low-cost contract research organizations in China, Russia, and elsewhere as a less costly way to conduct pre-clinical drug development research. The ultra-lean drug development strategy also has become attractive here because of the evaporation of San Diego-based venture capital firms and questions surrounding the validity of the VC business model for funding startups in general—and life sciences startups in particular.
“Globalization is a two-way street,” says Steve Kovsky, who is serving as executive director of the recently formed ICCG, which was launched in San Diego at a March 11 meeting. “On the one hand, it’s a cheap source of technical labor that undercuts the technical labor market here in San Diego. On the other hand, every single one of the companies here is relying on that [offshore] labor pool to remain competitive.”
Kovsky says the ICCG was formed to meet the challenges of competing against an educated workforce in China and India, and to address the recruiting needs for highly qualified information technology professionals in Southern California. “We don’t have the same ingredients that they have in Silicon Valley, or even in Seattle,” Kovsky says. “It’s a lot harder to get a new company or a new technology off the ground here.”
Like the two-way street of globalization, Kovsky says the trend toward foreign outsourcing is having sometimes-contradictory effects. For example, in San Diego County, where the unemployment rate hit 11 percent in January, Kovsky says it’s difficult to find and recruit IT workers with highly specific technical skills even though a lot of people are out of work.
“One of the initiatives we’re discussing is funding a study of the impact of global outsourcing on the local economy,” Kovsky says. “What kind of jobs are most likely to be affected? Can we identify degrees or skill sets that are sustainable and have more longevity? Can we influence students who are going into some of these IT fields to pursue fields that are more likely to have jobs?”
Kovsky says the discussion at the ICCG’s organizational meeting was driven largely by a local group of influential Chief Information Officers, including Drew Martin of Sony Electronics; Herman Nell of Petco; Steve Phillpott of Amylin Pharmaceuticals; and Ken Venner of Broadcom, the chipmaker based in Irvine, CA. At least 36 CIOs and IT executives attended, including P.K. Agarwal, chief technology officer for the state of California. Kovsky, a business development executive for San Diego custom software developer Cosmic Bridge, says the gathering was sponsored by Cosmic Bridge, Information Week magazine, and the Interop technology conference.
