1-98 (March 1998) Consulting by Achim H. Pollert

A Necessity Rather than a Trend

As he wrote in TC Forum 3-97, Ron Blicq has watched the number of technical communicators working as independent consultants increase remarkably over the past decade - and he wonders whether you may call this a trend.

To me the reason for this is obvious.

As far as I can see the world economy is going through a change in structure which makes "outsourcing" a necessity (I shall explain later why this is not quite the correct word).

When talking of new products, new services, new technologies today, you are talking of small and medium sized businesses. It started in the 1970s with the PC, and it's going on now with the internet, that a good part of total innovation has not come from the big shops. Very often fundamental innovation in our days stems from one individual entrepreneur.

In the small and medium sized company, however, the production of technical documentation and/or instructions is a one-time job. You merely have got one product which you have got to sell first to make some cash. So there is no way to employ a technical communicator - for the job cannot become full time employment. Therefore, at least in a starting phase, smaller businesses have to have their technical documentation produced by an independent consultant. This, by the way, is the reason why you cannot really call it "outsourcing," for it never has been in-house.

Some five people who work in a shop in Hazebrouck, France, and sell a highly specialized product on the world market, could not possibly hire a full time technical communicator. Similarly, they won't have either a marketing director or an accountant on the payroll.

Later this may change, of course. Once the business is large enough many of these duties may be looked after by in-house employees. (Mind you, because of high rent and overhead costs, even in large companies such as IBM it may still be more economical to bring in an external consultant to do their technical documentation.)

So the question whether there is going to be a growing market for freelance commucators really depends on what sort of companies will dominate industry in the future.

If the trend continues as at present, there is no doubt there will be business for many independant communicators. This will also apply to technical translators, CI consultants, marketing professionals, etc.

It certainly will not depend on manufacturers' receptiveness.  

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