a product that is magnitudes better than it’s original concept. I’m not saying that foreign firms don’t do this but there are far few I have ran across that offer that type of service.

There is a clear edge that Westernized developers have over their non-western counterparts but that edge is eroding slowly. The edge is cultural. Most of the demand is still from Western businesses which is very different from the Eastern cultures. A good book to understand the Indian cultural differences is "Speaking of India" by Craig Storti.

There is a rugged individualism and self-reliance that is very much a core part of Western culture (some countries more than others). Secondly, American culture and many other Western cultures are more forthright and direct in communication. Communication is more subtle in Indian culture and other Asian cultures. Lastly, some non-western cultures see it as offensive to do more than what is specified. In other words if you didn’t ask for it then it’s not assumed. There are many other differences but these are the core ones that cause problems.

I have a strong belief that the more the cultures mix in business and personal dealings the more you can expect these differences to go away. Global capitalism will always look for the cheapest labor and when the cost of living and quality of life rise in countries like India and China there will be other countries to continue the drive for cheap labor. The drive for cheaper labor, the highly educated technical labor pool outside of the United States and the cultural problems which are resolving over time will conclude in a lot of technical labor moving to cheaper markets over the next few years at a much higher pace each year. Further there are companies like my own that help bridge the gap between the cultures.

As I see it anyone who wants to continue a long career in a technical capacity cannot stay stagnant in the development of their skills. You must continue your dedication to learning. Any good programmer knows that you must continue to learn throughout your career to keep your abilities up and your options for employment current. The programmers who do not do this end up not staying programmers for very long ie… a CS Degree is not enough. Be globally competitive and stay on the cutting edge of technology.

The first thought for most people and the easy way out is to insist the government push companies to use native labor and not use foreign workers. The result is we get complacent developers who can’t compete in a world market which is not good for us. You can only keep your job as long as your company is competitive and makes a profit.

A lot of my personal and business decisions are based on a gut feeling and a watchful eye. A great programmer continues to build great things both for themselves and for whoever they work for. A great programmer also loves what he/she does. A great programmer will not be affected by the global dispersion of the profession. A lot of people don’t understand that programming is a creative profession. It’s not really like the exodus of industrial jobs. An afraid complacent programmer who does it for the cash will not survive very long in this market and should choose a different path. I made a personal decision to move toward the business side of things because I love the programming market but don’t always enjoy writing code any more. I guess I’m just bored with writing code. I also made a decision to work with foreigners in order to be able to have a diverse talent pool, become talented in bridging the cultural divide and offer my clients a more competitive price. There’s money in bridging the cultural divide right now and if you enjoy it then I would suggest you learn it.

Let’s review some of the current things going on in the world.

1. Banks dying off because of poor lending practices that are barely trackable. They have a hard time even knowing which assets are toxic!


2. Old companies such as the auto industry needing bailouts to survive.


3. TV content providers are struggling for eyeballs with new media and being over-protective of content.


4. Many customers want their media and TV content on demand and the old way of watching TV is expiring.


5. Music labels grasping at straws to protect from ‘illegal’ music sharing.


6. Writers struggling for the same eyeballs taken away by tv, internet and video games.


7. Internet and new media marketing starting to overtake where print advertising used to be.


8. Copyright laws of old becoming insufficient to deal with current media rights.


9. Industrial & manufacturing work is not really any longer a middle class job.


10. The rise and empowerment of the individual over the group.


11. Instant communication is the only respected kind of communication. Everyone is available and on the grid all the time.

All of these things lead me to believe the industrial age is not only ending but any industrial age mindset or sight way of thinking is proving to be poison. The type of thinking that says "Well we always did it this way so it should work." doesn’t actually seem to work any more and anyone who attempts such methods does so at their own peril many times. The audience and customer base changed a lot just within a decade. It seems only the companies that will cater to their customers or audience in new and interesting ways get to keep them and gain more.

Customers expect an expedient bi-directional conversation with companies now. There are review sites, text messages, blogs and twitter streams where people rapidly discuss a company and it’s products or services. This leads to instant feedback and a quick slap in the face to a business when they fail. If businesses aren’t participating in this conversation that is going on they are bound to fail or not reach full potential.

The information age has been very disruptive to the monolithic companies who are used to practicing business in the way they have for decades and have been slow to change. In a short 20 years this country and many parts of the world has went from a slow and industrial based society to an extremely fast paced society where speed and accuracy of data is king. Efficiency has become more relevant than ever and transparency the key to that efficiency. Light is being shed on companies and businesses that never had light shed on them before. All the dark and crawly things are coming to the surface which the slow and deep mask of the industrial age used to hide.

This has happened as any major shift in technology and the way of thinking has occured and will continue to happen. We can brace for change or move with the changing tide. Learn how to be part of the information stream and how to poise yourself and your business within that information stream. If you ride the waves properly you will succeed and if you ignore them you will get swept away or drown by them. Resistance is futile.

I wanted to write this article about something that recently inspired and amazed me a bit. I have a long time client, Brian Hanson, who has been a client of mine for about 10 years. About 2 months ago he approached me about his business as he noticed leads were drying up a bit and there were some serious problems with his business. I reviewed his traffic, sales, strategy and advised him accordingly. He not only followed my advice but exceeded it and has been very successful accordingly.

The Problem

Newspapers are falling apart in this country. My feeling on this is they haven’t adapted that well. They are monolithic relics of the industrial age that no longer know how to survive in the information age and most have not changed their thinking in order to adapt. Those who don’t adapt to changing circumstances become victims of it. Well, my client Brian sells classified advertising in newspapers and magazines all over the nation. You can go on his site NationWideClassifieds.com and pick a multitude of papers to run your ad in and within a few minutes you have an ad in the papers you selected. So, the paper business is falling and those wanting to place classifieds advertising is falling to.

My Advice

Basically I told him to ween himself off of this failing industry slowly and press his skills in to online marketing, which is a rapidly growing market. I told him we could rebuild his site to offer classical media advertising as well as new media marketing. We are still negotating about the revamp of his site. But in the meantime I made sure he was setup and understood Google Analytics, got him setup on twitter, made sure he was setup with a blog and showed him how to use these some of these social tools. I encouraged him on how to use twitter and blogging to promote himself and his services. He also learned on his own how to use Google Webmaster Tools to get some SEO worked in to his site.

Good Advice, But…

So, my advice is good but there are a couple problems with my advice. Brian is still selling a failing product. Classified advertising in old media is dying. Capturing a larger part of a failing market is still a faulty strategy for the long-term. I advised this as well. But Brian is a really good business man and not only followed my advice but exceeded it in a way I didn’t expect.

He was following a strategy I gave him for getting twitter followers and adapted some of his own methods on top of it. I can’t go in to detail because the strategy is a bit of a secret. So, every x amount of followers he would design a custom twitter background for his x’th number follower. I watched but thought this was strange and unexpected. His first few designs were not in my taste as a long time web developer and I said as much. But, he got much better with each free one he did. Finally he started getting requests for twitter backgrounds from paying customers who wanted better twitter background themes. Wow, he turned this damn thing in to a business.

The Lesson

Between @nationwideclass and @customtwit Brian has over 8000 followers. This is over a time span of roughly 8 weeks. He also has built customtwit.com to sell his backgrounds and is edging his way in to learning overall web design. His traffic and sales are up and his core business NationWideClassifieds is doing much better. He just landed a corporate contract to do 14 twitter backgrounds for a TV station. WTF? The lesson here? If you are clever, receptive to good advisors and are persistent you can build great things very quickly. There is no reason to sit around complaining about what’s not happening for you and/or how bad this recession is. Get up, get out and do something.

 

There is enough money in the world that if you find a niche and exploit it well you will do awesome in life and have more than enough to survive. Many people try to be Microsoft or Google, which is a great aspiration and I’ll admit to having those day dreams myself but it’s not practical. Only when you come from a strong and supportive point by exploiting a niche (something you are good at) will you likely find the energy to expand in way to reach your overall goal of ruling the world.

I believe it’s a matter of setting long term goals vs. short term goals. Any successful person usually has a task system of some sort, even if it’s just a paper list of tasks. That person usually has some short-term goals as well. Short-term goals are longer than tasks (things that take days instead of hours). Then lastly, long term goals (months, weeks, years). Without some target usually people do not get successful.

I was watching someone talk about success on twitter the other day and discussing how if you focus on success you become more successful. My response was along these lines:

"Success is like a small flame… can be difficult to start but once started if nurtured can become a bonfire with the same persistant will that it was started."

Okay, I spiced it up to get my point across. My response wasn’t as eloquent on twitter because I had less space to write. You must focus on small attainable goals to build a history of success and it’s much easier to target your focus on a niche market. Look for markets that aren’t saturated and can accept what you have to offer. There are a ton of niche communities in this country and in this world. You can be very successful just off of a couple thousand dedicated eyes and ears if you navigate properly.

Trying to accomplish too much and overextending is the death of most people and many businesses. You can’t be everything to everyone at all times.