You get what you pay for.

My wife has worked for a big evil oil company for over a decade. I won't mention the name for fear of reprisal ( hint, they're dutch). In 2004 they got caught lying about their reserves. And are still paying the price for it.

Estimating reserves is mostly science, partly voodoo and it's fairly easy to get wrong. As such, it's easy to understand how they saw a 20% overestimation as a little white lie. This case however was systemic and shareholders and media alike punished the company for it. Ever since, they have been trying to gain share value through efficiencies. Outsourcing has been one of those attempts to become more efficient.

Recently a department my wife used to work for was shipped off to South Africa. All her friends there have been scrambling to find new positions in the company or have left for what closely mown greener pastures remain in late 2009. Some have found temporary work training their replacements.

Today Yahoo published an article claiming that a carrier pigeon is faster than the internet in South Africa. Which leads me to wonder how well this outsourcing idea is going to work. "Let me just email you this spreadsheet, document, etc. sir and your problem will be solved in no time." That's an easy promise to break when data transfer rates are such easy targets of hilarious, but poignant pranks. Obviously 'mission-critical' isn't going to be a key part of their service offering.

Regardless, we live in an age of fast answers, instantaneous solutions and it appears the South African infrastructure isn't actually set up to compete in that age. If companies keep moving customer service departments there it should eventually support the required infrastructure. But it snowballs from there and costs can only climb. Eventually it'll be cheaper to exploit another area and it'll be time to move shop again.

I believe in local economies. I like the idea of taxes going to local governments to support local infrastructure and profits going into the local economy. Of course I also believe in integrity. I can't help but wonder if some of this current, ongoing problem and many subsequent future problems could have been prevented in the first place by not lying about reserves.

Transparency is here, whether a corporation likes it or not. Advertising and marketing will not cover up lies in this day and age. Which means that being competitive relies at least in part on being honest.