Global Sourcing: Positive or Negative

Globalsourcing, offshoring, outsourcing call it what you want, one cannot seem to get away from these terms. Not only are these terms used interchangeably but, our news media, technical forums and world-renowned economists all have something to say about this business model. These three terms have been bandied about in Presidential campaigns, linked to labor abuses, the U.S. economic downturn and the end of Silicon Valley as we know it.

Does offshoring deliver on all of its expectations? Is globalsourcing for everyone? Is outsourcing the panacea for all business issues?

Various media sources indicate that approximately 15%-25% of fortune 500 businesses have plans to go global. VC's are establishing offices in Asia and India to secure additional portfolio companies. Driven by tax benefits, hopes of VC investment and a perception of huge savings, start-ups and existing businesses are looking to "going global" as guarantee of a healthy bottom line.

Numerous companies have underestimated the due diligence involved in establishing a global presence. Managing through the logistical challenges associated with offshoring is one of the key factors to being successful in this endeavor.

Advent of mobile broadband

The last few months have been dramatic for the wireless industry. In the United States, Verizon Wireless announced its intentions to roll out 1xEV-DO -- which was dubbed by analysts as "the shot heard around the world." Indeed, soon thereafter, Sprint and Cingular followed with announcements for 1xEV-DO and wCDMA, respectively. In Europe, carriers, finally, embraced UMTS, with initial rollouts across certain key markets. And, in Asia, carriers, especially Japanese and Korean, continued their leadership position in wireless through announcements or trials regarding satellite and broadcast TV networks.

Does this period represent the advent of mobile broadband globally? Or, is it another period of hype, reminiscent of that of 3G a few years ago? Further, why do need mobile broadband to begin with? What are users, consumers and enterprises alike, going to do with megabit connectivity while moving at high speeds? And, if this is a seminal point in the history of wireless, what does it mean for incumbent corporations and for startup companies? Which corporations are likely to win, and which are likely to lose? Most importantly for Silicon Valley, where do the opportunities exist for entrepreneurs to create new, multi-billion dollar companies?

Back to the glory of textile industry

Come 2005, and you have Indian textile industry booming again. As per WTO norms, from Jan, 1st 2005 the quota regime is moving out and India will be able to produce and export cloth as much as its capactiy. Capacity will be the limit for India. Hence, we see textile companies lining up to expand there capacities.
Its also the same on the other side of the sea. Big brands like Marks & Spencer, Gucci, etc.. are trying to reach Indian consumers on a large scale. Don't be surprised if you find their retail outlets openup next to your doorstep.
To beat the competetion our Indian companies like Arvind Mills, Siyaram, Century Textiles have also started tightening there shoes and are also coming up with there own chain of stores, to give consumers the benefits of economies of scale.
Arvind mills will require an additional workforce of 20000 workers to cater to this demand. Since it will be dificult to recruit and manage the workforce of this size in such a short time, it has started tieing up with small ancillary units around its factory in Gujarat.
This whole activity will give new boost to the growth of Indian economy. IT industry is also bound to benefit from this turnaround of textile industry since specific enterprise software solutions will be required to manage business at this scale.
Companies like ICICI infotech have already brought one of its textile industry specific ERP solutions in the market.
But still a long way to go before we as a consumer see ourselves reaping any benefits.

Indian retail investment market

Retail investors contribute to a group, where large chunk of funds are remaining untapped.

This can be proved from the TCS IPO, wherein in the market it was expected that maiximum money will pour in from the people who hold shares of other big IT companies like Infosys and Wipro. Taking note of the initial price at which TCS was offering its Re. 1 shares it was expected that they will sell their part of the existing shares and switch over to TCS.

But the analyst were proved wrong and most of the money which came in for subscribtion was fresh money from retail investors. This means that there is still a good demand for quality white paper. A whole lot of good money waiting to come in. Waiting for good value for the money.

I see now only two markets which can fetch you high returns. One is the stock market and other is the real estate market. Due to drastic drop in the interest rates people have no option but to enter this markets. Though stock market carries high amount of risk it also allows the investors with small sum to get higher returns.

A person having Rs. 1 lakh to invest cannot enter the real estate market with this sum. He is bound to enter the stock market, if he wants good return for his money.

Returns that stock market fetches is not only in terms of profit when you sell the equity, but also is in the form of dividend which is totally tax free. So this is one place which will attract good money in the future provided investors find good quality documents.

And it's a general law of economics that when the demand is high, prices are bound to increase. So in long term markets would draw much better picture.

If you are a smart investor start acting fast before the stock prices are out of reach and you do not want to miss the opportunity.

Doing MCA from Pune University

Doing MCA from the Pune University was very tough, especially when you are from a non-IT background. When I joined Pune University's MCA course in 2001 there were major changes that took place. Syllabus for the course was changed and new technolgy subject's were introduced. Then I considered myself very lucky to having joined a course,where I would get to learn, some very new and latest technologies in business.

Our senior's had a syllabus that was too old and redundant. Also, the syllabus was pretty easy to study, for the reason that they had old question papers to their availability. They enjoyed a precise reading material too. These things helped them with the kind of questions that were expected with properly defined references and books. If that's not enough, they enjoyed a privilege with passing marks of 40% only.

Things were completely opposite for our batch. To start, our syllabus was new and very generic. Keeping the time constraint in mind, we were never able to figure out on how much were we expected to dig in. As we were the first batch we had no past question papers to our availability. Many a times we ended up surfing the Internet without much of a success or sometimes no success at all.

Just finding the matter for the syllabus, consumed most of our time. Almost 2/3 rd of our semesters went searching the matter. And to make our lives worse, we had passing marks of 50%. I accept that I was a slow writer, which made things even more difficult for me. It created problems in theory subjects like marketing, corporate planning, etc. wherein, failing to attempt even one question could bring failure in that subject.

These factors resulted a drop in passing rates of the colleges. For our seniors, the passing rate always hovered above 90% while for us, the 1st semester's passing rate was just 14%, which by the end of 5th semester gradually improved to around 30%.

All's well that ends well. I am happy to have undergone through such hardships. It has made me even harder and tougher than before.

Value of diamond is more, when it has more cuts on it.

Om Ganeshay Namah

It's good that I am beginning to blog on a very auspicious day i.e Ganesh Chaturthi. The festival devoted to the elephant headed hindu deity Shree Ganesh.

I remember this day 15 years back when we began bringing Ganesh idol at our home when I was just 11 years old.

It all began when a year back before we started bringing the Ganesh idol that I had been invited by one of my friend in the neighbourhood for helping him out for the decoration proceedings at his place.

I liked that work for decoration especially the electronics parts of installing those small motor which acted as a fan behind the idol and small bulbs. Those motor fans where not available commercially then and having one for the lord was considered a great achievement.

All these gave birth of having a Ganesh idol at my home... so that I can also do all the decoration by myself. And hence I started demanding this to my parents. Actually, bringing Ganesh idol home is not a joke and many rituals are required to be performed for bringing it. And it is also a continuous process i.e. bring once, bring always. And not following this could bring suspiscion in your mind for your downfall. So bringing Ganesh idol is considered a very delicate procedure.

But, as a kid I was not aware of all these and I could just see nothing but the decorations that is associated with these festival. And I kept this in my mind all throghtout the year when next year the festival was to arrive. This time my demand for the idol to my parents was very strong. I went to the extent of fasting (generally, which I never do) for 2 long days for meeting my demand.

At last my mother had to give up and consulted a priest from the nearby temple about bringing the idol. Priest on the contrary encouraged my mother on bringing the idol and told that its a good sign of prosperity. Still, my mother was unsure about what to do.

At last on the morning of Ganesh Chaturthi day it was decided to bring the idol. But, now another problem was of availability of the idol at the shop since generally if you want to have one, you are required to book it 10 to 15 days ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi. But, 'Alls well that ends well'. Fortunately, we were able to get one of the very smallest and cutest idol.

That, filled the whole home atmosphere with joy and happiness and everybody in the house started liking the idea of bringing the idol every year and the festival still continues.

This incident makes me a person who does, what he wants to do, no matter what all odds he has to face for acheiving it. And that's called learning by experience.