Commodization: this term indicates that phenomenon through which the increasing availability or the reduced degree of differentiation of a certain kind of product (service or job) transforms it into undifferentiated goods (the so called commodity), easily available. When a product (or your job) becomes a commodity, its market value goes down and down, and it starts a furious struggle between competitors, and your margins decrease rapidly – or even your bank account.
Famous examples of commodities are nowadays services like voice transmission, or hardware components like RAM chipset, or call center services, and so on.
Marketing specialists and economists are managing this concepts looking for new commodities coming to the horizon, and looking for trends that could obscure in a bunch of months some old profitable business.
One of the worst, of course, is the commodization of your job. Some brand new Indian firms are made on purpose to substitute, at a lower cost, some of our activities. Not only call centers, were people are specialized to answer you directly in a language that’s not so far from yours, but even lot of “first level” jobs could be done abroad, i.e. all of the stuff related to tax calculations for companies or single citizens, all jobs that not involve decisions or high level capacities but could waste your time and money in doing these.
One of the best I found is the virtual supporter that could serve as a clever assistant in doing PowerPoint slides or statistics or calculations that, frankly speaking, could bore you and distract you from the true goal of your profession.
It works especially for US towards India, due to the jetlag, so you ask for something Monday afternoon and on Tuesday morning you receive it well cooked. Your Pen Pal Friend could help you more than you think, working hard and with competences when you sleep or watch TV with your family.
Thousands of young professionals are ready to manage for substitution, but their experience is growing and they’re ready to expand their influence and give their competences, not only for the “first level” jobs. Fast way for communicate and transfer information from different countries could easy improve the advent of a new class of managers that, without moving from their territory and changing their habits, could rule the world. Are you sure about the uniqueness of your job, could it be done by a clone in Bangalore?
Why do I blog this?
Something to think about for the coming weekend…
(some of the words or ideas written here are taken from “The World is Flat”, written by T.L. Friedman) (The picture above is from http://www.gapingvoid.com/) (Thank you both)