Tag Archives: business

Outsourcing trends point to further job losses…

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SPA032The outsourcing market is a large, diversified and complex model but it is still possible to discern some notable trends:-

1) The manufacturing industry in the West looks likely to continue to shrink, according to Electronics Times the U.S semiconductor industry lost 107,000 jobs between 2001 to 2009 and some predictions estimate a further loss of 146,000 jobs from 2008 – 2018 – Scary stuff.

2) The latest Labour Market Outllook report from CIPD suggests that 10% of all UK companies intend to outsource some work in 2010 with 41% of I.T companies planning to outsource key activities.

3) According to the Bangkok Post the Outsourcing market was worth $24.9 billion at the end of Q4 2009 up 8% on the previous year.

4) An interesting observation is that Chinese & Indian companies are looking at Outsourcing within their own National boundaries. This is perfectly understandable given both countries vast size and untapped resource. We may see a gradual migration of economic activity from coastal areas inwards.

All of the above highlights the need for Western companies to accellerate Innovation to stay ahead of the value curve.

It also suggests that Western governments need to look very carefully at their strategy for Manufacturing and Innovation if they want to preserve what remains of the High Technology sector to provide skilled employment in the future.

As per usual Cash is King.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Greedy greedy Cadbury, greedy Cadbury..

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chocolateThat was the chant that went up around the U.K following the decision by the Cadbury board to recommend the latest offer from the American company Kraft for the U.K confectionary manufacturer.

Surely, however, the Cadbury board was only acting in its shareholders best interests – and what’s wrong with that ?

Perhaps objectors could answer the following simple questions:-

If you sold your house would you a) get the maximum price you could or b) sell it to the nicest person for a much lower figure ?

If your boss offered you a 20% pay rise would you decline in the better interests of the Company which employs you ?

Thought so.

Why are people who consistently act in their own material interests find objection when others do the same ?

There are genuine concerns that the Kraft takeover will have a negative impact on Cadbury workers jobs, but those workers do not own Cadbury’s they are employed by them and as a result receive generous financial reward; if they are not happy with the results of the takeover they are free to sell their skills and abilities elsewhere.

It may also be the case that Kraft should not be too surprised if their workforce seek and pursue a substantial pay claim, if neccessary employing industrial action to force their claim.

Maybe if we all acknowledged our own material instincts we could be more understanding of the actions of others.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

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Dissapointing your customers…..

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projectsSometimes, despite best efforts at Risk Management, we drift off plan. In the worst case this means we won’t be able to meet our customer commitments.

So what do we do:-

a) Wait until the last minute, hoping for a miracle, then tell the customer they are going to be dissapointed – this is probably the worst thing you could do; no one likes to be let down at the last moment, particularly customers, it also offers them no options and could be extremely costly if they have prepared an expensive advertising campaign to launch their product.

b) Tell the customer as soon as you are aware of the problem – probably better than a) but this will still cause a lot of consternation to the customer and doesn’t offer them any solutions; in effect it puts the responsibility back on the customer which is what they are paying you for !

c) Explore all the possibilities to get the plan back on track; get the whole team involved and seek advice from Senior Mangement once you have explored all the possibilities.

Develop a contingency plan. Find out what you could deliver on time and what you could deliver at a later date. Come up with 3 or 4 alternatives.

Arrange a face to face meeting with the customer, apologise profusely and present them with the contingency plan.

You should have absolute confidence in your contingency as you want to make sure you do not let the customer down again.

Most customers are realistic and pragmatic and the contingency approach will generally maintain your reputation as an effective project manager.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

ap4

The real cost of time to market delays….

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p4Anyone involved in New Product Introduction (NPI) knows how critical time to market is but do they know how to quantify it?

If a product has a predicted lifecycle of x years the assumption must be made that sales will cease x years after product launch i.e at product “death”.

If the launch date is delayed by 2 months the original product “death” should remain the same. Any product will only be viable until its successor is released by its originator or the competition. The result is a loss of 2 months of sales which will have a real monetary value. This is a perfectly reasonable proposition as there is no logic in assuming that the competitors next product will be late just because yours is !

This enables us to quantify project delays in terms of real dollars. Great news for Senior Management but also good news for the project manager as it allows us to justify additional project resource or equipment in order to meet the original project timescales.

Remember – if your Senior Management has not provided the resource you budgeted for to bring the project in on time quantifying time to market losses in monetary terms is a great leveraging tool.

Are your objectives SMART ? ………….

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smartteamIt is essential, when starting a project, that the team fully understands what the Objective is. This might sound obvious but is also something which is often overlooked. Sometimes the team is formed and the project kicked off without any clear statement about the Objective of the project. Consequently different Team members have different views on what the Objective is and this inevitably leads to unnecessary conflict and wasted effort.

The time to set Objectives is during the Storming phase of Team formation. During this period the Objective may be “kicked around” and debated until a consensus is found. This will happen at the beginning of the Norming phase. The team leader provides a pivotal role in agreeing objectives by setting the scene and putting things in context.

Objectives should be S.M.A.R.T:-

Specific.

Objectives need to be specific. They need to stipulate what is required, why it is required, when is it required & by whom.
The more Specific you can be about the Objective the greater your chance of success.

Measurable.

Objectives have to be measurable so you can track progress towards your goal. Establish suitable charts which track progress in a clear way.

Aggresive

Objectives MUST be Aggresive; not in a violent way (of course) but in a challenging way. They should be set such that they stretch the capabilities of the team in terms of performance and timescales.

Realistic.

Objectives MUST be Realistic. The setting of Objectives beyond the technical competence of the team or outside of its political remit will only lead to disappointment & poor morale. Also Objectives should not be too lax otherwise the Team will not be motivated and the outcome may not be favourable with external competitors.

Targets

Performance Objectives should be published & measured against targets.

SMART Objectives lead to SMART Performance !

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Its a risky business…..

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transparentOnce the plan is in place & agreed the project then moves into the execution phase. This is when things really start happening and, if the planning has been done properly, things should proceed according to plan – right ?……Wrong !!

No matter how good the planning, in reality, things rarely proceed to plan. This is where the skills of the Project Manager come into play.

Each stage of the plan will have obstacles, some minor and some major, which need to be overcome in order for the plan to proceed. These obstacles may be referred to as RISKS and it is part of the Project Managers role to identify those risks, quantify them and mitigate against them.

It is useful to create a Risk Management log (normally in spreadsheet form) which should have the following headers as minimum:-

RISK , MITIGATION,  EXPIRY DATE,  SEVERITY,  TREND

Other factors may also be tracked but the principal is to log all the risks in severity order so that they may be prioritised and addressed accordingly. This should be done by the team and the results published to the wider business so that everyone is aware of the situation. The Risk log should be reviewed periodically and any new risks added. Any which are deemed closed will be marked as such.

So, by addressing the project risks in a structured way their impact may be minimized and the project kept on track.

If the Critical path is extended at any point the whole project delivery will be impacted so the structure of the plan should be reviewed to see if any tasks may be shortened to pull in the overall timescale.

If this is not possible then the end customer (external or internal) must be informed of the change to delivery date so that their expectations are not adverse to reality. This may cause some short term pain but it is always better to get the bad news out early if the alternatives have been exhausted.
Remember:-

all projects have risks, its how you manage them which counts.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

In the bleak midwinter……

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winter 006

In around 5 months time the people of the U.K will go to the polls to elect the Government for the next parliamentary term.

Over the last 13 years of Labour government manufacturing output has declined dramatically from around 20 % of GDP to around 11% today.

The Economy has become grossly inbalanced in favour of the Financial Services and Property sectors. This has proved disastrous and has contributed to the deepest recession we have seen in a lifetime.

To rebuild a robust economy we need a mixed economy in which manufacturing plays a major and significant part.

It’s easy to be cynical about Political parties but it’s interesting to visit the main parties websites to find out what their policies are towards the Economy and manufacturing in particular.

You may be surprised by what you find.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Effective Project Management

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Effective Project Management.

What is a Project ?

A project may be large or small, simple or complex but all projects share three common attributes:-

• Specific Outcomes – the project is set up to deliver some specific results or outputs.

• Defined Start & End dates – The project starts and finishes on pre-defined dates.

• Budget – the project has a pre-defined budget which it should not exceed

What is the Project Management process.

There are a multitude of definitions of the project management process but all of them share the attributes shown below:-

PMprocess

The Role of the Project Manager.

The role of the project manager is a challenging one. Often he or she will be coordinating the activities of technical highly skilled people and liaising with internal and external parties all critical to project delivery. Project Management is a highly skilled professional role and the Project Manager will normally need several years experience in order to be successful.

The role involves the key tasks of planning, organizing and controlling. In complex projects planning project tasks often involves the use of software programs such as Microsoft Project which enables the Project Manager to schedule hundreds of tasks and manipulate their interdependencies in order to reduce the overall timescale of the project.

Organizing involves dealing with people within the immediate project team as well as third parties internal and external to the wider organization.

Controlling involves monitoring and measuring outputs and exerting influence to achieve the desired outcomes.

In order to be effective the Project Manager needs information, communication and commitment.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Dubai gives the world the finger………….

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Burj2Dubai has officially unveiled  “The Burj” –  now the worlds tallest building at 828m & visible from over 60 miles away !

It cost a staggering $1.5 Billion to construct over the last 5 years using thousands of migrant workers.

Indeed the building was originally to be called “Burj Dubai” but has now been named “Burj Khalifa” in honour of the ruler of Adu Dhabi who recently bailed out the troubled emirate to the tune of several billion dollars.

Many will see this building as a great feat of engineering, a wonder of the modern world, a tremendous edifice and monument to Capitalism, the latest and greatest in a long line of stupendous architectural magnificences.

Others may see it as the biggest ‘white elephant’ ever built, a monument to excess, an obscene symbol of wealth built by the labour of the poor (mainly Indian & Pakistani labourers paid a few dollars per day) slaves in all but name.

A fitting monument to the “Noughties” decade of excess which imploded in the Worlds greatest recession.

The greatest  example of construction built on sub-prime mortgage the world has ever see.

Dubais magnificent finger rising from the plains and screaming “Up Yours World !”

Whichever way you view it you certainly can’t ignore  it.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Chinese elves make manufacturing cheaper…

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father-christmas In a press statement released today at 21.oo GMT Father Christmas  announced that, from today onwards, all toys will be manufactured by Chinese elves due to the increasing costs of employing elves at the North Pole. This has been exacerbated due to the effects of global warming and the shrinking ice cap making Real estate in the Northern Latitudes increasingly expensive.

Santa denied that product quality would be effected stating that toys will continue to be designed by Northern elves. Only the manufacturing operation itself is being subcontracted to China.

No member of the Chinese Goverment was available for comment and Santa catagorically stated “…this has absolutely nothing to do with the recent Copenhagen event & ,despite rumours to the contrary, I was not a participant”