supermechanical:

When we crystallize our manufacturing processes and ship them to the factory Over There, we lose the ability to improve them ourselves. This isn’t felt immediately, but outsourcing means you’re paying someone else to get better at it, and then they can use that expertise for their own benefit when new opportunities come along.

But you’ll just move on to the Next Big Thing, right? Unfortunately, you’re at a disadvantage there, because even new product categories are built on expertise in existing ones. Pisano and Shih offer the example of the rechargeable battery market, which is swelling to supply the most expensive component to tomorrow’s electric cars. U.S. companies can’t compete here because battery technology has grown by leaps and bounds in Asia, ever since we farmed it out along with the rest of our consumer electronics in previous decades.