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CHESTERFIELD, Mo.--Lou
With 2,500 employees, Insituform Technologies may not be the biggest company in America, but we clean water in 40 countries using dozens of currencies and 80 pieces of intellectual property. The demands on our information technology are intense. In addition to all the taxes and local regulations and currency fluctuations, we track equipment, materials, and labor from our 100 crews, measuring productivity and costs day-to-day around the world.
As demand for clean water grows throughout the globe, so has our business. Last year, the EPA reported 73,000 sewer leaks in the U.S. Lots more are not discovered or reported. The rest of the world is in even worse shape--which means our business is growing, as are the needs of our data management operations.
When we learned we needed a better system, our first choice was America. That didn't last long. We discovered that transferring our data operations to India would not just give us the same capability for less money, we would also upgrade our system's sophistication, reliability, redundancy, security, and scalability. So we replaced the nine employees in our Information Technology department with highly educated professionals a half a world away making $9 an hour.
It was not a popular choice, in or out of our company. From Dilbert to Dobbs, outsourcing is seen as proof positive that corporate greed is ruining the country, transforming America into a nation that does nothing but "
To us it is not about profits,
As I walked through our data center, I saw not only the future of America, but also our past. The people working for us were highly educated, highly motivated, and, for many, it was the best job any in their village ever had. They all have dreams of more responsibility, more skills, more money, and a fierce desire to do what it takes to get them.
The combination of work ethic and entrepreneurship struck me as what America must have been like 100 years ago. The world seemed open and bright and full of opportunities, for those with the attitude and wherewithal to get them. To take them.
This is the attitude that made America the most prosperous nation in the history of the world, the attitude Indians learned from us and embrace with enthusiasm, the attitude that now seems to frighten many in this country.
And it should. These folks are good--too good, if we listen to the pundits and academics. In a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine, a professor takes only a slightly dimmer view than Dobbs and Dilbert when she says we cannot compete with the world anymore, so our only choice is more tariffs, more controls, higher taxes, and presumably hope for the best as we wait for the end of what competitive excellence has brought us.
It is ironic that 25 years ago, the Indians put themselves on this course by discarding socialism, lowering taxes, and encouraging trade. They learned it from us, too. Now we must relearn it from them. And we have a lot to learn, considering that Republicans in Congress can barely get a majority of their own caucus to support free-trade agreements.
Not competing is not an option for our company--or for our country. In our case, we may be laying off nine employees, but we are hiring at least 30 more.
In India, we are not just transferring work, but finding new customers. We spent time talking to the water authorities there about cleaning up the holiest and dirtiest river in the world, the Ganges. And we held similar talks with customers and suppliers in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and other parts of Asia.
As these countries grow, so does their demand for goods and services that we in America can provide better than anyone in the world. But only if we are willing to recognize what our value is, and, above all, if we are willing to be fiercely competitive to provide them.
No one can make any guarantees to any American company, at home or abroad, other than this:
When President Kennedy met Prime Minister Nehru, he told him about the educational benefits the Peace Corps would have
Dilbert and Dobbs are right. We do have to do something: And that something is Get Better.
THOMAS ROONEY is president
