Help yourself†

The recession spurs self-service

Economist, July 2, 2009 — AMERICANS worried that cheap labour in faraway countries threatens jobs at home should redirect their gaze to the mirror. Yes, companies are outsourcing jobs—to their customers. They are steering ever greater numbers to ATMs instead of tellers, websites instead of telephone hotlines and automated checkouts instead of manned registers. The recession is making them even keener.

Self-service is on the rise in industries from retailing and entertainment to travel and telecommunications.

Smart Balance Keeps Tight Focus on Creativity†

Heart-Healthy Food Developer Outsources Manufacturing, Distribution to Target In-House Strength on New Products

Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2009 — The product-development laboratory at Smart Balance Inc., a food marketer keen to grow through innovation, contains chemical analyzers, lab benches and refrigerated cases. But there are rarely people.

"We don't have legions of white coats," explains Robert S. Gluck, Smart Balance's chief operating officer. Six of its staffers are charged with developing products, but they often work in suppliers' facilities nowhere near its headquarters here.

Smart Balance helps people stay lean with "heart healthy" merchandise, including low-cholesterol spreads, peanut butter, popcorn, cooking oil and milk. The company itself is lean as well, with just 67 employees and scant fixed assets. Its "virtual" business model outsources almost everything else, including... continue reading