Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a current management fad wherein a corporation assesses all the activities it performs, be it directly or indirectly related to its value offering by placing a monetary value to it and determine from it whether or not, the cost of the activity commensurate with the value that activity adds to the overall offering and from which a decision could be made on whether or not to have a third party perform the said activity at a cost commensurate to the value that activity portends to add. The trend in the corporate world right now is to outsource the expensive administrative work that doesn’t add much value to the offering as well as some of the low value – adding manufacturing work to low cost third party contractors. That is in the corporate world. However, I noticed lately that outsourcing doesn’t only happen in the corporate world. Modern life as we call it is actually an “outsourced” life. We practically outsourced all the menial activities, both important and unimportant ones to a third party and for what? So we could gain the valuable free time for other more important activities. Or was it? We hire maids to relieve us of the household chores. Nothing really wrong about it though except that we tend to get lazy and become dependent on them. We dine outside regularly because we would like to avoid cooking our food and worry about washing the dishes afterwards. Dining out has become an intricate part of our daily living to the extent that we celebrate every event both major and minor ones in our lives inside a restaurant. What happen to a good, cozy, homemade meal with a few friends and family? We hire wet nurses to take care of our young ones so we wouldn’t be burden with raising our kids. Wasn’t it the burden, part and parcel of raising our young ones? Wasn’t it, a “process” to gain intimacy and closeness with our young ones? Wasn’t it our chance to mold our young ones into the person we wanted them to be? We hire tutors to oversee our children’s homework. What about values and wisdom? Could a tutor inculcate that into our children? Homework is not just simply answering assignments but also a chance for us to teach them something outside of their formal education. It is also an opportunity for us to instill discipline and inspire them to better themselves through constant learning. We buy toys and computer games for our kids and let them play about it and amuse themselves with it. We did this to the extent that we pamper them in order to buy their cooperation and good behavior. What happen to playing with them and enjoy each other’s company? What happen to discipline? And while we’re at it, what about values and principles? Are we going to let game makers and TV producers shape them for our kids? We buy gifts for our love ones only on anniversaries and birthdays. What about the rest of the day in a year? Do we conveniently substitute that kiss and hug for gifts on occasions? So many things in our lives that we outsourced that very few were left for us to enjoy. And what we do with all the free time we get from outsourcing our lives? We work in order to earn the money to pay for the services being outsourced to the third party. Isn’t life ironic?