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We're living in a time when manufacturing and service jobs seem to be flowing out from industrialized countries like water. Is this just an inevitable effect of globalization? Or could there be something more at work here, something much closer to home?

What about the role of the distribution channel, questions Dr. Andrew Robert Thomas, of the University of Akron. Not as sexy as enormous, global pressures from emerging technologies and economies ... but perhaps more fundamental. By focusing in on the "core business," have Western firms ceded this all-important component of their own business model to others, to their own detriment?

Join Enterpriseleadership.org for a podcast with an expert who raises serious issues about the current conventional wisdom about outsourcing, and the future of global and domestic business.

Resources

The Outsourcing Compulsion - MIT Sloan Management Review

Center for Organizational Development, The Univ. of Akron

Bio

Andrew Robert Thomas is assistant professor of international business and director of the Center for Organizational Development at the University of Akron. A successful global entrepreneur, he has conducted business in more than 120 countries.

A New York Times best-selling author, his books include Global Manifest Destiny, Direct Marketing in Action, Growing Your Business in Emerging Markets, The Rise of Women Entrepreneurs, Aviation Insecurity, Air Rage, Defining the Really Great Boss, Change or Die, and Managing by Accountability. He regularly appears on CNBC, FOX NEWS, MSNBC and is quoted in major newspapers and magazines around the world. He can be reached at art@uakron.edu.

Production Credits

Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show Host
Kimberly Stone, Web Development Manager
Scott Ebner, Web Developer