At a mind-expanding two day conference on innovation, I had a long and spirited conversation with Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, about how "outsourcing" is really the first wave of reconfiguring the organization to tap the potential of global talent. I've been noodling this in the past 24 hours, and it really casts a different light on many of the current outsourcing discussions in the media.

 Take for example this story on the IBM Research lab in Boblingen, Germany. The author wonders why this R&D lab of 1800 engineers and scientists hasn't been shut down and moved to India or China. Looking through the lens of wage arbitrage, he's seeing research talent as a commodity, and the German experience and point-of-view as non-value added. The IBM lab director's response sheds a little light on the subject, but doesn't get to the heart of the matter.

As blue chip companies in developed markets scramble to outsource high-cost jobs to low-cost countries, one of the world's biggest technology companies -- IBM Corp. -- seems content to keep more than 1,800 highly trained, well-paid IT engineers at its R&D (research and development) lab in Böblingen, Germany.

You wonder why. The German lab, IBM's first in Europe, was launched in 1957 by Thomas Watson, who believed the company had to develop and manufacturer products in markets where it had large customers bases. In recent years, however, IBM has either shut down or sold many of its computer manufacturing operations around the world, Germany notwithstanding.

The reason why? IBM gets that globalization is a talent management game. Their R&D strategy matches the best work with the best brains, regardless of where they are in the world (as long as there is an IBM R&D office there - these guys aren't the leaders in the Open Innovation space). So if the German engineers are the best and brightest at RFID, ERP, and data visualization, then they stay in Germany, without disrupting the complex web of local university and research partnership relationships that they've developed over 50 years. 

Innovative ideas and knowledge, at the origin of understanding, are not a commodity. They are unique, fragile, and contextual. And they spring, as Johansson points out, from the collision of talented people, at the intersection across cultures and disciplines and areas of expertise. If IBM is smart, and I know they are, they are now focusing on starting as many of these cross-pollinating conversations across their R&D labs, from Boblingen to Bangalore.

The author does have one thing right - as technology knowledge, at Boblingen or anywhere else, matures, is documented and standardized, is deployed successfully with customers, it becomes more portable. And when its portable, its commoditizable. Thats a good thing too; it allows us to get enabling technologies around the globe more quickly and spark new waves of innovation in its application, but its not good for the highly paid german researcher who rides the technology all the way out to its commoditization.