Finding the funny in outsourcing

By John | Saturday, February 16, 2008 | No Comments

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Last weekend, The Los Angeles Times did a profile on Sandeep Sood in “Finding the funny in outsourcing.” Sood is a Berkeley-based entrepreneur who runs a consulting company – managing U.S. clients who need software and workers in India who write the code. Sood is also the creator of the online comic strip “Doubtsourcing“:

“Set mostly in an office in India, “Doubtsourcing” aims to be to the outsourcing world what “Dilbert” has been to the U.S. cubicle set. Making fun of Indian workaholism in one cartoon, a job candidate receives an offer after boasting that he hasn’t “seen the sun for 7.5 months.” In another, a U.S. manager criticizes the India team for being slow and uncreative. An Indian worker says the U.S. firm has changed its business model three times in three months, from online dating to insurance to pornography. “You just need to deal with ambiguity better,” the U.S. manager says… By the way, “Doubtsourcing” is outsourced. Sood writes the dialogue and a friend in China illustrates it. Sood started posting the cartoon strip late last year and now has 30,000 subscribers, one-fourth in India…In December, “Doubtsourcing” was acquired for an undisclosed amount by Fuse+Media Interactive, a company based in India and owned by venture firm Velocity Interactive Group, which is based in Palo Alto. Velocity partner Keyur Patel says he plans to turn “Doubtsourcing” and another creative project Sood worked on with friends called Badmash into animated TV shows, as well as shorts aimed for mobile phones.”

Obviously, outsourcing, especially in Silicon Valley, can be a touchy subject. I’ve had the experience and great fortune of working with some great Indian developers and engineering managers based out of Noida, India. Having looked through a few of the comics – I can totally relate! By the way, Thomas Friedman’s best selling book, The World is Flat, highlights the global nature of business and the “flattening” of the competitive landscape in the world, and discussing outsourcing to a degree.

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