Remember when off-shoring was the big thing in IT? Now global players are shooting their own feet, because talented and well-educated tekkies are running out in the countries big IT companies invested in. Now they go into the hinterlands to find cheaper workers than in the capitals. Good luck, folks! Even chinese hinterlands will be filled with workers who want real wages.
I don't know if the target countries in central and eastern Europe will profit from these developments in the long run. Companies that invest very fast will leave the scene when worker's earnings get too big for them. Then again it's rather hard for domestic companies to attract workers because most of them will follow the money (who wouldn't?) and most talent will be bound to the big players.
The whole madness is best expressed by a word of HP's Sasha Bezuhanova: "If you build your economic model only around low-cost labor, you have a three- or four-year window where you have an advantage." Companies of former times had several years to decades to develop themselves - how could an employee plan his life when everything changes every few years? How long will the boom in these countries last until the common chain reactions will make corporations move to the next country? (Source)
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On Chain Reactions
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