Diatribes: An Americans Tale

By Anthony J. Lockwood

My friend’s misery is an American’s tale. He has a well-paying job with lots of responsibility at a large, successful company. He also owns half of a small, successful company. He’s a handsome man with a beautiful home and a more beautiful family. Moderate in all things, a pillar of the community. He is the embodiment of the Horatio Alger story. And he is miserable.

At his day job, my Pal slings E-CAD. He is considered the company’s go-to guy when problems arise.

The only problem is his new assignment: He’s training his replacement, a nice young woman in Bhopal.

He’s using all sorts of cool tools to do the training, which is fun. For example, he uses real-time and asynchronous collaboration tools to teach his replacement the company’s design philosophy and methodologies. He comes in and there’s a design plot from India waiting for him. The asynch file on the ‘Net is further annotated with questions and suggestions.

Because my Pal is the go-to guy, his boss told him that he’s got work at least through the end of the year. Many of his coworkers will get laid off soon, which they know. And my Pal gets to tell them when their time is up. Nice bonus for staying, eh?

At his small company he slings MCAD to design high-quality custom parts for niche markets. That company is located in another state about 1,500 miles away. The orders come from everywhere over the Web. He designs. They deliver.

Notice I did not say, “they machine.” He and his partner let their CAM cowboys go a few years back. The pay, the labor laws, and the environmental protection laws made it too expensive to continue machining, so they outsourced it to an Asian subcontractor. The labor is cheaper and the legalities are a nonissue. Saved a lot of dough.

Here’s how it works: My Pal buys high-quality metal from outfits in Ohio and West Virginia. He then ships the metal with his native MCAD file to Asia. The subcontractor makes the part and ships it back for testing and delivery.

My friend’s business employs four people—including the owners—down from 15 three years ago. Since most orders come in over the Web, they no longer need anyone on the phone to take orders. Billing, build orders, and order tracking are automatic. An Asian foundry just approached them with high-quality metals. They’re good and cheap. The subcontractor is adding testing and e-commerce facilities. Soon, my Pal can deliver parts directly from Asia, zeroing out the expense of shipping metal to Asia, his mailroom guy, and his testing lab contract.

“I don’t know what to do or think,” he said to me. “I’m about to be laid off.

I’m training my job replacement and a future competitor. I have to can people so that my business survives. I’ve exported all my jobs and know-how. What would you do?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. And I meant it.

Thanks, Pal,

Anthony Lockwood

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