August 30, 2009

Insource and Outsource

OUTSOURCING
Outsourcing literally means getting source from outside. The term is referring to sub-contracting of a set of functions or processes by one organization or company to another, or to a group of people. The said organization is often in another location, or another country.

Outsourcing is an arrangement in which one company provides services for another company that could also be or usually have been provided in-house. Outsourcing is a trend that is becoming more common in information technology and other industries for services that have usually been regarded as intrinsic to managing a business. In some cases, the entire information management of a company is outsourced, including planning and business analysis as well as the installation, management, and servicing of the network and workstations. Outsourcing can range from the large contract in which a company like IBM manages IT services for a company like Xerox to the practice of hiring contractors and temporary office workers on an individual basis.

Outsourcing is practiced as a very good business strategy. Especially in the current economic scenario, since it enables a single organization to focus on most potential areas, in which they’re competent at. It also set the firm free from resource and labor intensive functions, which are now performed by trained personnel in a much lower costs. The processes or activities that are being outsourced could range from customer service and telemarketing, to IT management, software development, market research and even financial portfolio management.

Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources[citation needed]. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s. It is essentially a division of labour.Out sourcing in the information technology field has two meanings One is to commission the development of an application to another organization, usually a company that specializes in the development of this type of application. The other is to hire the services of another company to manage all or parts of the services that otherwise would be rendered by an IT unit of the organization. The latter concept might not include development of new applications.

Outsourcing refers to a company that contract with another company to provide services that might be performed by in-house employees. Many of the large companies today outsource jobs such as, the very popular in the Philippines, call center services, e-mail services, and payroll. These jobs are handled by separate companies that are specialized in the certain service, and are mostly located overseas.

Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider. The client organization and the supplier enter into a contractual agreement that defines the transferred services. Under the agreement the supplier acquires the means of production in the form of a transfer of people, assets and other resources from the client. The client agrees to procure the services from the supplier for the term of the contract. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities, real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions like telemarketing, CAD drafting, customer service, market research, manufacturing, designing, web development, print-to-mail, content writing, ghostwriting and engineering. Offshoring is the type of outsourcing in which the buyer organization belongs to another country.

Outsourcing and offshoring are used interchangeably in public discourse despite important technical differences. Outsourcing involves contracting with a supplier, which may or may not involve some degree of offshoring. Offshoring is the transfer of an organizational function to another country, regardless of whether the work is outsourced or stays within the same corporation or company.

With increasing globalization of outsourcing companies, the distinction between outsourcing and offshoring will become less clear over time. This is evident in the increasing presence of Indian outsourcing companies in the United States and United Kingdom. The globalization of outsourcing operating models has resulted in new terms such as nearshoring, noshoring, and rightshoring that reflect the changing mix of locations. This is seen in the opening of offices and operations centers by Indian companies in the U.S. and UK. A major job that is being outsourced is accounting. They are able to complete tax returns across seas for people in America.

Multisourcing refers to large outsourcing agreements (predominantly IT). Multisourcing is a framework to enable different parts of the client business to be sourced from different suppliers. This requires a governance model that communicates strategy, clearly defines responsibility and has end-to-end integration.

Strategic outsourcing is the organizing arrangement that emerges when firms rely on intermediate markets to provide specialized capabilities that supplement existing capabilities deployed along a firm’s value chain (see Holcomb & Hitt, 2007). Such an arrangement produces value within firms’ supply chains beyond those benefits achieved through cost economies. Intermediate markets that provide specialized capabilities emerge as different industry conditions intensify the partitioning of production. As a result of greater information standardization and simplified coordination, clear administrative demarcations emerge along a value chain. Partitioning of intermediate markets occurs as the coordination of production across a value chain is simplified and as information becomes standardized, making it easier to transfer activities across boundaries.

Due to the complexity of work definition, codifying requirements, pricing, and legal terms and conditions, clients often utilize the advisory services of outsourcing consultants (see sourcing advisory) or outsourcing intermediaries to assist in scoping, decision making, and vendor evaluation.

The competitive pressures on firms to bring out new products at an ever rapid pace to meet market needs are increasing. As such, the pressures on the R&D department are increasing. In order to alleviate the pressure, firms have to either increase R&D budgets or find ways to utilize the resources in a more productive way. There are situations when a firm may consider outsourcing some of its R&D work to a contract research organizations or universities. Reasons why a firm could consider outsourcing are:

* new product design does not work
* project time and cost overruns
* loss of key staff
* competitive response
* problems of quality/yield.

The key drivers for R&D outsourcing are emerging mass markets and availability of expertise in the field. In this context, the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, provide huge pools from which to find talent. Both countries produce over 200,000 engineers and science graduates each year. Moreover both countries are low cost sourcing countries. Other strategic drivers for outsourcing R&D are access to expertise and intellectual property, filling gaps in the capabilities of the R&D function, managing risk better, reducing the time to market, and focusing on the core competence or activities of the firm.

ADVANTAGE
There are many reasons that companies outsource various jobs, but the most known reasons are:

The advantage seems to be the truth that it usually saves money. Some of the companies that provide outsourcing services are able to do the work for much less money, because they don't have to give benefits to their workers and have more numbers of over the head expenses to worry about.

Outsourcing also enables companies to focus on other business issues while having the details taken care of by outside experts. This means that a large amount of resources and attention, which might fall on the shoulders of management professionals, can be used for more important, broader issues within the company. The skilled company that handles the outsourced work is often simple, but often has world-class capabilities and has access to new technology that a certain company couldn't afford to buy for their own. Another thing, if a company is looking forward to expand; outsourcing is also cost-effective way to start building branches in other countries.

The following are the advantages of outsorucinga ccording to wikipedia:
  • Cost savings
The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.
  • Focus on Core Business
Resources (for example investment, people, infrastructure) are focused on developing the core business. For example often organizations outsource their IT support to specilaised IT services companies.
  • Cost restructuring
Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from fixed to variable cost and also by making variable costs more predictable.
  • Improve quality
Achieve a step change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement.
  • Knowledge
Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.
  • Contract
Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.
  • Operational expertise.
Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.
  • Access to talent
Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in science and engineering.
  • Capacity management
An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier.
  • Catalyst for change
An organization can use an outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be achieved alone. The outsourcer becomes a change agent in the process.
  • Enhance capacity for innovation
Companies increasingly use external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for product innovation.
  • Reduce time to market
The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.
  • Commodification
The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services and application services enabling businesses to intelligently buy at the right price. Allows a wide range of businesses access to services previously only available to large corporations.
  • Risk management
An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.
  • Venture Capital
Some countries match government funds venture capital with private venture capital for startups that start businesses in their country.
  • Tax Benefit
Countries offer tax incentives to move manufacturing operations to counter high corporate taxes within another country.

Most of the outsourcing firms are based in the USA, some in the United Kingdom or Australia and a small number in Europe, while most of the outsourced workforce is Asian.

There have been loud protests against outsourcing in the USA, and more recently in Australia, due to cases like dislocation of some professionals, which is usually caused by shifting of processes and when this happen jobs are of course shifted too. But, this kind of problem is mostly temporary and there are very few skilled professionals who lose their jobs because of outsourcing.

DISADVANTAGE
One of the disadvantages that outsourcing brings is, it often eliminates direct communication between a company or organization and its clients. This stops a certain company from building solid relationship with their customers, and it often leads to dissatisfaction on one or both sides.
Another disadvantage is the danger of not being able to control some of the aspects in the company itself, as outsourcing may lead to delay of communications and implementation of projects.

Thirdly, sensitive information is more vulnerable. This means that the company won’t be able to control the flow of information thus, leading to leakage of important information, which often is private.

The most critical is it may come that a company will become very dependent on its outsource service providers, which could lead to problems when the outsource provider backs out on the contract suddenly.

Though outsourcing may be proven highly beneficial for many companies, it also has its disadvantage. Thus, it is very important that each company should accurately provide solution to their needs to determine if outsourcing is a good option.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-outsourcing.htm
http://www.indianchild.com/outsourcing/what_is_outsourcing.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid182_gci212731,00.html


INSOURCING
Insourcing is a business practice in which work that would otherwise have been contracted out is performed in-house.

Insourcing often involves bringing in specialists to temporary fill temporary needs or training existing personnel to perform tasks that would have been outsourced. An example is the use of in-house engineers to write technical manuals for equipment they have designed, rather than sending the work to an outside technical writing firm. In this example, the engineers might have to take technical writing courses at a local college, university, or trade school before being able to complete the task successfully. Other challenges of insourcing include the possible purchase of additional hardware and/or software that is scalable and energy-efficient enough to deliver an adequate return on investment (ROI).

Insourcing is the opposite of outsourcing; that is insourcing (or contracting in) is often defined as the delegation of operations or jobs from production within a business to an internal (but 'stand-alone') entity that specializes in that operation. Insourcing is a business decision that is often made to maintain control of critical production or competencies. An alternate use of the term implies transferring jobs to within the country where the term is used, either by hiring local subcontractors or building a facility.

Insourcing is widely used in an area such as production to reduce costs of taxes, labor (e.g., American labor is often cheaper than European labor), transportation, etc.

Insourcing at United Parcel Service (UPS) was described in the bestselling book The World Is Flat, by Thomas Friedman.

According to PR Web, insourcing was becoming more common by 2006 as businesses had less than satisfactory experiences with outsourcing (including customer support). Many outsourcing proponents responded to a negative consumer opinion backlash resulting from outsourcing their communications management to vendors who rely on overseas operations.

To those who are concerned that nations may be losing a net amount of jobs due to outsourcing, some point out that insourcing also occurs. According to a study by Mary Amiti and Shang-Jin Wei, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other industrialized countries more jobs are insourced than outsourced. They found that out of all the countries in the world they studied, the U.S. and the U.K. actually have the largest net trade surpluses in business services. Countries with a net deficit in business services include Indonesia, Germany and Ireland.

Insourcing is loosely referred in call centers who are doing the work of the outsourcing companies. Companies that outsource include Dell, Hewlett Packard, Symantec, and Linksys. The callcenters and technicians that are contracted to handle the outsourced work are usually over-seas. Customers may refer to these countries as "India" technical support if they are hard to understand over telecommunications. These insourcing companies were a great way to save money for the outsourcing of work, but quality varies, and poor performance has sometimes harmed the reputations of companies who provide 24/7 customer or technical support.

The Organization for International Investment, a Washington D.C. trade association, uses the term to describe the creation of jobs through foreign direct investment within the United States.

There are two views of the meaning of insourcing:

First, is the the type of insourcing that represents almost an opposite form of outsourcing. May be the most common definition is when companies look at the potential of employees inside the organization or company to find those who may be tapped to do certain jobs or functions for the said company. They may offer these employees extra training or they may just find the employees that already possess the skills to take on specialized work.

This form of insourcing has become fairly common as a money saving practice. Some company uses this method to also save money, because hiring new employees takes lots of money, and being able to redirect a current employee to new work can be much easier. Even if there is financial outlay for special training, a business may still save money, and it doesn’t have the negative connotations associated with many forms of outsourcing. Some companies practice this regularly and may boast to employees that they always promote from within, which can be an attractive point when employees are looking for jobs that will allow them opportunities to advance in their careers.

The second form of insourcing doesn’t utilize current employees but instead temporarily hires specialists to work onsite at a company. Occasionally these specialists help train employees on specialized equipment or methods, and part of this may also involve the leasing of various types of equipment. Even though the temporary employee comes from outside of the company, the fact that he or she is “brought in” means he can be considered insourced.
Sometimes the definition of insourcing is a matter of perspective. When a large company sets up part of their business in a foreign country, that company is outsourcing. However, to the country where the business is established, the new work there may be considered as insourced. This is a less common use of the term, but one that may help demonstrate the differing ways in which outsourcing work is viewed.

To have a better understanding and as a summary insourcing can be viewed as outsourcing as seen from the opposite side. For example, a company based in Japan might open a plant in the United States for the purpose of employing American workers to manufacture Japanese products. From the Japanese perspective this is outsourcing, but from the American perspective it is insourcing. Nissan, a Japanese automobile manufacturer, has in fact done this.
Setting up shop in another country, especially one that doesn’t have lower pay standards, (for instance Japanese automakers creating plants in the US) can prove of benefit to the company. Because they have created jobs somewhere else, the company’s products may be known more favorably. This may make consumers more likely to purchase products or use the company’s services because they know that part of their payment benefits their fellow citizens.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1185946,00.html
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-insourcing.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insourcing

If I have to take side, I would prefer insourcing. Yes, it is true that outsourcing may be a good step to extend company reach but, I find it critical due to some of the parts of the project team will not be supervised, which I think will lower the quality of a certain product or service, in which the company provides. Another thing that disappointed me with regards to outsourcing is the security of information, which I think would put the company at risk. I have concluded how important information is to be kept within the company. But, with outsourcing, I find it risky.

I am more favor in insourcing, because the fact that they always find potential and skilled employees within the company first, before hiring new ones. Another thing is I think it will increase good relationship within the employer and employees, because the employee will feel that they are taken cared of by the company, due to special training given to them when they have potential. And as a result, a strong bond and trust to both sides, employer and employee.

August 28, 2009

ICT on SoNA '09

What is ICT?

Information and Communication Technology is the study of the technology used to handle information and aid communication. The phrase was composed by the new National Curriculum documents for the UK in the year 2000. It is somehow, defined as the combination of Informatics technology with other, related technologies, specifically communication technology.


Information and Communications Technology - or technologies (ICT) is a broad term that covers all kinds of technologies for the manipulation and communication of information. The term is sometimes used in preference to Information Technology (IT), particularly in two communities: education and government. In the common usage it is often assumed that ICT is the same with IT; ICT in fact is any medium to record information, such as, magnetic disk/tape; optical disks (CD/DVD); and flash memory and even paper records. Other mediums are: technology for broadcasting information like radio and television. Moreover, technologies for communicating through voice and sound or images, which ranges from microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones. It also includes the wide variety of computing hardware just as Personal Computers, servers, mainframes and networked storage. The rapidly developing personal hardware market comprising mobile phones, personal devices, MP3 players, and much more are also included. The whole scope of application software from the smallest home-developed spreadsheet to the largest enterprise packages and online software services and the hardware and software needed to operate networks for transmission of information, again ranging from a home network to the largest global private networks operated by major commercial enterprises and, of course, the Internet. Thus, ICT makes more clearly developed that technologies such as broadcasting and wireless mobile telecommunications are included. http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci928405,00.html


I

“Sa telecommunications naman, inatasan ko ang Telecommunications Commission na kumilos na tungkol sa mga sumbong na dropped calls at mga nawawalang load sa cellphone. We need to amend the Commonwealth-era Public Service Law. And we need to do it now....”

This was the very first thing I’ve found, that I think was part of ICT since it is stated above that ICT means the study of technologies regarding communication. Filipinos are born family women/men, so communication is must, especially on those families who are separated by distances. Yes, it is true; there were lots of cases such as disappearing load. Good thing, the government was able to look at it and have found solutions.


II

“Kung noong nakaraan, lumakas ang electronics, today we are creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth,” says PGMA.

BPO(Business Process Outsourcing) is typically categorized into back office outsourcing - which includes internal business functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front office outsourcing - which includes customer-related services such as contact center services.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_outsourcing


Outsourcing is contracting with another company or person to do a particular job. This means that a certain employee or personnel will do very good in his assigned job, since he/she is assigned due to his skill. The personnel’s focus will remain only in his job and is not under the management of any corporation or company.


III

“In 2001, I said we would finance fully automated elections. We got it, thanks to Congress....”

Automated election will be great help for the Filipino people, especially those who doesn’t know how to read and write. With this automation, numbers of voters will increase and we are very much hoping for a cleaner election and a faster result.

August 25, 2009

Technology is a broad concept that deals with human as well as other animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment. However, a strict definition is elusive; "technology" can refer to material objects of use to humanity, such as machines, hardware or utensils, but can also encompass broader themes, including systems, methods of organization, and techniques. The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include "construction technology", "medical technology", or "state-of-the-art technology".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology

As what I have seen and observed at the university, the hard wares were fine except that some of the computer units is only capable of receiving and sending information at a limit of 10mbps, which makes the internet connectivity to become slower and inaccessible.

The term innovation refers to a new way of doing something. It may refer to incremental and emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations. A distinction is typically made between invention, an idea made manifest, and innovation, ideas applied successfully. (Mckeown 2008) In many fields, something new must be substantially different to be innovative, not an insignificant change, e.g., in the arts, economics, business and government policy. In economics the change must increase value, customer value, or producer value. The goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. Innovation leading to increased productivity is the fundamental source of increasing wealth in an economy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation

So, as from what I have understood, innovation is broad, meaning it covers a very large area, which may include one or all of the following fields: arts, economics, economics, business, design, technology, sociology, engineering and business. Innovation means creating and designing new ways and better ways to improve something. In the university's case is, its internet connectivity.



21st Century Corporations

A hundred years ago, corporations are very much reliable on man power, meaning, people ware are the ones who made up a single corporation. A corporation as defined in dictionary is an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members. This may mean that corporations are made up of stockholders or is owned by many owners, in which the power and liabilities are divided on each of them.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/corporation

It is the most common form of business organization, and one which is chartered by a state and given many legal rights as an entity separate from its owners. This form of business is characterized by the limited liability of its owners, the issuance of shares of easily transferable stock, and existence as a going concern. The process of becoming a corporation, call incorporation, gives the company separate legal standing from its owners and protects those owners from being personally liable in the event that the company is sued (a condition known as limited liability). Incorporation also provides companies with a more flexible way to manage their ownership structure. In addition, there are different tax implications for corporations, although these can be both advantageous and disadvantageous. In these respects, corporations differ from sole proprietorships and limited partnerships.
http://www.investorwords.com/1140/corporation.html

As defined above, corporations are said to be the most known form of business. Stockholders are given equal rights, which mean that every stockholder have separate liabilities. These legal rights can separate the private lives of the owner/s. Due to the separation the owners will not be held personally liable for the corporation during a certain condition that will limit the company's liability.
  • EPHEMERAL
Corporations long before the birth of technology is fully dependent on people ware. Everything, from bookkeeping to converting data into information is done manually, in which has taken too much energy and time for employees and even the owners. Even the reach of their productions and services are limited by the distance.

Since technology have been roaming around for over a hundred years now, bookkeeping and conversion of data have become much easier and less energy and time consuming. Due to continuous development of technology, corporations have embraced its full benefit on them. The technology is made up of soft ware, hard ware and people ware. The studies of these have evolved corporations into a much higher level and into a much productive one. Hard wares, which are known locally as machines have enabled human to a more productive persons. Through machines, people are able to give their full time, energy and effort into much more important things on the corporation.

The technologies, particularly the Internet have given corporations a vast and wide reach to embrace its clients and its owners. This time, the evolving technologies have reached every corners of the earth, which forces the corporations to have a new set of rules and culture. Cultures or rules that may include: being computer literate of their employees.

The Internet as stated above has stretched the arms of every corporation to reach its full potential and to deliver its products and services all over and across the world. Now, almost all of the corporations or companies have established their own website, in order for them to advertised their services and products, and as the discovery of the use of the internet, it has even evolve for something helpful for both client and server.

To survive and thrive in this century, managers will need to hard-wire a new set of rules and guideposts into their brains. Not so long ago, for example, leaders believed that building assets over the long haul guaranteed competitive advantage. In this new century, success will go to the companies that partner their way to a new future, not those that put heavy assets onto their balance sheets. Leaders once thought that creating intense rivalries among competitors motivated their employees and assured success. But in the days to come, a company's fiercest competitor might also be its most important collaborator. Since the dawn of trade, every business leader has wanted to build an enduring enterprise. In the new century, though, many companies will be intentionally ephemeral, formed to create new technologies or products only to be absorbed by sponsor companies when their missions are accomplished.

Many factors, from the need to expand beyond national borders to the inexorable shift toward intellectual capital, are driving change, but none is more important than the rise of Internet technologies. Like the steam engine or the assembly line, the Net has already become an advance with revolutionary consequences, most of which we have only begun to feel.

Leading-edge technology will enable workers on the bottom rungs of the organization to seize opportunity as it arises. Employees will increasingly feel the pressure to get breakthrough ideas to market first. Thus, the corporation will need to nurture an array of formal and informal networks to ensure that these ideas can speed into development. In the near future, companies will call on outside contractors to assemble teams of designers, prototype producers, manufacturers, and distributors to get the job done. Emerging technologies will allow employees and freelancers anywhere in the world to converse in numerous languages online without the need for a translator.

That rapid flow of information will permeate the organization. Orders will be fulfilled electronically without a single phone call or piece of paper. The ''virtual financial close'' will put real-time sales and profit figures at every manager's fingertips via the click of a wireless phone or a spoken command to a computer. ''We don't have science-fiction writers who have seen and written this future,'' says Lowell Bryan, a consultant who leads McKinsey & Co.'s Global New Economy practice. ''Everything we see leads to greater diversity, greater choice, a far more integrative economy, yet more individualism.''

In the future it is foreseen that corporations will more likely to become web, as in the web of spiders, which is able to criss-cross its reach from different parts of the world.

The following are the said usage of Internet for the future corporations:

It's more about bits, less about atoms.

A corporation’s position on the market is no longer measured by its size, instead, they would only be measured through its profitability, in which profitable enterprises will manage data, or information, instead of focusing only on managing the corporation's physical assets. Good management of information can result to good decision making thus, allows an upstart to beat an established player; it can also give an incumbent vast advantages. By using information to manage themselves and better serve their customers, companies will be able to do things cheaper, faster, and with far less waste.

It's mass customization.

Internet can be way of showcasing consumer’s reaction or suggestion of a certain product or service of a corporation, which will lead to a more reliable and good quality of products or services. This will also give the corporation what their consumer needs and wants.

It's dependent on intellectual capital.

The advantage of bringing breakthrough products to market first will be shorter-lived than ever, because technology will let competitors match or exceed them almost instantly. To keep ahead of the steep new-product curve, it will be crucial for businesses to attract and retain the best thinkers. The old command-and-control hierarchies, with their civil-service-like wages, are fast crumbling in favor of organizations that empower vast numbers of people and reward the best of them as if they were owners of the enterprise.

It's global.

In the beginning, the global company was defined as one that simply sold its goods in overseas markets. But as of today, corporation are able to sold their products and services all across the world.

It's about speed.

All this work will be done in an instant. ''The Internet is a tool, and the biggest impact of that tool is speed,'' says Andrew S. Grove, chairman of Intel Corp. (INTC) ''The speed of actions, the speed of deliberations, and the speed of information has increased, and it will continue to increase.'' That means the old, process-oriented corporation must radically revamp. With everything from product cycles to employee turnover on fast-forward, there is simply not enough time for deliberation or bureaucracy.
  • DIGITIZATION.
Just as the smaller companies will use technology to gain economies of scale, larger companies will harness technology to reduce the costs of complexity. At the very core of the 21st century corporation is technology, or what most people today call digitization. Put simply, digitization means removing human minds and hands from an organization's most routine tasks and replacing them with computers and networks. Digitizing everything from employee benefits to accounts receivables to product design cuts time, cost, and people from operations, resulting in huge savings and vast improvements in speed'
  • CULTURAL CHANGE.
The potential for productivity gains is everywhere, in every process, in every industry. In the years to come, large incumbent corporations that get it will be the greatest beneficiaries of the Net, not the dot-com insurgents that once garnered all the publicity and market valuations.

Despite a handful of leading-edge companies, the true 21st century corporation, at least as it will eventually emerge, does not yet exist. But there is no one company today that embodies all the possibilities and promise of the super efficient 21st century corporation.

Through this consumers and clients would be able to know the truth about the products or services offered. Frictions will be eliminated and consumers can even decide through other peoples feedback on the said product or service.
  • CONNECTIONS
True 21st century corporations will also learn to manage an elaborate network of external relationships. That far-reaching ecosystem of suppliers, partners, and contractors will allow them to focus on what they do best and farm everything else out. And it will let them quickly take advantage of fleeting opportunities without having to tie up vast amounts of capital. Outsourcing and partnering, of course, are hardly new. But in the coming century, such alliances will become more crucial.
  • TALENT HUNT
Through technology, corporations would be able to find potential workers all over the world. This would both benefit people and the corporation itself. Due to online job hunting and online job interview, cost will be reduced or even eliminated.
http://www.businessweek.com/common_frames/ma_0035.htm?/2000/00_35/b3696011.htm











August 12, 2009

Downsizing

Downsizing may be described as reducing the scope or scale of a certain company or an organization. The very known way to downsize is deducting the workforce or simply called human resource.This is to improve its performance and profitability as well as to reduce its financial costs.

AT&T Corp. is a based telecommunications giant which had undergone downsizing.The steps they have taken in consideration to be able to reduce their scope:
  • Workforce Planning
This plan is a system, in which employees are graded or evaluated by their managers. Employees are ranked accordingly with regards to their performance. This is done so that when downsizing comes, the employees would be able to have perceptions or would be able to know the possibility of them being laid off. This way, employees would give their best to stay on the job.

Employees are given chance to move out of the bottom bracket. Each employee will have a grade of A, B or C. Grade A workers are carefully handled and can possibly be promoted so that when downsizing happens they do not jump ship, as the top talent in other companies often do. Grade B workers, however, are counseled on what they need to do to keep up with those A's or better be one of them. Grade C workers needs to improve, then make a move to be better. HR monitors the ranking and grading system to make sure that employees are evaluated fairly and consistently. HR also checks that managers are keeping the A players challenged and satisfied.


  • Training and Skills Assessment

This process lets the company know what other things can their employee do. This training program can develop an employee's skill. Retraining and outplacement assistance programs are an effective way for HR to risk itself into the planning of a downsizing effort. A good skills-training program may even open opportunities within the company to downsized workers. Human resource managers can reassess workers' skills so they will not lose hard working and/or motivated employees in this type of situation. But this doesn't mean that workers who are not doing their job well will be unqualified to do other jobs.

Another benefit of having training and skills assessment program is the increase of participation, thus, considering extended access to the programs until well after workers are laid off, will be given time to recover from the emotional blow of being laid off. This way a company would be able to gain back the trust of both survivors and non-survivors.

  • Open Communication
Communication is defined as the process of transferring information from one entity to another. A from what we all know, it is very important to keep the good relation ship between two or more entities.

Communication is the key when it comes to downsizing. Employees tend to look and find signs that the management is hiding information from them. Workers worry less when management is open, honest and generous.

  • The Future
Thinking of the future, with regards to the question, "Will downsizing happen again?"

An honest answer to this question would be a help to the company as long as it is stressed that every workers or employees should work for the companies goals.

Straightforward answers or responses is a big help to prepare employees for the possibility of future workforce cuts or lay offs.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_6_44/ai_54994203/pg_3/?tag=content;col1

Downsize can be caused by one or all of the following:
  • Reduce costs
To reduce cost may talk of financial issues of a certain organization. In which, the said company couldn't sustain or it does not have the power to pay for its people and liabilities. In shortest term bankruptcy.
  • Decision making
Organizations tend to reduce the level or layers of management, in order to speed up its decision making. Instead of having too much numbers of manager,a company will choose to have lesser number of them. So, an organization would be able to speed up and less time would be used in decision making.
  • Focus
This means that the company would be able to put their whole time on developing the products or services they are good at.

Let us take for example, the Philippines, it is a tropical country, thus, producing tropical fruits such as bananas is the best way to increase its profit with regards to exporting. Since, Philippines can have full profit in producing bananas, why would it risk on trying to produce non-tropical fruits like apple or strawberries.
  • Positive response
Since the company is already focused on producing products or providing services their good at, stock holders would give their full trust on the said company, thus, ensuring them that their investment would not just slip away like the wind.
  • Better Productivity
Increasing a company's productivity may var from the costs that's been decreased and controlled. Another view would be, when an organization had already identified where the focus should be and stock holders have given their trust then the company would be able to start the business or increase the productivity thus, increasing its profit.

Now, that we have discussed about the cause or causes of downsizing. Let us talk about its effect. Effects can either be bad or good, but it is expected to be good on the company all in all. The effects are divided into two:
  1. Employee Morale
  • Reputation
The organizations reputation as good employer will suffer. This is because of having to reduce employees, that may be or may not be a good employee. When a company have already undergone downsizing and is starting to grow again, of course they would need new employees. Since, they have already fired employees before, applicants would fear that downsizing would happen again then they would have to leave the job.
  • Policies
Change in policies will of course occur, due to change of scope or scale. Those policies that can only be applied to large scopes are omitted and new policies will be implemented for those employee who have survived and keep their jobs.
  • Motivation
Motivation will be disrupted. This effect can apply for those who were able to keep their job or simply called survivors. This disruption may range from political behaviors such as anger and fear, in which may lead to poor quality of customer service.
  • Psychological Contract
Laying off of employees will violate the psychological contract between employers and employees. Psychological contract is described as mutual beliefs of the employer and employees obligations, it is not a formal contract therefore it is not a violation of a certain country bill. But it still is a bad effect, because the trust of a certain employee will be destroyed.
  • Stress
Due to adjustment in longer working hours, the re-designed jobs and the uneasiness of thinking and fear of future downsizing, survivors will tend to experience stress.
  1. Workforce Quality
  • Lost of skilled employees
Because of voluntary resign or early retirement, chances are, good employees, which is usually marketable employees, tend to leave or give up the job. Even worse is, the organization would have to hire them back, which may lead to a much higher cost.

http://www.authorstream.com/presentation/edwinlee-111819-downsizing-hr-business-finance-ppt-powerpoint/