If China's cheap labour is its biggest weakness

In marketing parlance, when we have to attack the market leader, we need to find the weakness in the strength of the leader.

Today China is threatening the entire world's production capacity with its cheap labour. It is so competitive to produce auto parts in China that even in India we have started talking about level playing field. Our association bodies like ACMA are giving presentations to the finance minister to not reduce import duties any more.

China's biggest strength is its cheap labour. But there is an inherent weakness in that. If China's entire workforce is working cheaply that means the knowledge growth is not happening. Or if it is happening it is not percolating down to the level of huge workforce. That will leave a large chunk of their population doing manual jobs and their future earning potential is limited to that only.

Alvin Tofler, the famous futurologist predicted 3 waves viz. agriculture, industry and knowledge. We first started with muscle power, then we graduated to money power and now is the era of knowledge power. This is how the power has shifted over the years.
What is happening in Singur is the perfect example of this. Singur land was snatched from farmers for the industrialization. Very soon we will be seeing industrial land being snatched by the knowledge workers i.e. IT-companies. If you go to Bangalore, the manufacturing plants in the city are not earning enough. They could earn much more if they sell out their place to IT-companies.

Power is shifting.

So, Indian BPO workers get ready for the jolt. If you are simply working as a language speaker, you may be in for a shock when the computers become smart enough to answer the queries.

Add knowledge in your skill set, so that you are always in demand.