I was in Copenhagen last year for the very enjoyable IMP conference co-organized by the Copenhagen Business School so the GN ReSound Company story touched a special chord. Copenhagen Business School has helped GN ReSound, maker of hearing aid devices, re-organize its global innovation and new product development activities. According to the story the production and development activities of GN ReSound are spread in seven locations in five different countries. The development activities are mostly in Copenhagen and in Xiamen, China. The company will actually increase its development engineers in Copenhagen from 147 to 230. GN ReSound is no. 3 in the global hearing aid market and I guess that this new approach should strengthen its position even further.
Connecticut Education Gears up for the Global Knowledge Economy
Flipping channels this Sunday morning I happened to switch on the CT-N channel that examines matters of interest and priority to the State and its residents. I noticed that I had bumped into a goldmine of panelists at the panel discussion (recorded on 9/27/05 at Central Connecticut State University) on “ What can Education do to improve the State’s Talent Pool- Knowledge Economy Symposium”. Organized by the Office for Workforce Competitiveness, Mary Ann Hanley set the stage and summarized the discussions. Dr. Lyle D. Wray, Executive Director of CRCOG did a wonderful job as moderator of the round table. The eminent panelists included Louise S Berry of the Connecticut Community Technical Colleges, Harry H. Penner Jr., Chairman Nascent Bio Science; Dr. Walter Harrison, President University of Hartford; Jeffery A. Klaus of Bank of America; Lawrence D. McHugh of the CT State University System; Christopher Dadley of St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center; Dr. John W. Rowe Chairman Aetna; Gualberto Ruano of Genomas; Bart Stanco of Gartner; Allan B Taylor Chair State Board of Education and Nathaniel D. Woodson of United Illuminating Co.
Japanese “Manga” made in Philippines
The huge Japanese "Manga" or cartoons and comics industry is just too busy. Inq7.net reports from Manila that Japan’s Toei Animation Co. Ltd., the Dragonball Z creator is going to ask their wholly owned subsidiary Toei Philippines to do the animation work. Toei Animation Company has expanded its distribution to LA and France and needs to speed up production to meet the expected increase in demand. While the Japanese animators will do the art direction and key animation – the Philippines subsidiary will do background, coloring and Camera works. If Philipines runs short of capacity then the Japanese company will shift the work elsewhere. Even "art" work can be divided and globalized; I am thinking…
Dubai holds World Outsourcing Forum
Some real notables of the world of outsourcing got together at Dubai recently for The World Outsourcing Forum. What is very creditable is that there were prominent representatives not only from India and China but also from Romania, Russia and Sri Lanka. It was nice to see academic and scholarly representation by way of Dr. Soumodip Sarkar from Portugal. In a detailed presentation Ismail Al Naqi, Director of Dubai Outsource Zone makes the case for Dubai as a center for setting up outsourcing delivery. The Dubai Outsource Zone sure looks like solving some of the perennial infrastructure problems of many other locations. The goal of 120,000 knowledge workers in Dubai by 2010 also seems very possible. Congratulations to James Freeman and the Outsource World team for organizing a great event at Dubai!
Now “Idiot’s guide to outsourcing”
I was absolutely delighted to read that the new " Idiot’s guide to Outsourcing" has been published. Gene Marks the author maintains that 90% of all small businesses outsource something or the other from IT to payroll etc. The book helps understand outsourcing and why it might save significant costs for the outsourcer. Arrival of the "Idiot’s" guide is a sure sign of mainstream consumer interest in the topic. Gene Marks owns The Marks Group PC.
Top 100 list is coming
IAOP announced today that they are coming out with a top hundred list of providers across segments, industries and geography. As a new industry takes shape it will be nice to know how this list looks like. Also what about the smaller outsourcers and smaller providers? Maybe as the industry matures we will see more of the smaller players listed.
A Relationship Manual
Patrick Thibodeau writing in the Computer World talks about how IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals) is working on developing what I call a "relationship manual" that will help in paving the way for seamless outsourcer-provider relationships.Cynthia Kearney of Johnson and Johnson who is involved in this development is emphasizing ‘disclosure, candor and metrics’ ; indeed key ingredients in buyer-seller relationships.
e-tailing and fulfillment
Melody Treece Vargas has just written the third piece on the Retail Industry in About.com. She writes that we can see a significant growth in outsourced fulfillment providers like UPS I wrote about earlier. As the holiday season starts off more and more consumers would find their packages being delivered by providers who work for the company they ordered from. I guess these providers will be much more efficient than the 1999-2000 season where we saw so many snafus. People just did not get their Christmas shopping deliveries in time. Luckily things are much better now. The "fulfilling" industry has crossed 1.5 B $ according to Vargas and in doing so has created a new distribution and logistics channel in the 21st Century!
China and Taiwan
How interesting can globalization get? On one hand you have strong words from China about US getting into arms deals with Taiwan reported in the Boston Globe. Just hours before that Dominic Gates the Seattle Times Aerospace reporter wrote that Boeing is getting Taikoo (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering to modify some freighters while Evergreen Aviation Technologies will do some similar work. The interesting part is that apparently Xiamen is in China while Evergreen is in Taiwan. …
Govt. Outsourcer-Provider ‘s distributor
We just finished talking about supply chains in my Global Outsourcing class. One emerging idea was that opportunities might be available for the new age working with either a provider or outsourcer.
In the Government Outsourcer and Provider interface Steve Charles has a great new idea. Steve suggests that Providers and Government Outsourcers might want to have a middleman (distributor) who will handle data collection and the relationship interface as the tasks are getting delivered. Distribution theorists will enjoy this concept because this sits well with distribution theory. Is’nt that what makes theory charming?