Earlier this year, our sister e-newsletter O+F Weekly Update published a series of letters taking sides in the heated debate over whether overseas outsourcing was good or bad for the economy. Now the conservative British magazine The Economist has come out with a special series on outsourcing that definitively takes one side of that debate. According to author Ben Edwards, U.S. Business Editor of The Economist, “The global deployment of work has its critics, but it holds huge opportunities for rich and poor countries alike”.

If you need more evidence that service is important to your business, here it is: A recent survey conducted by the Washington

San Francisco-based multichannel marketer Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM), which mails several catalog brands including Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen, Hold Everything, West Elm, and Williams-Sonoma Home, continues to crank out solid financials.