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Innovation Management – generating better ideas
One valuable debate is whether creativity can be developed and improved – or in other words, is it possible to generate better ideas? There are a number of reasons to believe that creativity can be developed, some of which include:
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An Introduction to Incorporating in Florida
Starting a business? Relocating your corporation’s headquarters?
The state of Florida is ripe with business opportunity. The Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, recently proclaimed that Florida ""is a story of a robust economy, of technology...
Master Card Visa Merchant Account Options
Are you familiar with the many types of MasterCard / Visa
merchant account options that are available for small business
owners? You may be eligible to apply for a merchant account from
a bank or other lender who will underwrite your account...
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Business Growth Through Strategic Merger and Acquisition
Successful growing companies usually grow through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions. For purposes of this article, a strategic acquisition is defined as an acquisition where the result of the combination is far greater than...
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Offshore Outsourcing - Tips To Survive
The cheap labor costs of Southeast Asia are like a siren call to
more and more US employers seeking to lower support costs and
improve profits. The increasingly common trend toward
outsourcing labor to countries such as India, Malaysia, and
Pakistan means jobs are leaking to a part of the world where
workers fresh out of college or technical school will work for
pennies on the dollar compared to American workers. For the
American workers, that means the bar for entry-level positions
is rising or the same positions are disappearing off the map
completely. What can you do to avoid losing out to offshore
outsourcing??
Don't become a target: What should you do if you find
yourself facing joblessness due to outsourcing? Many would say
make yourself indispensable, but is anyone ever really so
valuable that they are indispensable? What makes someone
indispensable in a company that has 1500 employees? Few things,
but some key skills can give you an edge. Skills such as
bilingualism, abilities with key or rare equipment, skills with
software that is either so cutting-edge or so old that only a
few can manipulate it well ¼ skills that will make you stand out
in an ocean of other employees.
Move up the ladder rapidly: Another way to deal with
outsourcing is avoidance. Jobs that are outsource-able are not
key positions in the first place. Therefore, the key is to
rapidly move out of entry-level positions into positions that
are less likely to be outsourced. Look around you. If you are in
a company in an entry-level position that has 50 to 100 other
people doing the exact same tasks you are doing, you may very
well be in a Danger Zone for having your position outsourced.
Make it your mission to get out of that huge fish barrel of
low-skilled fish and into a position that can only effectively
be done on home turf as rapidly as possible. Get promoted, get
higher training or education, or go for a position that is more
specialized.
Go smaller: Consider changing jobs to a company that is
smaller or more niche-oriented. Smaller companies generally do
not outsource due to decreased cost effectiveness and often
because they have a closer relationship with their customers.
While offshore outsourcing may save
dollars and improve stock
prices, it often has detrimental effects on customer relations.
Small companies cannot afford to lose customers because of poor
customer service or language barriers and are therefore less
likely to outsource offshore.
Go where the jobs are: Displaced garment and textile
workers in the Carolinas and other Southern states were left
jobless almost overnight in the nineties when their employers
moved operations to Central America or Asia. Those who did not
have transferable skills or were unwilling to relocate were left
floundering. Workers who thrived were the ones who learned new
skills that were in demand or who were willing to move to areas
where their current skills were needed.
Stay on the cutting edge of your field: Work that is
outsourced is generally grunt work that requires a labor force
that is broadly skilled in the most common tasks, works with the
most common applications, or can handle minimal communication
coupled with heavy, repetitive-type work. There is always demand
for skilled professionals who can work easily with the latest
and greatest technology, who do not fear risk-taking and enjoy
the challenge of development and innovation.
Will offshore outsourcing suddenly cease? Not a chance as
long as the American consumer continues to demand high-end
technology for rock-bottom prices. The race to maintain market
share while maintaining profits, demands cheaper and cheaper
labor costs. Offshore outsourcing is a solution to that problem.
It behooves American engineering and information technology
workers not to be a part of the problem to begin with by
pursuing education and training that sets them above their
offshore labor competitors and takes them out of the fish barrel
of low-end, low paid support type positions. America has always
been the leader in innovation and development and engineers who
concentrate on those areas will always have a place in this
economy.
About the author:
For further information on offshore outsourcing and
offshore software
development, please visit http://www.a1technology.com
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