How Will Globalization Affect Coaching?

Wikipedia defines globalization as: "a complex series of economic, social, technological, cultural and political changes seen as increasing interdependence, integration and interaction between people and companies in disparate locations."

The primary objective of CEOs is to maximize profits to their shareholders, and as a consequence, CEOs are always looking to rein in labor costs and the escalating cost of benefits such as healthcare. CEO's are interested in finding productive labor wherever it might be as shown by their significant investments in countries like India, China and the Philippines.

Outsourcing is one facet of globalization. Outsourcing is fueled not only by the drive to increase profits, but it is also fueled by the consumer-driven passion for affordable prices. Destination countries benefit by developing a globalized economy based on highly sought-after skills and delivering services using the internet.

The inaugural webcast has a scenario of coaching being outsourced to India. It does appear that white collar skilled labor is being outsourced right now. A stunning example is the outsourcing of lawyers. Most lawyers thought this would never happen because laws vary considerably by locale so law was thought to be a local profession and immune to globalization. That is not the case:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/10/AR2008051002355.html

When Aashish Sharma graduated from law school two years ago, his father had visions of seeing him argue in an Indian court and eventually become an honorable judge.

Instead, Sharma, 25, now sits all day in front of a computer in a plush, air-conditioned suburban office doing litigation research and drafting legal contracts for U.S. companies and law firms. He is part of a booming new outsourcing industry in India that employs thousands of English-speaking lawyers such as him to do legal work at a small fraction of the cost of hiring American lawyers.

...

"Ninety percent of a lawyer's work is legal research and drafting, and all this can now be offshored to India," said Russell Smith, who worked in a Manhattan law firm called SmithDehn before moving to India to set up an outsourcing company in 2006. "A large portion of our fees in the U.S. is because of office rent. It is often a big decision to hire one attorney in the U.S. In India, we can hire 10 at a time and train them all at once."

This example has shown that globalization can affect white-collar professions, previously thought immune to foreign competition, in the same way that the manufacturing jobs have been affected for years.

The inaugural webcast uses a scenario planning exercise to explore how globalization could affect coaching. This is clearly an issue that should be front and center in the minds of most coaches.