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Innovation, That's the Way We Do it Here.
So what exactly does it mean to be Innovative and 'Work On your
business not in it' and how is this possibly going to assist you
in reaching your long term goals for your life and your business?
I had the misfortune recently to be involved in...
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Business Innovation – Real Self versus the Trained Self
Personalities can be said to be psychotic in many ways and one of those is the idea, readily accepted, that we have at least two selves: the real self and that self which we present to the world.
Creativity can be defined as problem...
Creativity and Innovation Management – Incubation and Insight
Two of the most common terms in the field of creativity include Eureka! Or Aha! Often these terms are used to describe that moment when an idea has occurred “out of the blue.” This whole set of terminology and the inherent assumptions are...
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Make the Most of Your Mentoring Relationships
Mentoring is one of the best ways to learn, to get feedback, and to take your career to the next level. Here are ten tips for making the most of your mentoring relationships. Tip #1 Self-assess. Ask yourself, "What skills do I need to...
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Future of Offshore Outsourcing
Offshore Outsourcing provides the ability to hold skilled
overseas staff at a small part of the laborcost which is
exhilarating to several entrepreneurs. The vistas in which
Offshoring can be utilizedespecially in: accounting,
advertising, animation, Human Resource Management and
Development, health care-related jobs, IT projects, financial
investment and consultancy, legal services, and network
security. The concept of Offshore Outsourcing is couple of
centuries old when the colonial powers started taking raw
materials from their respective colonies and then selling them
after processing them into manufactured commodities. In 19th
century the Britishers (and other imperialist/colonial powers),
because of industrial revolution, rampaged the small-scale and
cottage scale industries in India (and other respective
colonies) by selling processed goods to the natives having a
better quality. Now in 21st century the tables seem to have
turned on the colonizers (or neo-colonizers). Taking advantage
of the cheap labour in developing countries, many MNCs have set
up subsidiaries in India and in other places (like China,
Canada, South America, Africa, Israel, Ireland, Russia). In the
past decade, US companies alone have invested $7 billion in
their subsidiaries in India, picking a net saving of more than
$26 billion. Telstra, an Australian telecom company, for
instance, saved more than $75 million a year by outsourcing many
jobs to Indian enterprises. Latest modifications in the way U.S.
companies are using Offshore Outsourcing Industry have generated
heated controversy, which is comprehensible considering that
jobs are at hazard in an already tense economy. But whereas it
may be human temperament to adhere to the status quo, the
software industry will be better off in acclimatizing to these
changes and allowing innovation to thrive. Detractors have fated
offshore development as everything from shortsighted to
un-American--but it may well conclude salvaging the U.S.
software industry. For staying competitive in the global market,
U.S. software companies must persist in driving innovation.
Nevertheless, innovation today is being choked through
deficient
R&D budgets on the company side and an overspending menace on
the customer side. Offshore development can help on both sides.
In fact, as pointed out in a recent report by the US Chamber of
Commerce, the main cause of increased unemployment in the US,
Britain and other developed countries is the enhancement in
productivity due to continuing advancements leading to massive
unemployment; and, two, that it has not contributed to
unemployment, as is sought to be made out. Here are the reasons:
For a mature software company, expending on proper product
innovation is much less than what you might think. It by and
large accounts for less than 30 percent of the R&D budget. This
small piece of the pie is being further clutched from two
directions. First, overall R&D spending by public U.S. software
companies is lessening. In fact, in 2002 it fell by 2 percent,
after having consistently grown at 15 percent annually since
1998. Most of these cuts are captivating a bite out of new
product development. Second, R&D budgets are being consumed by
ever-increasing maintenance-related activities, such as
bug-fixing, upgrades and minor enrichments. Maintenance
agreements with a huge customer base mount up over the years
mandate this support. With such restricted resources accessible,
software companies can't successfully produce real advance.
Instead, many of finest and brightest are jammed down in what
amounts to software maintenance tasks. The irony is that many of
these developers would be happier with--and better suited
for--truly pioneering work. But companies have painted
themselves into a corner. This is where offshore development can
facilitate. In most cases, a well-executed offshore development
program can help release an added 20 percent of the R&D budget
for new innovation while continuing to meet the maintenance
obligations of mature companies.
About the author:
For further information on offshore outsourcing and
offshore software
development, please visit http://www.a1technology.com
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