Saudi Arabia to invest US$119 billion in energy infrastructure projects

Via
Al Bawaba

Saudi Arabia is expected to invest USD 119 billion in energy infrastructure projects from 2007 to 2009, according to latest studies, with investments in the refining sector being expected to grow by a staggering 2189 per cent within the same period compared to figures from 2004 to 2006. The sizeable opportunities within the oil and gas sector have been identified by SAS, the leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services, which aims to deliver business-critical solutions to aid decision making within the oil and gas sector.

As burgeoning energy requirements continue to mirror the current pace of economic development across the region, National Oil Companies (NOCs) including upstream, midstream and downstream operations in the Middle East are facing challenges such as ageing infrastructure and equipment, lack of efficiency in refinery processes and shortage in skilled manpower. By utilising SAS solutions, proven on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, companies can reduce the decision making cycle significantly, thereby lessening risk, increasing efficiency and enabling better use of investment funds.

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Wales offers more support for entrepreneurs

Via
Western Mail

by David Rosser

THIS week the Welsh Assembly Government will launch its new business support programme for companies in Wales.

So perhaps it is a good time to be looking at some of the issues facing entrepreneurs here – in fact the grouping of business organisations, Business Wales, has put this on the agenda for our next meeting with WAG.

While it is easy to be disappointed at the state of entrepreneurship in Wales, and the figures do not sparkle, there are actually some good quality companies being grown which are addressing external markets.

I have just returned from participating in the judging for the Western Mail’s Business Achiever of the Year award – it was the strongest field for some time and three of the four short listed individuals had each floated their company in the past two years.

So while the statistics on start-ups may not be where we would wish, there are some entrepreneurs showing real strategic clarity and an ambition for their companies.

There are some other reasons to be cheerful – the World Bank last year reported that the UK is the sixth easiest place in the world to set up a company, and also found the cost of employing people here to be relatively low.

And television producers are still mesmerised by the flair and personality of some of our big name entrepreneurs ensuring plenty of airtime for the subject.

But television programmes fade and it would be good to give the UK’s culture of entrepreneurship deeper roots.

We have tended to be a bit more tentative than our counterparts in the US and we need to nurture the UK’s appetite for embracing risk and the possibility of failure.

Innovation is responsible for a growing share of our productivity growth and the US, China and India are setting a fast pace.

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Pot Efficiency Discussed

Via
Popular Mechanics
Questions for Lillian C. Borrone on Boosting Efficiency in America's Ports

Keeping the nation's more than 180 ports healthy means more than just dredging channels and patching wharfs. The ports, which are critical for the movement of food, fuel and manufactured goods, have to link efficiently to America’s road and rail infrastructure. We spoke with Lillian C. Borrone, chairman of the Eno Transportation Foundation, a think tank in Washington, D.C., and member of the National Academy of Engineering, about future challenges, the agile port concept and security issues. —Emily Masamitsu

What is the condition of the ports in the United States?

The ports have done an excellent job of handling both cargo and passengers. We not only rely on ports to handle 90 percent of the goods that move internationally through our commercial facilities, but we also have a very large leisure cruise population. But like many other aspects of the nation’s infrastructure, the next 15 to 20 years are going to be challenging to the maritime community.

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Cuba: Wage Limits Removed

Via
NY Times
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntget=2008/04/11/world/americas/11fbriefs-WAGELIMITSRE_BRF.html&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin&oref=login

Cuba is revamping the state wage system to create more incentive by allowing workers to earn as much as they can, local media said, the latest sign that President Raúl Castro wants to improve the country’s economic performance.

“For the first time it is clearly and precisely stated that a salary does not have a limit, that the roof of a salary depends on productivity,” said a television economic commentator, Ariel Terrero.

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About Raul Castro

Germany defies euro with exports, but harder work vital: OECD

Via
AFP

FRANKFURT (AFP) — German exports have spurred the economy despite strength of the euro, but social policies should be adjusted to encourage Germans to work and study more, the OECD said on Wednesday.

The OECD expected growth of the biggest European economy to slow sharply "from 2.5 percent in 2007 to 1.5 percent in 2009," it said, shaving downwards estimates released in December of 2.6 percent for 2007 and 1.6 percent for 2009.

Productivity had to rise in the energy and transportation sectors, and education for the poor and immigrants needed to be improved, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

Data on a solid German trade surplus released separately on Wednesday showed that exports of machinery and other goods used to make consumer products continued to help the country plow ahead amid slower global growth.

But the OECD said the workforce could be used to greater effect with longer hours and increased efficiency.

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Interview: Productivity Part Of Vietnam's Search For National Brand Name

Via
Thanhnien News


A national brand will build on Vietnam’s reputation for high quality goods and services

Productivity and efficiency should be uppermost in the minds of every Vietnamese citizen and business, says Do Thang Hai, an Industry and Commerce Ministry official of a new initiative to develop a national brand name.

How will the National Brand Name Program develop a national brand name by 2050 as it aims to do? Is this goal too ambitious?

Do Thang Hai: The program’s goal is to convey an image of a country which is developing according to its values.

Unlike in the past, we must create a national image built on the values of renovation, creativity, quality and leadership capacity so Vietnam further develops its reputation for diverse and high-quality goods and services.

The goal is also to create a uniquely Vietnamese identity and to enhance the attractiveness of the Vietnamese country and people.

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Basketball Tournament & Productivity

Via
Forbes.com

Commentary
The True Cost Of March Madness
By Chris Schonberger


In 2006, one critic took on a report by Challenger, Gray &Christmas--a report claiming that March Madness costs employers $3.8 billion or more in lost productivity from workers.

The critic, Slate's Jack Schafer, wrote that Challenger--a consulting company headquartered in Chicago--reached this catastrophic figure "based on an average wage of $18 an hour and 58 million college basketball fans spending 13.5 minutes online each of the 16 business days" between the start of the tournament and the championship game.

Schafer poked a few obvious holes in the assumptions behind this calculation--most notably that the base of rabid college basketball fans is probably not that large and that there are a lot of other ways employees procrastinate during a normal workday (such as online shopping and congregating by the proverbial water cooler).

Indeed, an AOL and Salary.com survey from 2005 revealed that the average American worker wastes 2.09 hours per eight-hour workday, mostly by hanging 10 on the Net. By 2007, that number was down to 1.7 hours, so maybe Challenger needs to crunch some numbers on the waning loyalties of NHL fans.

As a writer, I am inherently unproductive. But these calculations--and Schafer's misgivings--spurred me to ponder the true nature of workplace efficiency. For one thing, are those 13.5 minutes of college hoops really in addition to the preexisting 2.09 hours of inefficiency? Even if they are, it's clear that obsessive bracketology is just one prevalent example of a wider phenomenon.

So why did college basketball bear the brunt of this exposé? Perhaps the college basketball lobby isn't strong enough. What about the presidential race? A year of obsessive clicking on URLs containing polls and punditry must take a heavy toll on the nation's productivity, no?

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Korea's Service Productivity One-Third of US

Via
Korea Times

By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter

South Korea's labor productivity in accounting, consulting, design and other business-related service sectors lags far behind the United States and other advanced nations. To join the ranks of the developed economies, accordingly, the country needs to strengthen its service industry.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) said Tuesday, that using Korea's labor productivity in these sectors as a baseline set at 100 in 1985, the country's output in the business-supporting service sectors stood at 287.3 in 2005, substantially lower than the United States' 1,012.7.

Japan's service industry labor efficiency came to 764.2, while the average of Britain, France, and eight other Western European nations were 713.3.

By sector, Korea's labor productivity in office equipment leasing, computer network solution, and other corporate support-related businesses was 367.7, compared with 1,134.5 in the United States, 852.3 in European countries and 681.8 in Japan.

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Liberia: Developing an Ethanol Industry for Energy Efficiency

Via
AllAfrica.com

The Analyst (Monrovia)
OPINION
By Syrulwa Somah, Phd

As the world is at a blink of energy crisis, Liberia should be proactive to plan for this unnecessary energy crisis quickly with one of her blessings (sugarcane) that can significantly reduce unemployment, deforestation, global warning and open up a huge Sub-Saharan African market for sugarcane growers. In this new Liberia, we ought to be ahead of our time and not slow walk or be like an "obstacle man", whom, regardless of what suggestion was advanced, his mind instantly harbored all possible obstacles in connection with it. Our nation will soon be facing a greater energy crisis that is likely to take away all our money so we must begin to dream and take action now to prevent a future energy crisis in Liberia. We should not go crawling through this pending energy crisis of your time on our hands and knees half-defeated. We are ought to stand up to it, that is all, and we must not give way under it until something breaks. And it won't be us, it will be the energy crisis.

I believe this project should use the strengths of Liberian culture and traditions to make Liberian reconstruction more manageable to its people. It should use available resources to mobilize local ex-combatants and give hope to the people and districts that the government cannot provide employment for now. I believe the project will spillover mainly to support local enterprises in the creation of jobs by training and establishing farmer-to-farmer programs and create dependency brigades at community levels to control hunger and violence in Liberia. Indeed, since poverty, unemployment, and the lack of food are some of the major causes of violence and military coups in Africa, it is imperative that sources of employment be provided for Liberian ex-combatants and other destitute and internally displaced Liberians with a structured environment such as the proposed sugarcane plantation for an ethanol project.

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Shades of meaning in the office décor

Via
The Telegraph, UK

You can paint your workplace red and stay in the black. Catherine Quinn looks at the effect of a change of hue on staff productivity

Look around you. If you work in an office, what you are likely to see is great swathes of off-white or cream walls. They can be uninspiring, to say the least. Staff may long for a splash of colour to lift the mood, but corporations tend to opt for décor that is cheap and easy to keep clean.

But the neutral whitewash favoured in offices is being challenged by bolder shades and brighter tones. Companies are discovering that colour can have a genuine impact on the mood and efficiency of their staff.

One company who knows this first-hand is design agency Aquent. They conducted a six week trial painting their offices a different colour every week as part of a psychological experiment on how different hues could impact on staff mood and motivation.

Starting with a vibrant red in week one, the interiors were covered in wall to ceiling. Week two brought out blue, through to yellow, grey, green, and finally black. At the end of each week, staff filled out a questionnaire designed to test their reactions to the new colour, and the data was then correlated by business psychology consultancy Pearn Kandola. "The results were actually quite surprising, and very complex'' says Binna Kandola of Pearn Kandola.

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Lean Manufacturing Class Touts Productivity

Via
FortWayne.com

Federal program promotes efficiency
Courses provide lessons in cutting costs, saving time

By Kimberly Peterson
The Journal Gazette

Messenger Co. in Auburn used to operate two shifts five days a week to produce prayer cards and register books for the funeral home industry.

But the company was able to eliminate wasted time and materials from its manufacturing process and still increase its business, last year adding a third production shift and 15 employees to handle the extra work.

The shift came after the company’s employees went through lean-manufacturing courses offered by the federally funded Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

The partnership has helped Messenger increase its workforce from 97 in 2005 to 112, and the company projects sales will increase 15 percent this year.

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Panel for 35-50% salary hike; seeks wage-productivity link

Via
LiveMINT.com


Proposed increase will cost Centre Rs30,621 cr in 2008-09; commission recommends minimum govt salary of Rs6,660

By Sanjiv Shankaran and Sangeeta Singh

New Delhi: Some four million Union government employees could get up to 50% increase in their annual compensation after the Sixth Central Pay Commission weighed in with much-awaited recommendations that also included significant changes aimed at boosting productivity in the notoriously inefficient Indian bureaucratic corps.
The proposed pay increase, including arrears, will cost the Union government Rs30,621 crore in 2008-09. A part of the pay increase will be effective from 1 January 2006, the commission’s report said.

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"Supercities" recommended to train China's development

Via
Xinhua

BEIJING (Xinhua) -- China would obtain greater economic benefits and improve energy efficiency by adopting a more concentrated pattern of urbanization, according to a report released here Monday by the McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey and Co.'s economics think tank.

"An urgent shift in focus from solely driving GDP growth to an agenda of boosting urban productivity is not only an opportunity but a necessity," said the report.

A more concentrated pattern of urban growth would produce 20 percent higher per capita GDP than the current pattern, have higher energy efficiency, and contain the loss of arable land, its said.

It would also help cluster the most skilled workers in urban centers which would be major engines of economic growth.

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Supply chain a major challenge for Indian retail sector

Via
The Hindu

By D. Murali and Kumar Shankar Roy

Chennai: Behind the glitz and glamour of the neighbourhood retail chain that you are fond of nowadays (the local kiranawalla is not a priority anymore), remains a very efficient supply chain. The job isn’t complete if you happen to have just products stacked up in the shelves. Somebody has to manage the supply chain as well. This is where Supply Chain Management (SCM) comes. But as far as India is concerned, therein lies the risk too.

From movement and storage of raw materials, inventory, and finished goods from points of origin to consumption -- the current retail boom in India can only sustain its momentum if supply chain management is given top priority by retail players. An under-developed supply chain cannot help retail stores. It will cause more harm.

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Hamburger Helper Squeeze For Efficiency & Profit

Via
St. Paul Pioneer Press

High profits in lean times
Productivity gains help General Mills keep lid on prices
By Julie Forster

To understand why General Mills keeps growing profit margins even as raw material and transportation costs spike, consider a box of Hamburger Helper.

The company made the box smaller while keeping the contents' volume the same. That allowed it to make the cases the boxes ship in smaller. And that means it was able to squeeze more cases onto trucks.

"In a world where oil is over $100 a barrel, using the truck fleet more efficiently and moving more products on the same truck is a very, very significant cost savings for us," Ken Powell, General Mills' chief executive said in an interview. "We have hundreds and hundreds of examples like that across our business where we are looking for opportunities. It is really helping us offset a very large percentage of commodity price increases."

Return On Investment From Safety Programs

Tips For Talking Safety To the CEO

What do you do if your organization's CEO questions the return on investment of safety and health programs? How would you negotiate safety programs into your organization's long-term business plan?

These questions were asked of safety managers gathered at the American Society of Safety Engineer's conference, The Business of Safety: A Matter of Success held in Baltimore March 13 and 14. The overall theme of the conference explored ways to help safety professionals enhance communication with management and secure a seat at the financial and strategic planning table.

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