Question

Watch the film Outsourced (2006) and write a paper about the management challenges, successes, and failures presented in the movie. In this film, an American novelty products salesman (Josh Hamilton) heads to India to train his replacement after his entire department is outsourced. This movie demonstrates the challenges of an American manager in a foreign country. This highly entertaining movie can be found on YouTube, Netflix, and other streaming video platforms.

Answer 1

Solution –

Outsourced is a movie about Josh – a manager who has to train his Indian replacement Puro and the team. The business that runs in the background is selling products by acquiring orders on the telephone. Puro’s team is based out in India and it is basically a call – center. Now the story revolves around the managerial challenges that Josh faces and how he himself has to undergo certain attitudinal changes so as to be the leader of the team despite his reluctance to handle this team when he was asked by his boss Dave.

The early challenges that Josh faced are as below –

1. He was not in terms with the cultural dynamics of the team.
2. He was unable to make the team realize the American client expectations
3. He was chasing the Minutes – per – Incident (MPI) target of below six minutes which was a metrics of productivity which was proving stiff to achieve.
4. Logistics issues and business continuity issues during floods.
5. Realizing the employee expectations – motivations for the employees.

The successes –

1. Josh is able to realize the leadership qualities of Asha – a fellow employee.
2. Josh is able to motivate employees through a reward incentive scheme.
3. The MPI reaches six minutes
4. Employee motivation is such that even in adverse conditions of flood they manage to setup the business process.
5. Puro keeps his job even after outsourcing in the end.
6. Josh embraces the local culture to come to terms with the challenges that the employees face. This makes him adaptable to the situation at hand.

The failures –

1. Even after achieving the desired results the process activities are outsourced to China and Josh is unable to prevent them.
2. Strategic decisions can lead to a complete dismantling of the process.
3. The movie also highlights the failures that Josh has early on due to not realizing the cultural diversity like his early approach going haywire as he is unable to understand if his communication with the team is understood by the team. He also has to promote himself as a leader so that his team follows him. Gaining the team's trust early in the movie proved as a failure for Josh until he started to walk the talk.