Showing The Payback For Improving Efficiency During Difficult Times

Via
Forbes

You Gotta Have A Plan
By Ed Sperling

With a recession looming, uncertainty in the credit markets and wild gyrations on the stock market, most companies are battening down the hatches to weather the storm.

That means it won't be long before the chief information officer gets a knock on the door--or more likely an e-mail--to come talk to the chief financial officer and CEO about what he or she is doing to cut costs. The general rule of thumb is that it's better to have a plan than to be given one. And it's better to say how you're going to cut costs than to be told your budget is being cut.

Forbes.com caught up with James Kaplan, principal in the New York office of McKinsey &Co., who has just completed an in-depth study on managing information technology (IT) in a downturn.

Forbes.com: Why should the CIO be concerned about a downturn?

James Kaplan: When business slows, there's a natural instinct to cut IT costs.

Is that because IT is one of the largest budget items?

The size of the expenditure varies greatly by industry sector. If you're in financial services or telecommunications, it can be a large percentage of revenue or operating expenses. In manufacturing, it's usually rather small. But in many cases, the instinct to cut IT in a downturn stems from the perception that it's largely discretionary. There's also uncertainty around the value. In organizations where there is more uncertainty and doubt about the value derived from IT, there is more of a tendency to cut when times get tough.

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Bahrain Official Vision Includes Productivity & A Middle Class

Via
Gulf Daily News

2030 vision for a brave new Bahrain

A BRAVE new Bahrain is being mapped out under revolutionary economic and social reforms unveiled yesterday.

Massively improved standards of living, radically reformed government, widespread privatisation, better education and health services and an enhanced quality of life are pledged in the blueprint Economic Vision 2030.

The roughly 4,500-word mission statement to transform the nation, drawn up by the Economic Development Board, was launched at a ceremony yesterday attended by His Majesty King Hamad, Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and EDB chairman Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Deputy Premier Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa and other top officials and dignitaries.

Economic Vision 2030 outlines the future path for the development of Bahrain's economy and society, says the EDB, which created it in consultation with the government and private sectors, political leaders and international bodies.

"At the heart of the Economic Vision lie the aspirations for our economy, government and society in accordance with the guiding principles of sustainability, competitiveness and, fairness," it says.

The aim is to transform Bahrain into a meritocracy, in which hard work reaps rewards, in an economy led by the private sector.

"We aspire to shift from an economy built on oil wealth to a productive, globally competitive economy, shaped by the government and driven by a pioneering private sector - an economy that raises a broad middle class of Bahrainis who enjoy good living standards through increased productivity and high-wage jobs," says the document.

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Working Longer as Jobs Contract

Via
NY Times

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

IN recent years, many retirement experts have been giving the same unwelcome advice: American workers who are not as rich as Warren E. Buffett should retire three or so years later than they had planned — to ensure that they have a large enough nest egg.

But now, in these extraordinarily turbulent times, with the stock market declining sharply and millions of 401(k) plans plunging in value, many workers are suddenly facing a starker situation — they worry that they might have to work 5, 7, even 10 years later than planned, perhaps well into their 70s.

But that’s not the only problem. Even as workers in their 40s, 50s and 60s accept having to work years longer than anticipated, many companies are laying off employees amid the economic downturn. This often means that older workers are pushed out first, because they are usually the highest-paid employees.

“You have 401(k) plans going into the tank and the cost of health insurance rising, so many people see they need to work longer,” said Karen Ferguson, director of the Pension Rights Center, an advocacy group for retirees in Washington. “At the same time, many employers don’t have money to hire people, and they’re getting rid of their more expensive employees, so it’s kind of a perfect storm.”

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Productivity Drop Linked To Job Cuts In India

Via
The Economic Times

India Inc may see more job cuts as efficiency levels drop
By Ranjit Shinde and Jessica Mehroin Irani, ET Bureau


MUMBAI: Though the last week’s retrenchment saga at Jet Airways saw a happy ending, the ghost of job losses still haunts India Inc.

An ETIG study of the workforce efficiency of Indian companies indicates that corporate India is witnessing reduction in per employee revenue and net profit. This may prompt some more organisations to take up job cuts to maintain productivity.

A study based on the data of 700 big and small companies that reported annual employee data reveals that two out of seven companies or about 27% of the companies reported lower revenue per employee in FY08 compared to the previous year. As many as 39% companies in the sample saw a drop in net profit (PAT) per head by similar comparison.

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Innovative Way To Curb Global Warming, Improve Productivity

Via
ABC Rural, Australia

Breeding Low-Emission Sheep

New research is under way to breed sheep with low methane emissions.

The Sheep Co-operative Research Centre at Armidale will try to find out if improving meat and wool production efficiency is enough to reduce emissions.

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"Don’t Get Stuck in Reverse"

THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson


I love this quote by Gandalf the Gray from the book Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, “When we despair we cease to choose well. We give in to short cuts.” It’s so true and we all know that we have been guilty of it at some point in our lives.

It reminds me of the Dot Com Bubble that burst in March of 2000 and caused the stock market to crash, I remember those heady days of “irrational exuberance” as Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan referred to it. It seemed like everyone was worried they were going to miss out on the digital revolution. They were motivated by the dreams of easy money. It was all about taking a short cut.

Several start ups approached me to help them promote their new Internet businesses in exchange for stock options. I looked at a couple of cobbled together companies that were little more than a guy with a website and the hopes of mining some venture capital. The idea was to generate web page hits with a clever name or gimmick, sell a ton of stock at the Initial Public Offering, then retire a millionaire. I decided to stick with those willing to pay in cash.

After the burst, I read about a repo man in Silicon Valley who repossessed the expensive cars of former Internet millionaires. He reported that he frequently found dozens of losing lottery tickets in the cars -- evidence that the former car owners were acting out of despair and looking for short cuts back to the elusive wealth that had slipped from their grasp.

Beverly Sills, the famous opera soprano, once said, “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” But, too often when times are good we pile on the responsibilities. Later on when we encounter adversity, we look backwards instead of forward. We attempt to go back to where we enjoyed success in the past even when it is counter-productive to our current goal.

In my seminars on innovation I conduct a fun exercise that demonstrates how we frequently feel we must go backwards before we can go forward. A volunteer from the audience is selected and sent out of the room. The audience chooses a simple behavior they want the volunteer to do (like jumping up and down on their left foot). What makes it fun is that the volunteer must guess the behavior. The audience can only help by saying the word, “yes” when the volunteer does anything that comes close to the desired behavior. They are not allowed to say, “no” or give any other hints.

Once the volunteer performs the desired behavior, the audience rewards it with a round of applause. I ask for a second volunteer, but this time we change the rules after the person leaves the room. When the desired behavior is reached, the audience goes silent, says nothing, and gives no applause. Since the volunteer is no longer getting feedback in the form of “yes” he or she will go back and repeat behaviors that did elicit a “yes.” The audience, however, remains silent.

As we watch the volunteer, we can see despair forming on his or her face. The volunteer will then go further backward to find a previous behavior that generated success. Eventually the volunteer quits going backwards and starts initiating brand new behaviors in the hopes of regaining another, “yes.” It is after several new behaviors are performed that the audience is signaled to applaud and reward the volunteer for his or her efforts. The purpose of the exercise is to force the volunteer to backtrack to the point that they realize success can only be found by moving forward.

In life, the trick is to stay focused even when our luck seems to be changing. We may have to slow down or make changes in our methods, but the goal must remain the same. Henry David Thoreau observed, “We rarely hit where we do not aim.” In other words, if you’re moving backward you are moving away from your goal... and it’s hard to hit a target when you’re facing the wrong direction.

Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. is a motivational speaker and humorist. He works with companies that want to be more competitive and with people who want to think like innovators. For more information on Robert's programs please visit www.jumpstartyourmeeting.com

Proposal For Government Control Of Coal Operations

Via
The Herald, Australia

Port coal operations disquiet


BY IAN KIRKWOOD AND JULIEANNE STRACHAN

THE State Government is seeking new powers over Newcastle's largely private-sector coal loading operations, in a move that has caused disquiet among coal companies.
The powers are contained in draft legislation introduced by Ports Minister Joe Tripodi, who is scheduled to visit Newcastle this morning for a trade announcement.

Coal company executives met in Sydney yesterday to discuss operating conditions in the Port of Newcastle, and the intended new laws were apparently part of the closed-door discussions.

Mr Tripodi spoke in State Parliament late last month on the Ports and Maritime Administration Amendment (Port Competition and Co-ordination) bill, saying that one of its main objects was to improve productivity and efficiency in ports and port-related supply chains.

Coal companies speaking anonymously to The Herald said they were concerned about the bill, because it gave the Government the right to set mandatory performance targets for supply chains and to order private companies to provide information about their performance, efficiency and capital investment.

The provisions are contained in a draft of the bill supplied to The Herald.

Failing to comply with the mandatory standards or to provide the relevant reports would be offences punishable by financial penalty.

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Top 10 Productive Nations

Via
Bloomberg News


U.S. Economy Still Most Competitive Despite Crisis, WEF Says

By Simon Kennedy


Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. retained the title of most competitive nation for a fifth year even as its economy is roiled by the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, the World Economic Forum said.

The U.S. led Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden in the Geneva- based organization's annual rankings of 134 nations, receiving top marks for innovation, the size of its markets and labor productivity.

The efficiency of the world's largest economy may provide it with a cushion as it slides towards a recession and its banking sector continues to be hurt by last month's collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The U.S. government is beginning to implement a $700 billion finance-rescue package.

``Despite rising concerns about the soundness of the banking sector and other macroeconomic weaknesses, the country's many other strengths continue to make it a very productive environment,'' the report said of the U.S.

The U.S. was still ranked only 66th for macroeconomic security with the forum warning its overall productivity may wane in coming years because its federal budget deficit and debt suggest it is ``not preparing'' for the retirement of the baby boom generation.

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Social networking sites help companies boost productivity

Via
USA Today

By Jon Swartz

SAN FRANCISCO — Social networking is going corporate. The popular technology used by millions of people to share ideas and photos on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and others is catching on at companies to improve productivity and communication among workers.

Private, internal social networks make sense as companies grapple with a slumping economy that has made travel cost-prohibitive even as workforces are spread out as never before, tech analysts say.

"Companies are asking, 'How can we make our workforce more productive?' " says Kevin Martin, an analyst at market researcher Aberdeen Group.

Corporations increasingly are "exploring and experimenting" in the use of social networks to improve business operations, says Gina Bianchini,CEO of Ning, a social-networking site for businesses and consumers. It makes revenue from Google AdSenseand premium services.

"There's been a definite shift the last two months," she says. "There is a genuine interest now rather than a casual curiosity before."

It is hard to find projections for the blossoming market, Martin and others say. Martin estimates hundreds of companies worldwide — including Saturn and Smart Car, for example — use internal social networks, compared with a fraction of that a year ago.

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What Is An Extensible Enterprise Productivity Suite?

Productivity Software Key Element
As Major Players In Social Networking Site Facebook
Branch Out To New Venues

TWO STORIES:


Facebook co-founder Moskovitz leaves to start group collaboration company

By MATT MARSHALL
The Industry Standard

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and colleague Justin Rosenstein said this weekend they are leaving Facebook to start their own company.

The moves are just the latest in a steady exodus from Facebook, a trend that has sparked questions about whether the popular social networking company’s culture is changing and whether it is losing its magnetism.

The new company will build tools to facilitate collaboration within the enterprise, according to the duo.

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Facebook Co-Founder Departs To Build
Extensible Enterprise Productivity Suite

By Mark Hendrickson
TechCrunch.com
Friday, October 3, 2008; 12:20 PM

Rumors started to leak earlier today that Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and colleague Justin Rosenstein were leaving to start their own company.

Facebook has since confirmed the rumor to us with a simple quote from Mark Zuckerberg: "Dustin has always had Facebook's best interests at heart and will always be someone I turn to for advice."

Fortunately, Rosenstein (who formerly worked at Google as product manager of Google Page Creator) has posted more information about their reasons for departure in a Facebook note to friends, which we have reproduced with his permission below.

In it, he describes briefly how Moskovitz and he plan to build to an "extensible enterprise productivity suite" that uses Facebook Connect as its user authentication system and borrows many of Facebook's own design conventions. The two of them thought about building this suite from within Facebook but eventually decided that it would make more sense to build it within their own company. The choice quote: "We hope our products will become to your work life what Facebook.com is to your social life."

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Ergonomic Energy Boost

Via
Innovations Report, Germany

New research suggests that teaching staff about improving their posture and working conditions in a manufacturing plant can boost productivity by more than fifty percent. Details of the research will published in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Oguzhan Erdinc of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the Turkish Air Force Academy and Ozalp Vayvay of the Department of Industrial Engineering, at Marmara University, in Istanbul, investigated how simple improvements in the working conditions of employees at a clothes factory could improve performance and reduce the number of faulty "seconds" being produced by an apparel factory.

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Energy Quality and Economic Value

Via
TheOilDrum.com


This is a guest post by Roger Brown, known as Roger K , whose graduate work was in physics. In reading about net energy and EROEI, he realized that energy balance alone is insufficient for characterizing the economics of energy production. In this post, he develops a multi-variable approach to account for the cost of other production resources. This post is the first publication of his innovative ideas.

Labor Cost of Energy

In order to produce an economic output, you have to invest production resources. At a minimum some amount of human labor must be invested. There is no such thing as a labor-free production process. Even if you lived in a sparsely inhabited tropical paradise filled with streams jumping with large tasty fish and heavily laden fruit trees growing profusely in the natural forests, you would still have to spend some amount of time gathering fruit and fish.

If you could gather all the food you needed for a single day in a half hour of work, then your food would be very cheap. If you lived in a less productive natural environment and had to spend eight hours a day gathering all of the food you needed, then your food would be very expensive.

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Worst Job Loss In Five Years For U.S.

Via
NY Times

159,000 Jobs Lost in September ...

By PETER S. GOODMAN

The American economy lost 159,000 jobs in September, the worst month of retrenchment in five years, the government reported on Friday, amplifying fears that an already painful downturn had entered a more severe stage that could persist well into next year.

Employment has diminished for nine consecutive months, eliminating 760,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department’s report. And that does not count the traumatic events of recent weeks, as a string of Wall Street institutions collapsed, prompting the $700 billion emergency rescue package approved by Congress on Friday.

“It’s a dismal report, and the worst thing about it is that it does not reflect the recent seizure that we’ve seen in the credit markets,” said Michael T. Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, a research and trading firm in Greenwich, Conn. “There’s really nothing good about this report at all. We’ve lost jobs in nearly every area of the economy, and this is going to get worse before it gets better because the credit markets have deteriorated basically on a daily basis for the last few weeks.”

Though the bailout may restore order to the financial system and eventually filter through the economy by making it easier for businesses to secure capital, few analysts expect it to swiftly reverse the nation’s fortunes. Housing prices continue to fall, eroding household wealth just as millions suffer the weight of unmanageable debt. The deteriorating job market has taken paychecks out of the economy, reinforcing a predilection for thrift that has cut sales from car showrooms to hair salons.

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