Outsourcing is an established fact of business life.  Manufacturing left the building decades ago being outsourced to foreign shores in search of cheap labor.  More recently the service sector has experienced similar erosion with call centers connecting us seamlessly to voices in far corners of the world. 

Most of us have experienced the joys of tech support from someone whose native language is not English.  It only amplifies the failure to communicate we’re already experiencing with an uncooperative computer screen — adding insult to injury.  So much for customer satisfaction.

While companies may be willing to forego some customer satisfaction in the name of cost savings, I wonder how many are willing to outsource their competitive edge?

In manufacturing it has often been said that innovation comes from doing.  If someone else is doing the work you fail to benefit from the innovation of practical experience — from the intellectual property that gets developed.

A recent article in the New York Law Journal explores the legal lining of the outsourcing decision.  It’s but one example how business and law are inextricably intertwined and how more legal literacy can help your business keep its competitive edge.

For more information about how to use the law for competitive business advantage see The Business Guide to Legal Literacy: What Every Manager Should Know About the Law.

The 15-week Enron trial is finally coming to a close.  The defense is scheduled to make its impassioned closing argument to the jury today.  The key theme will no doubt be that things were going along just fine at Enron until some crazy media report blew the lid off and caused a run on the bank.  Such characterization, of course, begs the question: bles the lid of what?  A well run company?  Or a tangled web of conflicting self-interest, self-deception and fraud?

Who knew what?  And who was supposed to know?

We all know that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but what about ignorance of business practices that could violate the law?  Whose responsibility is it to put two and two together?  Or is that just more creative accounting?

Judge Sim Lake has already said that he will instruct the jury that deliberate ignorance or willful blindness of fraud is no defense.  His admonition sends a stern warning to businesses everywhere: what you don’t know really can hurt you, particularly if you’re supposed to know.

In today’s increasingly hostile legal environment a working knowledge of the legal issues affecting your business is not a luxury.  It’s a necessity.  Legal literacy has therefore become a requirement that goes hand-in-hand with leadership responsibility.

To help you develop and maintain more legal literacy in your organization see The Business Guide to Legal Literacy: What Every Manager Should Know About the Law.