Outsourcing- the New Colonialism

Yesterday I went to see the movie "Outsourced" (See the official site) at the Gene Siskal Film Center in Chicago. If any of you reading this blog get a chance to go see it or see that it's playing in your area, GO. It is a funny, intelligent, well-thought out piece of filmmaking, an independent that looks and sounds like a mainstream romantic comedy with a liberal helping of a few college professors of economics thrown in.

The movie centers around Todd Hamilton, a thirtysomething working as a supervisor in the Wish Fulfillment (fancy term for order-taking) section for Western National Novelty Company, an Oriental Trading post type shindig that sells hokey kitsch (a word that makes an appearance in the film to much hilarity) to Americans across the country. Then Todd's told his job is being outsourced -- and that he has to go train the new call center people to get their MPI (minutes per incident, or amount of time taken talking to the customers) down to six minutes. It's a thankless job, one that involves getting to the small town where the call center is located, surviving some of the local cuisine, and trying to figure out the nuances of Indian culture. He makes friends, falls in love, and gradually learns to like India, a transformation that's shown rather brilliantly in the film by a baptism of sorts in a river and the ensuing changes in the way Todd dresses.

But what makes the film really resonate is the way Todd at the beginning of the movie has a hard time dealing with Indian culture. He wants his employees to sell their kitsch and move on. But there are cross cultural barriers that need to be fumbled over first, and Todd, at the beginning of the movie, doesn't understand that. He's another colonialist, part of the new colonialism -- the outsourcing movement. But the Indian people who are working with him understand that, and they tell him straight out that he needs to understand India if he wants to get this to work, a very post-colonial idea. One of the characters (the future love interest) stands in in a staff meeting after Todd has just told them they need to learn to speak English and tells him, flat out, "English is the first language of the government here in India. We got it from the British and so did you."

Todd does some other colonizing, too -- he sets up an incentive program to push the MPI down by using some of the products that the employees are selling, like a Packers cheesehead (which he has a hard time explaining the use of at a staff meeting) and a hot dog cooker. His boss calls him angrily after he's placed the order and asks him why he should ship these products half way around the world. Todd replies "Because I want to introduce them to a market of about a billion people." The boss then replies, cool as a cucumber, "I can have them there by Friday." Just like the British, Todd and Western National are conquering to open up new markets.

Bottom line, Outsourced was a great movie with a message for people who wanted to find it and a good story and some first-rate comedy for those who just want to sit and eat their popcorn. It's on my list of DVDs to purchase now.