I recently asked a manufacturing client what subject would most interest the industry. With very little hesitation, he said offshore outsourcing. Very few of us are not in some way affected by this. Too many business people have been led to believe this is an easy way to save a buck. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ill conceived strategies have destroyed some businesses, cost them more money than they could have imagined, and devasted supply chains by affecting more than just one business at a time.

I don't want to sound like I oppose a global economy, it has benefits. But crossing the ocean has more dangers than most people seem to be aware of. In response to this, I wrote an article for my client. Feel free to publish it yourself as it should help many of the small business owners on this forum.

There are plans for followup articles. Some discussion here could help a lot in drafting the future articles.

See the Offshore Outsourcing article at GoArticles:

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=103535

Thank you for the discussion I'm sure this will generate.

I think your article hit on a very important point, due diligence. Although, I don't believe outsourcing to be evil, I also do not think it is for everyone. Therefore exercising due diligence is an absolute must.

Let me know if you write any more articles on this topic.

The followup to the previous Offshore Outsourcing article has been published. This one looks at the issue from a completely different angle.

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=128884