• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind

2

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

3

Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem

1

The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind

2

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

3

Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem

Insourcing — The new trend?

By
Stanley Bing
Stanley Bing
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Stanley Bing
Stanley Bing
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 3, 2007, 11:02 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.


mpj040100200001.jpg

Friday is a day for happy stories and this one is happier than most. FORTUNE today reports on an Indian company that has opened a call center in Reno.

“The phenomenon has a name: ‘insourcing,’ the term experts are starting to use when foreign multinationals open offices on U.S. soil and hire Americans, at a higher price, to do the very jobs they once lured overseas,” writes reporter Jia Lynn Yang. “In this case the center in Reno is targeted toward companies willing to pay a premium – its workers there cost up to 40 percent more than their counterparts in India – to give their U.S. customers a more culturally fluent, less frustrating 1-800 experience.”

Now, this is a side of globalization that I think most of us who live in the United States can appreciate. It reverses a trend that made many of us nervous, the feeling that jobs are simply slipping away from us, and with them, some of our national identity. It’s weird enough for a guy in Atlanta to call the corner business and get instead a centralized rabbit warren in Omaha. But a phone call to your corner bank that ends up eighteen time zones away? Not exactly warm and fuzzy. 

Still, whenever I call Citibank (C), for instance, I always like to establish a personal connection right away. “Where are you, by the way?” I will ask the clipped, precise English person on the other end of the phone.

“Mumbai,” they will say.

“What’s the weather like there?” I will ask. This elicits one of two replies. The first is, “Hot.” The other is, “I don’t know, I haven’t been outside in quite some time.” I know how they feel. One day last week I got to the office at 6:00 AM for an earnings call and left at 8:30 PM after all the exploded fat has been cleaned up from the kitchen. Outside that day, it had been 90-degrees and soggy humid in Manhattan. For me, it had been 72 and dry the whole day long.

What’s most interesting is that Asian companies are doing this to improve customer service for Americans who want to hear a friendly voice. They are, in a sense, defying the economics, and going for good business practice. What a concept!

This turn-about could extend to other portions of our business civilization, as corporations think about the comfort and well-being of their employees and customers over strict adherence to the short-term bottom line. We could see:

  • Senior management firing all management consultants and using the money to hire internal people and fund pension plans;
  • The “insourcing” of jobs that used to go to out-of-house law firms, advertising and public relations agencies, print departments, cleaning crews, etc.
  • The implementation of the four-day work week;
  • Business-class seating throughout the entire airplane;
  • Free snacks for any customer forced to wait more than 10 minutes online;
  • No commercials in movie theaters that charge more than $7.00 for a ticket;
  • Nobody permitted to make more than $500,000,000 in one year;
  • All instruction manuals to be written in original, comprehensible English, not in pidgin nonsense translated from Urdu;
  • The reinstatement of thousands of real, live human beings where there are now audiotapes instructing you to press numbers in order to be put on hold.

This last is most important. I believe we may date the decline of our society from the moment some genius got the great idea to put computers and digitized voices behind 411 information. These Asian businesses have already taken a great step by recognizing the American consumers might like to speak with voice that is recognizable to them. Somebody smart can take the next step, I think, and realize that most of the time, when  human being has a problem or a question, they might not want to talk with a machine.

About the Author
By Stanley Bing
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in blogging

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Most Popular

The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
Real Estate
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
10 hours ago
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
Success
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 20, 2026
2 days ago
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
AI
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
By Eva RoytburgJuly 21, 2026
1 day ago
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
Cybersecurity
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
By Jeremy Kahn and Emily ForliniJuly 21, 2026
1 day ago
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
Success
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
By Emma BurleighJuly 21, 2026
1 day ago
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
Success
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
By Sydney LakeJuly 20, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.