I flew out to Pakistan in 2001 on a holiday, and then ended up hiring a programmer from there. Turned out to be a right royal mess. The quality of work was poor

I flew out to Pakistan in 2001 on a holiday, and then ended up hiring a programmer from there. Turned out to be a right royal mess. The quality of work was poor, and his work ethic wasnt great either. I ended up delivering a software project to a client, that wasnt really worth what i charged them. I regret that i charged them what i did, but only later found out how poor it was under the hood, and had to pay out of my own pocket to get many of the bugs fixed. THAT was a nasty experience. Recently, i decided to try it again, as i've been in need of assistance, and hired an indian firm to do some jQuery work for me. The work was literally 60 to 90mins of work, and required no more than 5mins of explanation, but in the end they had 3 skype meetings with me, and spent a week designing something that i hadnt asked for, and then wanted to charge the full time. Again a bad experience. BUT, then, i spoke to a contact here in London, who has spent much time out in India working with ex-Microsoft and IBM employees, and he has learned the culture and how to manage them. I gave him the work and he got his team over in India to do it in about 90mins. So i'm now using him as my middle man who takes the time to understand my requirements and then translates in whatever way required to his team abroad. Its costing me slightly more as an hourly rate, but with the time and headache saved, the net cost is actually much much less. Overall great experience. Point being. Its not about the geography, or where you outsource to, not even so much who you outsource to. its HOW you manage.