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The Steps from Product Idea to Product Success
Michelangelo once said that his statue of David was embedded in the block of marble and he merely chipped away the edges to reveal it. Is your product idea inside your mind just waiting to come alive? Or, is your product already formed and you...
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Innovation Management – Smart People Don’t Necessarily Produce Great Ideas
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea...
Innovation Management – the power of decision makers
One of the most important aspects of creativity and innovation is access to decision makers. One of the fastest killers of creativity and innovation is the inability of innovators to get products off the ground – and when people see that their...
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SELLING YOUR BUSINESS FOR THE BEST PRICE
If you are considering selling your business this article will help you evaluate your company as a strategic acquirer might. From that perspective it pays to focus on ten critical areas of value creation. The better your performance in these areas,...
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Offshore Outsourcing -- Future
Offshore Outsourcing
provides the ability to hold skilled overseas staff at a small
part of the labor cost which is exhilarating to several
entrepreneurs. The vistas in which Offshoring can be utilized
especially in: accounting, advertising, animation, Human
Resource Management and Development, health care-related jobs,
IT projects, financial investment and consultancy, legal
services, and network security. The concept of Offshore
Outsourcing is couple of centuries old when the colonial powers
started taking raw materials from their respective colonies and
then selling them after processing them into manufactured
commodities. In 19th century the Britishers (and other
imperialist/colonial powers), because of industrial revolution,
rampaged the small-scale and cottage scale industries in India
(and other respective colonies) by selling processed goods to
the natives having a better quality. Now in 21st century the
tables seem to have turned on the colonizers (or
neo-colonizers). Taking advantage of the cheap labour in
developing countries, many MNCs have set up subsidiaries in
India and in other places (like China, Canada, South America,
Africa, Israel, Ireland, Russia). In the past decade, US
companies alone have invested $7 billion in their subsidiaries
in India, picking a net saving of more than $26 billion.
Telstra, an Australian telecom company, for instance, saved more
than $75 million a year by outsourcing many jobs to Indian
enterprises. Latest modifications in the way U.S. companies are
using Offshore Outsourcing Industry have generated heated
controversy, which is comprehensible considering that jobs are
at hazard in an already tense economy. But whereas it may be
human temperament to adhere to the status quo, the software
industry will be better off in acclimatizing to these changes
and allowing innovation to thrive. Detractors have fated
offshore development as everything from shortsighted to
un-American--but it may well conclude salvaging the U.S.
software industry. For staying competitive in the global market,
U.S. software companies must persist in driving innovation.
Nevertheless, innovation today is
being choked through deficient
R&D budgets on the company side and an overspending menace on
the customer side. Offshore development can help on both sides.
In fact, as pointed out in a recent report by the US Chamber of
Commerce, the main cause of increased unemployment in the US,
Britain and other developed countries is the enhancement in
productivity due to continuing advancements leading to massive
unemployment; and, two, that it has not contributed to
unemployment, as is sought to be made out.
Here are the reasons: For a mature software company, expending
on proper product innovation is much less than what you might
think. It by and large accounts for less than 30 percent of the
R&D budget. This small piece of the pie is being further
clutched from two directions. First, overall R&D spending by
public U.S. software companies is lessening. In fact, in 2002 it
fell by 2 percent, after having consistently grown at 15 percent
annually since 1998. Most of these cuts are captivating a bite
out of new product development. Second, R&D budgets are being
consumed by ever-increasing maintenance-related activities, such
as bug-fixing, upgrades and minor enrichments. Maintenance
agreements with a huge customer base mount up over the years
mandate this support. With such restricted resources accessible,
software companies can't successfully produce real advance.
Instead, many of finest and brightest are jammed down in what
amounts to software maintenance tasks. The irony is that many of
these developers would be happier with--and better suited
for--truly pioneering work. But companies have painted
themselves into a corner. This is where offshore development can
facilitate. In most cases, a well-executed offshore development
program can help release an added 20 percent of the R&D budget
for new innovation while continuing to meet the maintenance
obligations of mature companies.
About the author:
For further information on offshore outsourcing and
offshore software
development, please visit http://www.a1technology.com .
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