The outsourcing advantage

Rapidly changing and increasingly confounding issues are the reasons behind key shifts in business organisations today. Advances in technology, sophistication of business operations, and need for constant growth are factors that suggest a full-time focus on functional core competencies. As companies struggle to adapt to, and keep abreast with, the demands of customers and shareholders alike, the focus on core competencies may suggest outsourcing as a potential strategy to remain competitive.
 As a strategic business tool, outsourcing enables companies to identify functions that are not directly creating value for customers or shareholders.

THE PARADOX OF SUN TZU’S ART OF WAR

Written By: Shafii Ndanusa  Abuja, Nigeria.
The over 2000-year-old ancient chinese text; The Art of War is indeed a phenomenal classic. Personally for me as an individual and a student of strategy, it is certainly one of the most influential materials on the theory and practice of strategy that I have ever come across. To date, still after over ten years of coming into contact with a copy of the text, new paradigms of thoughts and interpretations emerge each time I ponder over some of its teachings. The depth and relevance of its teachings are so thorough, timeless and awe-inspiring that sometimes I wonder who really was Sun Tzu? For now, that is still a question unanswered.

Government, a lucrative business

A government the size of Karnataka should yield Rs 3,000 crore a year, through kickbacks. The cost of purchasing legislators being about the same, the payback is swift and fabulous. No wonder, politicians are lethal businessmen.

Bharat, not India, needs FDI

The small shopsin the rural areas are unlikely to be affected by the advent of organised retail trade.

The UPA government is set to trigger yet another round of discontent, by restricting FDI (foreign direct investment) in retail to large cities with populations of over a million each. This tilt towards the urban, to the exclusion of the countryside, does not stand to reason.
The Government of India recognises the key role of FDI in supplementing domestic resources, and as a source of technology and global best practices. The restriction of FDI to larger towns can only be counterproductive.