Offshore outsourcing is the future, says Sears' Lacy

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 1/14/2004 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK — The trend toward offshore outsourcing by U.S. retailers is in its very beginning stages, and, with a little help from technology, offers the potential for huge cost savings, said Sears Chairman and CEO Alan Lacy at the National Retail Federation conference today.

"We are still in the early days of this thing, at the cusp of acceleration," he said.

Lacy said that it was common sense to assume that other countries have the same percentage of intelligent and driven people as the United States, thus making countries with significantly larger populations attractive places to outsource business. So, "If technology can reduce location as a barrier to outsourcing, then we're just beginning to see the potential," said Lacy.

"We see a huge incentive to shift commodity jobs offshore," he added.