The Opinion section of the WSJ today has a piece on outsourcing (”_The Art of Outsourcing_”:1) contributed by C.K. Prahalad who is a professor of corporate strategy at the Ross School of Business. Mr. Prahalad’s article gives a short history of outsourcing, the trends behind today’s knowledge work outsourcing, how the US and US companies can benefit from outsourcing and how the western world’s aging population will lead to local worker shortages.

The last paragraph summaries Mr. Prahalad’s views:

bq.. The current outsourcing phenomenon is the start of a new pattern of innovation in the way we manage. The ability to fragment complex management processes and reintegrate them into the whole is a new capability. It allows us, in the short term, to take advantage of the talent outside the U.S. In the longer term, it allows us to cope creatively with the emerging labor shortage caused by an aging population in developed markets. The time to learn to manage with a global system of knowledge, products, services and component vendors is now. We should celebrate the process that imports competitiveness and creates new jobs. Fear is for losers — and for Lou Dobbs.

p. Good reading for those following outsourcing.

[1(WSJ The Art of Outsourcing)]http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111818929927353590,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

Anyone interesting in China, trade and/or globalization should buy a copy of today’s WSJ, and read the article entitled “_Min’s Return: A Migrant Worker Sees Rural Home In a New Light_”:1. This story is one in a series of articles that follows Lu Qinjmin, known as Min to her friends, who is typical of the millions of migrant workers in China today. China’s 114 million migrant workers form the largest group of people transitioning from rural to urban living in history.

These two paragraphs summarize the huge changes that are occurring in China’s culture:

bq.. Homecomings may be happy, but they also highlight the rapid changes in Chinese society that can lead to clashes and discord. In the countryside, a family eats and farms together and sleeps in one big bed. Older people, especially men, traditionally make decisions. The eldest children discipline younger ones, and younger ones obey. Guests visit unannounced and stay for days, easily absorbed into communal routines. There are no secrets in village life, and interactions between any two villagers are predetermined according to the kinship ties between them.

In cities, this way of life is already dead. In the countryside, migration is putting an end to it. Young people return home with modern ideas and money — and secrets from a city life their parents don’t understand. They have lived among strangers, competed for jobs and promotions, and dated whom they pleased. The village can’t easily take them back.

p. This series of articles contains lots of other insights into Chinese culture and the changes going on within their society — as well as illustrating the dramatic improvements in the living standards of millions Chinese thanks to globalization.

[1(WSJ article on Mins return)]http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111818776639053518,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Even though “podcasting”:1 isn’t mainstream yet, it’s about to get a big boost towards mainstream thanks to Apple. During Steve Job’s keynote at Apple’s WWDC conference, Mr. Jobs announced that Apple will soon be supporting podcasting natively within its iTunes client. Since Apple controls over 80% of the downloaded music market (legal market, that is), this is going to bring podcasting to a large number of people. Hats off to them for recognizing and supporting this trend (you know, instead of suing somebody for using the word “pod”).

Oh, of course Apple is really going to make it easy to find and download podcasts — something that isn’t exactly obvious right now. Currently you first need to find a podcast that you want to download. Then you need to download it. Then if you like it, you have subscribe to it. And in order to subscribe to a podcast, you have to find and download a podcasting client.

All of this hassle is going away in a future version of iTunes. iTunes will allow you to find, sample, subscribe and manage all of your podcasts. That’s pretty cool.

Hey, but don’t take my word for it. Check out Mr. Jobs’ demonstration which was part of his keynote “here”:2. The keynote is worth watching for the news about Apple’s switch to Intel, widget demo and some other interesting stuff — and the fact that Apple *blows* everyone out of the water in marketing. That is, the keynote is slick, slick, slick.

[2(Steve Jobs keynote at Apples WWDC conference)]http://stream.apple.akadns.net/

[1(Wikipedia on podcasting)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting