jueves, 25 de marzo de 2010

INDIA THE NEW GURU

I would like to publish a summary I made about a wonderful article I found in a EBSCOhost Database taken from the Harvard business review. I think is really interesting because it shows many Indian advantages in terms of economical issues. It also appears as a more prosper country than China since it has better labor policies and it has been really worried about improving them.

Yet India is racing ahead to become a global center for advanced R&D in several industries. In trying to understand how India is achieving this feat, we know that the Indian private sector was found a way to overcome deficiencies in its education system through innovative programs of workforce training and development. These have transformed workers with a weak educational foundation into R&D specialists.



Indian native firms reveal that despite its low rates of postgraduate science and engineering graduation comparing to China, India is rapidly becoming a global hub for R&D, with a momentum and scale similar to those it accomplished in IT services.


But If engineering education is so critical to global competitiveness, how is India succeeding?


To answer this, we have to take into account the R&D leaders, managers, and employees, and see the R&D and training facilities the leading companies in India. These are in rapidly growing emerging sectors, including TT services, business-process outsourcing, semiconductors, Pharmaceuticals, financial services, retail, hospitality; and education—all of which have managed to grow and innovate despite skills gaps and talent shortages.


The Indian key of development: Discipline


During the 70s and 1980s, the Japanese achieved major advances in manufacturing management, which led them rise as an economic power by studying, adopting, and eventually perfecting the best practices of western companies. India is achieving similar feats in workforce development: India has learned and perfected the best practices of leading companies that have been outsourcing their computer systems and call centers.


They invest in their employees


In a fact which India’s largest competitor, China, has been quite criticized is investing in its employees. Indian industry has had to adapt and has built innovative and comprehensive approaches to workforce training and management. The initial focus was on training new recruits and filling entirely-level skill gaps. Now, these companies are investing in constantly improving the skills and management abilities of their workers and in providing incentives for them to stay and grow with the company.


There are seven key areas in which Indian companies have developed innovative practices:


1) employee recruitment


2) new employee training


3) continuing employee development


4) managerial training and development


5) performance management and appraisal


6) workforce retention, and


7) education upgrades.


Indian companies have become also innovative not only in how they recruit but also in whom they recruit and where they look for talent. Most of them have developed a recruitment philosophy to hire for overall skill and aptitude rather than specialized domain and technical skills.


Women and older workers in particular are being targeted by technology companies and call centers, which are also reaching out to rural and disadvantaged communities.

All the above let us conclude that Colombian companies have long played the gum, developing and disseminating many widely adopted management and workforce practices. The time has come for stop learning from the USA “guru” and start learning from one of its disciples: India.



























































sábado, 20 de marzo de 2010

Is the Tiananmen episode over?


Since the end of Mao Zedong age and the begginings of Den Xiaoping transformations, the Chinese socialist party saw the necesity of a continuos adaptation to the world they were living. They made a deep research of why and how the communist political systems around the world failed. They analized all the economical, political, social, cultural and international issues that were involved in these systems and the mistakes made by their predecesors on regard to its application arriving, among other things, to the conclusion that their system should be flexible, open to knoweledge and technology and with an armonious society ruled by law. A kind of “Chinese democratic system”.

Despite of all these changes an “discoveries” they never looked inside and tought about the importance of different ways of thinking inside of its society. They still believe that all the people should be ruled by the same values and minds. Chinese government do not allow any kind of opposition to the unique party and the judicial power is not independent because is under the legislative power mandate.

In terms of democracy that has no sense, is completely contradictory and that was what the young people of Tiananmen thought and were fighting for “Without democracy there is no modernization”. However, the “New democratic” government smashed their rights and their request showing everyone its enourmus militar capacity against just young citizens and warning the rest of the people of the danger of being in an opposite way to the goverments aligments.

This giant emergent country still goes for that path. It offers lots of opportunities to its citizens in terms of study, ¿work? (not always dignified), etc but all that is under the conditions of keeping aligned to the parties rules. Let us see what is about to come to China under this mental, poitical oppresive system but at same time economically succesfull State.

The immigrants' Canada




Canada has become in one of the must atractive places to go to live. It has been considered during several years for the ONU as the best country to live in. Its inhabitants enjoy of high living standards and excelent job and study opportunities.

However, for some immigrants, this living paradise is not such a thing. Many of them struggled economically in Canada and the government is striving to improve migrant outcomes.

“In 2008, there were key differences in many indicators of quality of employment between immigrants and non-immigrants. On average, immigrant wages were lower, while rates of involuntary part-time work, temporary employment and over-qualification were higher. For immigrants who landed in Canada more than 10 years ago, however, the indicators of quality of employment more closely resembled those of the Canadian born” http://www.livingin-canada.com/news/
Recommended video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPkacPqcoEM (Job Search Challenges faced by Immigrants in Canada)

viernes, 19 de marzo de 2010

What is the difference between an migrant and an expatriate?


The main difference is that an expatriate is a person who leaves his/her native country and goes to live to another for any kind of reason. The term migrant, or better, immigrant has been lately used to determine those persons that decide to leave their countries, basically for economic reasons. This term is used mainly for people from poor countries who travels to a develop country searching for better living standards and job opportunities that was not able to found in his/her home market.


An expatriate can also leaves his/her country for economic reasons, however the most of the times these reasons are internal job transfers, personal business, studies and why not turism.
Cartoon taken from: