Outsource

Some people have asked me for an insight on business trends in Singapore and I tell them that industry buzz word of our times is: outsourcing.

Singapore being a small nation with limited human and natural resources rely very much on trade with the world. For one, most of our daily goods like food, we have to import from other countries. Having a relatively small population, we have difficulties sustaining labour intensive industries like low level manufacturing and are more poised towards service oriented industries and being a high-technology hub in recent times. However this means we require a highly skilled labour force and with our limited talent pool, we hire foreign talents. With the competitive environment, most of the industries here concentrate on their core businesses and outsource other works like Information Technology (IT) to contractors. This is considered an efficient process as it relieves the company of the burden of having to keep tabs on matters that can be handled by the experts.

Yet the word 'outsourcing' has permeated into Singaporeans' lives in more aspects than one. Our nation's rapid rising living costs requires both parents to be working in order to support the family. This means lesser time and lesser energy to deal with daily household chores, resulting in some families outsourcing these chores to maids. Fewer families indulge in home-cooked food when eat-outs and catering services are so convenient. House cleaning can be outsourced to cleaning companies and even looking after the kids can be outsourced to childcare centres!

Last night I was watching a local documentary "What women really want" hosted by Diana Ser. The episode featured a female executive in her 30s who claimed that her busy work schedule does not enable her to meet much potential mates. In the end, she outsourced finding love to dating agencies. With the advance of technology and the push for efficiency, who knows what next we will outsource?