Guy Kirkwood

France

outsourcing recruiter and BPO advisor

Dawn makes a good point. When you consider that India has one million unemployed graduates (yes, that is correct, *one million*), is it any wonder that US and western European companies continue to tap into this resource. I believe that China will take over but it will probably not be for at least five years.

One other industry has a history of extensive outsourcing and that's the pharmaceutical market. These firms have outsourced, research, clinical trials, sales and marketing in addition to the more usual IT, finance and HR.

I predict that the age of the virtual organisation is really now upon us - it has been talked about for decades, but I'm sure will see increasing numbers of real companies achieving this over the next five years. And of course, for the company itself, and its clients and customers, it really doesn't matter where the outsourced functions are being transacted.