Tech CEOs defend offshore outsourcing

ORLANDO, FLA. -- Make no mistake about it, offshore outsourcing has a bad rap. No one likes the idea of exporting jobs to another country. But, then again, the U.S. government is not doing nearly enough to foster, attract, or retain top IT talent, according to Intel CEO Craig Barrett  and HP chief Carly Fiorina.

Both Barrett and Fiorina defended the practice of offshore outsourcing and said the U.S. government needs to ratchet up efforts to make the country more competitive against other nations, speaking separately here at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo conference. 

The reasons are simple: The opportunities for new business and IT talent are growing faster in other regions than they are in America.

Hewlett-Packard, for instance, currently gets 62 percent  of its revenue from outside the United States, Fiorina said.

"It is a huge advantage for us to be able to tap into markets and talent around the world," she explained.

Intel also is increasingly pursuing overseas opportunities, since much of its business comes from outside the United States, Barrett said, although he did not state the exact percentage of Intel revenue that comes from other nations.

Barrett explained that not only is Intel's customer base migrating overseas, but the U.S. government's attitude toward attracting and retaining talent leaves a lot to be desired. Just one suggestion he offered is that a work visa accompany computer science-related college diplomas, so that more IT talent will have incentive to stay in this country.

"The [low] number of IT graduates in the U.S. is an alarming trend," Barrett said.

Fiorina agreed, and took the idea one step further by saying that the number of people -- and the caliber of those people -- in China and India that graduate with degrees in IT are astounding.

"We have to tap into that," she said.

Both CEOs, however, also said that the United States needs to invest in education and training to upgrade the skill sets of American workers.

Barrett said that the problem should be addressed where it starts: grades K-12.

"The K-12 system does a good job of weeding out anyone with an interest in math or science. They create ambitions to become lawyers, doctors or consultants," Barrett said. "We spend more money than any other country on technology, but we get bottom-of-the-barrel results."

In a presentation delivered here at the conference, Gartner analysts French Caldwell and Dan Miklovic wrote that the "U.S. domination of the IT era has ended … and the prosperity enjoyed by developed nations is cascading down to developing nations, at least those that embrace the information age."

The analysts also wrote that India has successfully leveraged IT and, in order to better compete with India, China has increased development by investing in high-tech centers in Shanghai that line up against India's in Bangalore. Both countries are locating IT education centers near their high-tech areas.

"We should be investing in competitiveness, not protectionism," Fiorina said. "There is never any future in sticking our head in the sand and pretending the competition that exists is not there."