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Evolution
of Benchmarking in India: Triumphs and Tribulations
-- Lata
Chakravarthy
The
concept of Benchmarking has evolved over the last decade and
a half in all segments of industry and commerce, thereby helping
the alert and agile players to reap significant cost reduction,
efficiency gains and prepare for future competition. This
study evaluates the level of assimilation and the extent of
effective exploitation of the concept of Benchmarking by the
manufacturing and software/services sectors and shows how
these have translated into tiny islands of excellence, contributing
to the steady increase in the nation's GDP growth rate and
foreign exchange reserves. However, this growth cannot be
accelerated or even sustained unless the quality of infrastructure
and even more vitally the quality of governance and delivery
of basic public services at the federal, state and grassroots
levels is resuscitated and revitalized from the current state
of near collapse to global standards in the shortest possible
time. While the central government has shown signs of waking
up from deep slumber by drawing up some passive documents
and initiating a few token actions, sincere concerted efforts
towards an awe inspiring, world-beating goal capable of transforming
the corruption bedevilled, impoverished nation into a strong
and healthy economic superpower is still not forthcoming.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Analysis
of the Impact of High Oil Prices on the Global Economy
-- International
Energy Agency
The
vulnerability of oil-importing countries to higher oil prices
varies markedly depending on the degree to which they are
net importers and the oil intensity of their economies. On
average, developing countries importing oil use more than
twice as much oil to produce a unit of economic output as
do OECD countries. Developing countries are also less capable
of withstanding the financial turmoil wrought by higher oil-import
costs. The adverse economic impact of higher oil prices on
oil-importing developing countries is generally even more
severe than that of OECD countries. This loss of business
and consumer confidence, inappropriate policy responses and
higher gas prices would amplify these economic effects in
the medium term. For as long as oil prices remain high and
unstable, the economic prosperity of oil-importing countriesespecially
the poorest developing countrieswill remain at risk. The impact
of higher oil prices on economic growth in OPEC countries
would depend on a variety of factors, particularly how the
windfall revenues are spent. In the long term, however, OPEC
oil revenues and GDP are likely to be lower, as higher prices
would not compensate fully for lower production. In the IEA's
recent World Energy Investment Outlook, cumulative OPEC revenues
are $400 bn lower over the period 2001-2030 under a Restricted
Middle East Investment Scenario, in which policies to limit
the growth in production in that region lead to on average
20% higher prices, compared to the Reference Scenario.
©
2004 IEA (www.iea.org). Reprinted with permission.
Supply
Chain Management: The Science of Better, Faster, Cheaper
-- Thomas
F Siems
The
article discusses about the important changes and emerging
trends in supply chain management. It also presents some evidences
that led analysts to believe that good supply chain management
has contributed to the nation's improved macroeconomic performance,
more stable economic output and stronger productivity growth.
In sum, while supply chain management is as old as trade itself,
new information and communication technologies have made today's
supply chains better, faster and cheaper.
©
2005 Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (http://www.dallasfed.org).
Southwest Economy, Issue 2, March/April 2005. Reprinted
with permission.
Computer
and Communication Technologies for Negotiations
-- Patrick
Low Kim Cheng and Netra Pal Singh
Negotiation
can be taken as "an interpersonal decision-making process
necessary whenever we cannot achieve our objectives single-handedly"
(Thompson, 2005: 2). This means that "parties are committed
to peaceful means for resolving their dispute"; they
have "to make a decision about their interdependent goals
or objectives" (Lewicki and Litterer, 1985). Computer
and communications technologies such as phone, faxes, e-mail,
internet, e-commerce, teleconferencing, instant messaging
and other information systems embedded with sophisticated
negotiation algorithm (Grunbacher (2003)) are being used in
the process of negotiations by the organizations to achieve
the goal of negotiation in their business deals. This paper
deals with issues such as transparency in negotiations and
e-negotiations versus auctions, negative and positive aspects
of technology and human face-to-face negotiations. Last section
presents a list of negotiation softwares and some major trends
in the technology (Information Systems) in relation to e-negotiations.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
E-Marketplaces:
Developing Comprehensive Platform for Future in India
-- Rajul
Datt
Organizations
are increasingly using Internet to conduct business to attain
greater speed, reach and efficiency. An entire new class of
dynamic e-commerce solutions is quickly overtaking the comparatively
static models. Hundreds of new e-marketplaces are emerging,
changing the way the business is conducted even in the most
traditional industries in India. We are observing the rise
of new class of entities e-marketplacesthat will help on-line
buyers and sellers find each other. The purpose of this paper
is to: (a) provide an overview of e-marketplace trends, growth
and opportunity; (b) describe the characteristics of an effective
e-marketplace platform; and (c) suggest how market-makers
build and run effective dynamic e-marketplace. Issues in e-marketplaces
are diverse and the field of industrial environment is so
wide that picking the areas was difficult. The author has
tried to raise issues which have high relevance at least in
theory but certainly with potential for further focused research.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Smart
Educational Institutions: Connected Smart Educational Institutions
in a Smart Society
-- Raghu
Guda and Neeraja Guda
The
importance of literacy across the world is being more and
more emphasized nowadays. Hence, educational institutions
are facing numerous challenges to economically survive and
extend education in a stimulating environment that can enrich
the learning experience to provide skills that can be marketed
locally and globally. The current systems are hindered due
to the changing globalization and rapid advances in the technology
and learning abilities of the students. In a quest to enable
the educational institutions leverage the technological advances
to overcome the present day hurdles and prepare for the ensuing
learning paths the Smart Educational Institutions framework
explores the combinational effect of various current advancements
and futuristic indigenous concepts.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Research
Summary
From
Push to Pull: The Next Frontier of Innovation
This paper was written by John Seely Brown, former head of
Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center and Chief Scientist at Xerox
and John Hagel III, an alumnus of Mckinsey's Silicon Valley
office, and now a Senior Adviser to the firm. This paper was
published in The McKinsey Quarterly 2005, Number
3. Page No. 82-91.
©
2005 McKinsey & Company. All Rights Reserved. The IUP holds the copyright for the summary. |
