Emergic: April 23, 2005 Archives

Saturday, April 23, 2005

The Art of Packing

WSJ has a column by Jeremy Wagstaff on how to pack for travel:

To me the big innovation in packing is the module. The thinking is simple: Why collect all the individual things we are going to take with us on our trip and then lump it together? Most of us, if the flight is not actually about to depart, make little piles of our underpants, socks, shirts, etc on our bed before cramming them into the suitcase, hoping they fit, squeezing a sock-ball here, a handkerchief there. At the other end, we throw the case on the bed, rummage around inside, with shirts, vests, scarves and boots flying everywhere in a sort of reverse action replay. It's horrible, and if we then have to move room, hotel, or continent again on the trip chances are not a single item of clothing looks anything like when we bought it.

So technology's answer to this problem is: Stay at home. Let someone else do the trip. No, actually, it's modular packing, sometimes called packing cubes. It's simple enough: Instead of throwing everything into one bag, you put them into smaller sub-bags, which then go into the big bag. So the big bag, instead of being a pile of sundry items in varying degrees of crumplitude, is a neat collection of different size sub-bags, or modules.

General | PermaLink | Comments (3)

On a lighter note, in the technology industry, we call it "over-engineering" the stuff ;)

Posted by Kshitij Chandan

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be .....

I remember doing all that was mentioned in para 1 till I got a serious drubbing and insights into organised packing by a friend while on a countrywide tripping. Since then, it is one lesson I have never forgotten and has since paid in rich dividends.
Simple things line like shapes consume lesser volumes.. hosiery items and socks and kerchiefs can squeeze themselves anywhere.. The end result is that it all fits well and with lesser time effort and less stress levels as well... Teaching the same to my better half has helped also... I am going on a trip next week and our travel bags are duly getting done as well... Rich dividends indeed..

People do not realise the benefits so much.. It is very essential to know this info.. thanks for highlighting to one and all... Maybe there is some universal gyaan in it as well when we extend it to our office desks, cupboards or wardrobes, financial planning etc..

Posted by Krishna Iyer

Peter Drucker pointed out in his book "Innovation and Entrepreurship" that the
"container" saved the dying freight shipping industry in the 1950s.

The shipping industry tried hard to increase the ships' speeds and to lower their fuel consumption, but the real costs did not come from doing work (that is, being at sea) but from not doing work (that is, sitting idle in port) for loading and unloading of cargo, clogging the ports and slowing turnaround.

The adoption of the "container" (which had already been in use by in the railroad and trucking industries) not only saved the shipping industry but turned it into a major growth industry.

A reviewer on Amazon describes Drucker's point well - The [container] could be pre-loaded on land before the ship arrived. The pre-loaded container could then quickly be loaded onto the ship when the ship arrived in port. This made ocean transit much more cost effective and efficient. Drucker notes that the big cost of ocean transit was having ships held up in port, effectively tying up a capital asset without being able to utilize its full earnings capability.

The proposed packing model is a variation of the shipping container model

Posted by Satya

Technology and Development

Atanu Dey writes:

The use of high technology (x) is highly correlated with high degree of economic growth and development (y). Correlation, as economists never tire of reminding one, is not causation. Furthermore, even if there is causation, the direction of causation is not always obvious. Two variables x and y may be causally linked; but does x cause y, or does y cause x, or are they two connected through some other hidden variable z?

I am sitting in the University of California at Berkeley. (Hi from Berkeley!) The campus is full of high technology tools. Compared to what UC Berkeley has in terms of computers and bandwidth, the campus of a typical Indian university (Nagpur University, for instance) has very little. So it is tempting to believe that if Nagpur Univ were to be equipped with all the electronic gizmos and Internet bandwidth, then it too will attain the level of a UC. But that is patently absurd. What makes UCB is not the hardware (electronic or otherwise) but human and institutional capital. Human and institutional capital is what matters, not hardware. Just to drive home that point, Nagpur University in 2005 has more electronic hardware and internet bandwidth than UC Berkeley had in 1980. Yet, the capability of UCB(1980) far exceeded that of Nagpur University(2005).

It is not how much hardware or software or information one has that matters; what matters is what you do with it. And what you do with it depends on you and not on the thing. An inept author will not suddenly start writing masterpieces even if equipped with the fanciest word processing software. People will not suddenly become knowledgeable just because they have all the information of the world wide web at their finger-tips.

Deeshaa (Rural Development) | PermaLink | Comments (0)

India's IT and Outsourcing Industries

The Economist writes:

Optimism about India's prospects in these businesses is based, firstly, on the sheer range of work now encompassed by the IT and BPO industries and, second, on its potential for further expansion. The business that started it all—offshore software development—still has plenty of room to grow. The world becomes more dependent on IT by the day. Even as new applications are churned out, old ones need maintaining and even newer ones developing.

The youthful BPO business, meanwhile, is still defining itself. At one end, say at 24/7 Customer, it involves telephone marketing to hapless British householders unaware they need a new credit card; or fielding a call from a nice lady in a bank in Exeter in western England, who wants to send a credit card by courier to Antigua, and is presumably unaware that the efficient, London-accented courier executive she deals with is sitting in Bangalore.

Such call-centres are the best-known and biggest part of BPO. At the other end of the spectrum, even high-end research-and-development work is being outsourced. The Bangalore offices of HCL Technologies, for example, is designing a back-up navigation system for Airbus.

In between, the range of business processes that can be outsourced is constantly expanding: processing insurance claims; desktop publishing; the remote management and maintenance of IT networks; compiling audits; completing tax returns; transcribing medical records; financial research and analysis. The list of possible activities is almost endless. “We have barely scratched the surface,” says Stefan Spohr of A.T. Kearney, a consultancy.

The biggest constraint on the growth of India's service industries may be the available talent pool. Nevertheless, the bullish projections for Indian IT and “IT-enabled services” produced in 2002 by NASSCOM and McKinsey seem within reach. They forecast that the combined industries would, by 2008, employ 4m people (up from fewer than 900,000 in 2004), earn $57 billion-65 billion from exports (compared with $17 billion in 2004), and account for 7% of GDP (compared with 4%).

The challenge this poses for the firms leading the boom is how to expand fast enough to meet demand without jeopardising quality. For quality, as much as cost, is what is driving the demand. It is in this context that Bangalore's troubles have to be seen: as the acute growing pains of a still-infant industry. It is a worry not because the difficulties are insuperable, but because some can be solved only by the government. India's IT industry has thrived in part because, unlike most other sectors of the economy, it has largely kept the government out of its business. That period is coming to an end. Neglect, the industry is learning, is not always benign.

Emerging Markets | PermaLink | Comments (7)

Mr Rajesh, do you really believe in what Economist has to say?

Increased money in a local economy leads to inflation is a well known fact. These BPO's do the lowly back end processing; cyber coolism is a new phenomenon. They are air conditioned sweat shops backed by greedy enterpreneurs and swinging monkeys;NASSCOM. I really wonder whether BPO centres in Bangalore realise as to what they have done to the socio economic set up of that city.

No wonder that Kannada associations were protesting against the influx of outsiders from the state staffing these centres; the influx of North Indians is generally resented. The local people have generally been given the boot. North karnataka offers a study in contrast. Behind the glitz of Bangalore that makes the headlines, abject poverty and farmer suicides strike you up in north- a picture of lopsided development. This maybe at variance with vested interests who feel that by proclaiming the growth of companies like these really makes India an IT superpower. Step outside Bangalore and you would see abject failure of Public Distribution systems there. Of course the infrastructure bottleneck.

The fact is that Bangalore provides a ready place for poaching the trained workforce. Thats natural as it shaves off the cost. With high attrition rates of almost 50-60% because of unnatural work hours, it is a grave medical risk. I really wonder whether we get to see "Call Centre Syndrome" down the line- the long term affects of sleep deprivation and unnatural sleep cycles in adults.

NASSCOM and Economist are ready to ignore these realities. Plus of course. I really wonder as to how they arrived at those estimates- "billions of dollars pouring in India being good for this country". Blatant lies repeated many times over dont become truth.

Posted by Dr Abhishek Puri

Dear Dr Abhishek Puri,
What is the nonsense with the "increased money in local economy leads to inflation" see the BPOs' are not simply printing money like RBI and Government whenever they need.
What the BPOs' get are hard earned money in exchange for their services, if you think you can complain on that, go first tell RBI to stop printing paper money.

Posted by Jayakamal

Dr Puri,

I agree that BPOs are sweatshops and not rocket science but is there a better alternative.

India with all this population has to have a industry which is labour intensive. Without BPO we might end up like Africa. I also believe (as Atanu Dey advises) manufacturing & agricultural sector has to kick in and complement the services industry so that people have food to eat.

You are worried about Inflation whereas I am worried about unemployed youth and poverty. (also your statement "Increased money leads to inflation" is not suitable here.) Do you mean we shun those BPO jobs and sit idle ?

Its kind of shocking to hear statements from Indians ourselves. I would expected these statements from a Westerner who had lost his job to a Indian (and I understand his situation)

Oh, these kannada rights are coz of shortsightedness and anger misdirected. Its not because of other state people entering bangalore that its in such a pitiable state, its simple because the govt sits idle without improving infrastructre.

Try giving your argument to Dr. Jagdish Bagawati.

Posted by Navin

I d agree that BPO's are not printing money. By that same logic it is a juvenile argument. The only point I want assert here is that as the local economies go for a toss, the ones with meagre sources of income are the hardest hit. To me it seems to be perfectly logical to conclude the same. I am sure that Economists would be in a better position to explain that.

My only grouse is that behind the glitz and the media hoopla, there are a large number of people who assume that BPO is one way to riches; fact remains that no one takes this as a career option. The biggies like NASSCOM draw their sustenance from these outfits. Beyond that they have no relevance per se. The facts are stark. As jobs shift in the rural America, undue reliance on these BPO's in the long run would hurt us more than anything else.

The facts. Mphasis, despite it's fancy security accreditions had swindling employees. Any more incidents like these and everything goes in for a toss. As attrition rates goes up, higher salaries are one way out. This erodes the cost differential factor that initially attracted hordes towards India. The shift of jobs is likely to other destinations with less priveleged populations. I mean there is no justification for such a huge cost differential for the same work being done in US or India. Why are we paid less as compared to the dingbat in US? How can as an Indian swallow this?

Then the all famous Gartner study which says that percieved benefits over cost savings by outsourcing are not there. In the long run, it works almost the same. I see a trend in media which proclaims that BPO industry in India is "maturing".

One last contentious issue. Most of the MNC's don't have loyalty towards the host countries. If the outsourcing debate catches up with a feverish pitch among the western audiences, they would simply find it useful to move back. Have they given any kind of gurantees that they would not do so? Not that I am aware of. In that event how would you face the unemployment problem resulting thereof?

Posted by Dr Abhishek Puri

Dr Puri,

Your quote :" If the outsourcing debate catches up with a feverish pitch among the western audiences, they(MNCs) would simply find it useful to move back".

If they move back, they lose the competitive edge to Indian vendors and will run the risk of going out of business.

The cost factor will not be a major headache (as some Gartner Studies predict). We recently discussed this in Brad's Weblog. Let take a practical case.

A BPO person on an average gets paid 10K USD and the vendor might charge the client 25K USD. If there is a cost pressure the vendors will take the hit and the industry will not go bust easily. i.e, if the employee cost goes from 10K USD to 15K USD the vendor will cut his profit margins and not try to push the escalating costs to the client to remain competitive (and in business). The bottom line is, the (greedy) vendors (both MNCs and Indian) will ensure the industry stays here and alive.

I totally agree that BPO is not a great thing to rave about and is not the way to riches and is not the panacea to improve india. All know this BUT lets us not also believe the fallacies like
1. MNCs might run away easily
2. Rupee Appreciation will stop outsourcing
3. Employee cost and attrition will stop outsourcing

All the above three wont happen easily as the vendors will go out of business first, and believe me they do everything they can to stay in business.

Posted by Navin

In an earlier post, I had taken Peter Drucker's famous statement "I never predict. I just look out the window and see what’s visible — but not yet seen," and applied it to the future of the BPO industry.

Looking at the visible, but unseen aspects of the BPO boom, I think there is an opportunity waiting to be seized. The first person to tap into the pool of BPO employees to improve existing businesses or to build new businesses could be onto something. See my post at http://prayatna.typepad.com/satya/2003/12/call_centre_emp.html for more on the visible, but unseen aspects of the BPO boom and ideas for new businesses tapping into the BPO employees.

Posted by Satya

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Posted by bob