Outsourcing, “The 4-Hour Workweek,” and the Future of Work

Have you read or heard of “The 4-Hour Workweek?” This popular book by  Timothy Ferriss addresses the concept of “outsourcing your life” by hiring others to do literally everything you don’t want to do or realistically shouldn’t bother doing yourself. Ferris encourages people trade in the weekly 40-hour grind for short, focused bursts of genuine productivity. By handing off any tasks that can be done more cost-effectively by outside providers or suppliers, you can focus your own valuable time on getting the big things done — and get them done in a tiny fraction of the time most people do. If someone in the world does it, chances are that you can outsource it.

We talk a lot about executive outsourcing, and Dell and other companies have gotten on board with that concept, but “The 4-Hour Workweek” illustrates the sheer range of outsourcing’s possibilities once a little creativity is applied. Rackspace is a great example of innovative thinking (and doing). The company’s startup funding efforts are not only helping to support general entrepreneurialism, but they are also serving the community by boosting economic development on the historically-underprivileged East Side of San Antonio. Rackspace’s ingenuity extends to its business model, which revolves around firms outsourcing compute power and storage — just as we outsource executive functions.

This is the future of work, as far as we’re concerned. Rackspace has built its success by outsourcing yet another task that people didn’t think could be outsourced. This evolution is bound to continue as outsourcing boosts efficiency and productivity for industry after industry. Who knows — someday you may be enjoying a four-hour workweek yourself, as long as you have the right resources in tow.

Could executive functions prove to be one of those resources?

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About John Doyle

John Doyle is the Managing Partner of LGE Execs in Austin, with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of Marketing, including product and market strategy, go-to-market planning and execution, branding, product marketing, channel marketing, portfolio management, social media, SEM/SEO, managed services, product launch, analyst, press and investor relations, industry marketing, digital media and market development. He can be reached at jdoyle@lgeexecs.com