You can’t please them all…or can you?

Outsourcing is very important to the business world and helps many companies in a variety of aspects. Creating partnerships with outsourcing companies is vital for companies to survive in this day and age. It also saves a lot of money for many companies, which benefits them greatly. India’s business-process-outsourcing (BPO) companies are a $50 billion industry however has recently been experiencing problems. They have started to struggle to attract the right kind of people to work there. The image of a business-process-outsourcing used to be considered prestigious and financially beneficial, but that has changed. Now people rather work in traditional sectors. They have realized that to change people’s perception of the profession, rebranding would be needed to help with that. If BPO employees would feel loyalty toward and support their companies, it would send a good message of the industry to others. A study conducted, based on Gallup data, has shown that as long as the numbers are dropping, BPO companies will not be able to change people’s perception of them. This data shows that only 28% of employees intend to stay with their companies for the next few years and that they would promote their company to others. This low level of loyalty is why the business is experiencing so much turnover and lost productivity. Word of mouth in very important in society today, however in India it is vital for businesses to survive. Indians tend to rely on advice from other people, especially trusted people, when it comes to making big decisions. This is how the problem is arising, because people who would have normally gone into the BPO industry and being advised to pick other professions now.

The industry will not survive if business owners do not start taking care of their employees. In order for the BPO to turn around, business owners need to direct their focus on making sure that their employees are happy. If they do not succeed with this, then they will not be able to obtain new employees which is ultimately what they need. Employees need to feel important in what they do and like they are making a difference somehow. They have need to feel that they are learning and growing while at their job, because let’s face it; no one wants to stay at a dead end job where they are not actually getting anything from. Employees must feel empowered and engaged in what they do.

What do you think are other ways that the BPO can raise their workforce number? Should employers focus on their current employees in order to get new ones in the future? Or should getting new employees be their main focus instead?

 

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-04/indias-outsourcing-firms-must-boost-morale#r=nav-r-column

Litigation over innovation

It is no secret that the iPhone 5 was released within the last few weeks. It is all people could talk about for weeks, sowing just how much people love their Apple products. They expect a lot from their products and for the most part Apple has delivered in the past. After the release of the newest iPhone, many consumers have not been happy with the product. There are multiple issues and dissatisfaction of features. This is worrying many people that Apple just is not living up to their name anymore, which is concerning since they have spend the last decade building up their followers.

Apple is currently engaged in multiple litigations. They are not perfect; they have flaws and make mistakes. Apple has a reputation for its innovativeness and excellent product quality, but what happens when they no longer deliver up to the consumers’ expectations? The mistakes of the iPhone 5 left business strategists wondering whether they are due to poor judgment or a change in priorities for the company. Their business model has been to develop and market high quality innovative products. In the last decade, Apple has really stepped up their game; bringing out products like the MacBook, iPod, iPhone and iPad, blowing consumers away. However, recently it seems like they are spending their time and resources in legal battles.

 

Apple Picture

Once companies start spending a lot of time defending their products in courtrooms, that’s when business strategists become concerned. Companies such as MCI and Microsoft spent a great deal of their time defending their products in courtrooms and in return fell from the top, being quickly replaced by companies whose head were in the marketplace. The main reasons for this concern are; “legal battles divert leadership from looking after the basic corporate functions”, “legal victories create a sense of complacency,” and “litigation may hurt the company’s image among users.” Experts say that Apple’s priorities are off and they need to set them straight. They need to place innovation ahead of litigation and stay focused on what is most important; the consumers. Once the consumers start to get disappointed, they will slowly start to lose their following and fall from the top.

This goes along with our topic in class of project management. In every project, the most important aspects must be addressed and accomplished. In the Key Success Factors, top-down commitment is the most important and it may seem from the article that Apple is not focused on that and that might be why is may lose its success. Consumers are still buying the products, however from the recent drop of Apple’s stock price, it is obvious that they are slowly losing their followers, which will only continue if they fail to please time and time again.

Do you believe that Apple has lost sight of what is really important? And therefore that is why the iPhone5 was such a letdown to so many people? Consumers have forgiven and forgotten the mistakes made by Apple in the past, but how many more mistakes do you they can make before  they start to lose a great deal of followers?

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2012/10/01/is-apple-spending-more-time-on-litigation-than-innovation/