2 replies to this topic

[Simon]

I heard this morning that Marconi are shedding 800 possibly up to 2,000 jobs in the UK, this follows on from the previous days announcement that IBM plans to shed up to 13,000 jobs most of them from its struggling European operations.

A couple of depressing bits of news that may have been slightly lost being announced as the General Election drew to its climax.

Let's not forget it was only a few short weeks ago that Rover announced it was finally closing the doors of its plant in Longbridge with the loss of 6,000 jobs and potentially a further 20,000 in supplier industries.

I'm 39 and it struck me I haven't heard of job losses and closures for a long, long time. Was it really as far back as the late 70's early 80's when we had the power cuts, miners strikes and high unemployment? We've definitely had it pretty good in the UK for a while but I fear we are at the beginning of a worrying trend.

Let's hope not but if it is a trend then what are the causes and what can we as quality practitioners do to help avert it?

Regards,
Simon

[Wallace Tait]

I fear we are at the beginning of a worrying trend.  Let's hope not but if it is a trend then what are the causes and what can we as quality practitioners do to help avert it?

Worrying trend? Maybe for "the some" who have slacked off, and enabled the current stagnancy of business in the western world.
The Chinese behemoth is rolling and it's picking up speed almost daily.
We're a wee bit late regarding implementing corrective actions to remedy and prevent stagnancy continuing.
There is though, great opportunity in this situation for business leaders in the west! A paradigm shift of sorts must needs take place within education systems all the way to corporate leadership.
We have to start with the education system and allow an infusion of long term investment to teaching and learning models that allow innovation to come to the fore.
The students and graduates who are coming out of the education system, from High school to college, to University to teaching and corporate leadership roles, are for the most part ill equipped to handle the current and future realities of global business.
We used to say, "Oh well it'll take a generation for this to take effect", not anymore; we are compelled to fast track the education and learning process and enable our organizations, societies and governments to help us succeed in this ever demanding world of trends.
Wallace.

[Simon]

Wallace, no one can deny the importance of a good education system and great leaders. However, it wouldn't have done Marconi any good they lost the British Telecom (BT) contract solely on price. Marconi generates about 25% of its work from BT but it was not among the eight named preferred suppliers for a new £10bn ($19bn) network. I've not been able to find out in which countries the 8 preferred suppliers are based but I would wager at least some of them are Asian.

An admission. On a smaller scale I am having some development work done on the web site by an Indian company - why? Because their quote came in at 1/8 of the price I could get the work done in the UK. After doing some research I posted the project on http://www.elance.com and got 29 bidders from all over the world, primarily Eastern Europe and Asia. I must say I was a little wary of going ahead at first but after seeing their portfolio of work and feedback from previous projects I was sold. I'm in the middle of the process and they are quick, courteous, they understand exactly what I want and the work is of an extremely high quality. I know in my own small way I'm contributing to the trend and yes I do feel a bit bad, but I'm a capitalist on a budget.

With the sort of price differentials that can be achieved (mostly down to the cost of labour) is there anything the west can do to fight back? Will becoming more efficient make much difference? Does quality of leadership matter?

Regards,
Simon