Economies in recession around the globe

According to leading economists it appears that a range of economies are approaching recession, or even in recession. This includes Canada, Ireland, Spain, Italy and New Zealand. Even more critically it appears likely that the US and UK are set to follow. This has significant implications, investment may shift from these markets to those with a more positive outlook, investment structure in IT will change. CIO's will be required to have IT investments that return effectively and quickly. Hopefully waste will be removed from the economies, and in places like Ireland and Canada which have experienced long term economic stability and growth, there has been a lot of extra weight added to the economy and inefficiency. This will be removed as the economy get tighter.

As with all recessions and economics for that matter, there needs to be some realistic context. Whilst economies are slowing, or experiencing negative growth, they are not going to disappear overnight. The Canadian economy shrank by 0.3% recently, it is still 99.7% of the economy, but clearly in relative and absolute terms the cream has come off the economy.

We will look at this and the implications for the economy as it evolves

26. June 2008 21:40 by Phil | Comments (0) | Permalink

BPO that really works - Indian Visa process

If anyone else has tried to get a visa from Indian consulates around the world, it is a long and very frustrating process to merely submit a visa. However it has been moved to an outsourcing arrangement, and amazingly it works. A one hour experience was moved to a 1 minute one. Given that it is the Indian government undertaking the process, perhaps it is not a surprise that they have made sure it works seamlessly from end to end. Now to fix the traffic in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
24. June 2008 22:50 by Phil | Comments (0) | Permalink

Can Carly Fiorina really take the credit for turning HP around - Not that easily in my opinion

An interesting article in the New York Times today on the role of ex HP CEO Carly Fiorina in the presidential campaign of John McCain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/us/politics/06fiorina.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Avoiding the US political race, what was interesting to me was the comments of Fiorina on her legacy at HP. Did she turn them around, or was it Mark Hurd who should have credit for it. Not surprisingly she is pretty clear in her own mind on the matter. To quote her -From the day I was fired, every quarter, even before they had a new C.E.O., has been record after record. That doesn’t happen unless the foundation’s been built –

Whist of course this has merit, and she has a fair point, the market did not want her, the majority of the board and Senior Management Team did not want her. Furthermore,  enough employees were not drinking from the kool aid to be happy without her there. My question is did Firoina really build the foundation at HP for its recovery, or was it done by the many thoushands of employees who got on with the job despite the speculation. HP was never a one person company, it was founded by two people and symbolically has grown from there to have a very unique culture that has allowed it to succeed often in spite of itself.

By the same consistency Mark Hurd cannot take the credit for the ongoing success of HP as well, (publically and from what I have seen, I doubt he would be inclined to anyway).  That goes to the employees who battle on in head office and across the many HP plants and locations. The CEO is of course critical to provide the vision, discipline and following in a firm such as HP, but without the employees on the ground 1 person cannot make HP (or any other firm) great.

5. June 2008 19:47 by Phil | Comments (1) | Permalink

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