Global Diversity, Out Sourcing, economics

Global Diversity for U.S.A. has become a reality as the internet has made every corner of World accessible via the internet. While many companies top executives have embraced diversity, many companies and citizens are still un-accepting, or behind the times.

Many minorities and woman have made great progress in breaking the so called glass ceiling. We have a Barack Obama, a black president, Deval Patrick, the first black governor of Ma, and many other influential business people. When people make it to the top of their profession, they tend to hire and reward people in their inner circle. In the recent past, trickle down economics meant, minorities and woman where the last hired.


During this economic down turn, gains made in the Information Technology sector by blacks, Hispanics, and women have been reverse by wide spread lay offs.

Global diversification of the work place has proliferated as a result of wide spread out sourcing. Many support functions have been sent to countries such as India, Guatemala, and China. The fact is, many people in these countries can speak multiple languages (fluent English) but speak with a distinct accent. It time to realize that the world is no longer US (USA) and them (foreigners), but we as one!

When in this global economy, all U.S. workers need to be able to work with all cultures and countries. We as US citizens need to take a look at the world beyond our borders. How can U.S. business and workers use the global diversification and economy to our advantage? It time to refocus from Main Street to the global super highway and I as a business man, will be reviewing our relationship with Europe and our global strategy.

Massachusetts Information Technology -- State Legislature

Massachusetts state government and Governor Deval Patrick has under taken an initiative to merge all state agencies under one umbrella. The key person in this project would be the chief information technology officer for the state.

The CIO would help merge the MA highway department, public transit, RMV, and Aeronautics under the Executive Office of Transportation. The EOT budget was projected at 20 million which also over sees 3000 agencies.  One of the key duties for the CIO was working with the Information Technology Division and Federal funding sources to identify and secure financial resources needed to support IT initiatives

Once of the keys to merging agencies involved the state’s effort to move towards open document format (ODF) with in executive branch agencies. Transforming IT operations for 3000 agencies is a huge investment that the state appears not ready to make. The last two CIO have resigned as a result of the “Massachusetts Legislature's decision not to fund most of the state's IT projects”.

During the last three years, battle lines have been drawn over the direction of digit document format.  Both former CIO’S have decided to go with ODF, XML based format using a variety or products including IBM workplace and StarOffice.  The decision to not use Microsoft’s digital format resulted in opposition from Microsoft, legislators, government officials, and special interest group.

I was interested in tracking this project as I assisted in locating person to fill CIO position for the state of Ma. They key to project management is, the person or people running the project and associated funding. If either of these two variables are lacking, chance of success are diminished greatly.

American Dream -- Milton Academy style via Governor Deval Patrick

Milton Academy -- Deval Patrick

Deval Patrick's road to first black governor of Massacusetts.

Deval and his good friend President Obama both offered similar hopes of optimism and hopefullness

many people were hungry for. Many people felt that changes would bring a brighter day for every one, not just the rich and greedy.

Deval's back ground is interesting. He graduated from Milton Academy and Harvard law. He became a top federal civil-rights enforcement officer in the Clinton administration and cheif counsel for Coka-Cola.

Deval grew up in Chicago (poor) and earned a scholarship to prestigious prep school Milton academy. He went on to Harvard and graduated from Harvard law school. He was a private attorney in Boston, specailizing in poverty law and civil rights work. In 1994 President Clinton named him assistant attorney general for civil rights. Deval has lived in Milton Ma, but his residence was reported up for sale, speculating a move to Washington with President Obama.

Deval made his in roads as an attorney working for Stephen Rienhard U.S. court of appeals as a clerk. In Berkshire county, Mark Riehard is a polical science professor at Williams College,who helped Deval get the prestigious clerkship. Deval has built a multi-million dollar second home in Richmond Berkshire county.

Back when Deval started his campain for Governor of Massachussetts, Judge Rienhart helped

get the campain off the ground and was a person of great influence and affect on Deval's life and career.

One thing that impressed me about Deval, he was not freightened or overwhelmed that he would not fit in among youth of power and privilege at Milton academy. He made the effort to reached out to others and learned that other kids were just as frieghtened as he was. There was a sense of community among adults and teachers at Milton academy where others took interest in helping you along. I also learned that there is a strong minority presence at the academy, which must have been helpful as well.

By all accounts Deval has lived the American dream. Deval ran for governor on the premise of keeping the American dream alive. In order for people to realize the American dream, the USA must have a strong economy. The education system in the USA must improve and health care should be affordable. Deval has just released a new intitutive to help small businesses acquire capital, which hopefully will lead to job creation.

Deval is an inspirtion for all based on his hard work and success. His record as governor of Massachussetts is another question. My hope is there will be brighter days ahead for Massachussetts and USA.

I am heading to Milton Academy this week end to officaite a football game.  I wonder if I will run into any future leaders and hope to see some interesting sites.

Windows 7 upgrade and review

Windows 7 upgrade:

If you are currently running Windows Vista you should be able to upgrade to Window 7 with out a problem. Windows 7 is designed to run on the same hardware as Windows Vista which is good news.

Windows 7 key feature are:  the improved performance resulting in a faster and more stable operating system.  Newer systems will run Windows 7 fine, but on older systems, you should review the hardware requirements below.

The system requirements for Windows 7 are as follows: 1 GHZ or faster processor, 1GB RAM 32 bit, 2 GB RAM 64 bit, 16 GB hard drive space and a graphics card compatible with Direct X 9. You can also run Windows 7 upgrade advisor at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx

The Windows upgrade advisor will let you know what hardware and software will work with Windows 7, all others you will have to find and load the appropriate drivers. Microsoft does have some new security features available in security essentials.  http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

The early reviews on Windows 7 are good. It’s faster, better looking user interface and has touch screen capability.  I will provide further overviews and review once I install.

Manage Success -- a New England tradition

What can we learn from other’s success?

The Story of a Hall of Fame Coach Bill Bellchick

As the story goes, Bill got his love of football from his father Steve. Steve an immigrant got to college on a football scholarship. As a player Steve realized he would some day like to coach.  Steve loved to break down film, analyze play principles, various formations, and scout opponents for hours.  By the age of ten, Steve’s son, young Bill (being around his father) would spend hours absorbing every fact, thought, and perspective.   The key is identifying and developing a love for what you do.

Bill’s early guiding principles were order and patterns through football.  Bill would play football at prestigious Andover Academy and receive a football scholarship as well.  His major in college was economics; this would dictate how his teams would manage the salary cap, and how he would value his players. A key piece to building any successful business is, providing a great product at a great price.  The final result would be the molding of a championship team, the New England Patriots. The NE Patriots championship teams of the 90’s lacked super stars, but had many great team players. Many of these players performed above expectations, providing great value, and contributed to one of the most successful teams in NFL history.  Through tradition, principles learned: hard work, thriftiness, and moral responsibility, Bill and Patriots were able to build a dynasty that many believed was impossible.

IT security breaches what are the damages?

After many well publicized security breaches at large companies, the damage and resulting aftermath is costly and disturbing. Over the last 12 months security breaches have become a large problem for many companies. You can attribute attacks to economic conditions and to new hacking techniques with wide range objectives.

According to studies, the numbers of security breaches are the same as last year, but the damage is more severe. The average cost on a security breach is $85k, lost business, security repair.

Based on recommendation from FBI and Homeland Security Assessment:

Companies need to adhere to rigorous attention to security and the implementation of security technology such as Firewalls, Anti-Virus solutions, and intrusion detection systems.

Implementing a password security policy is key. Help desk support should be trained on how to verify users identity prior to releasing passwords; especially over the phone. 

Setting up self automated password reset technology can be very useful in managing users’ password. Taking these steps can minimize damages from a security breach. 

Out Source USA Pride

Economics of outsourcing USA jobs

At some point in the last decade it become acceptable to send USA Jobs else where. I recall working for a management firm, where we would provide the hourly workers and management. We could do the job better and save our customers money which would improve profits.

 

At some point ohter countries caught up with the USA, especailly in regards to certain skills and education. Approximately at the same time, foreign manufacturers began to make products that were just as good or better at a lower cost. This situation made it more difficult for US companies to compete in the global economy.

 

The USA consumer was lead to believe that buying American made products was no longer important.

Many USA consumers began to buy foreign products espceially cars and electronics. As this became an acceptable norm, USA began to focus on profit and stock price above all else.

To increase profits, companies hired foreign workers and companies who could do work cheaper and some times better. At first, the public was lead to beleive that companies were only using foreigh workers to do jobs that USA could not do, especailly math, science, and programming.

At some point out sourcing become more than a USA skill or labor shortage, but a profit center. According to recent research, 40% of all US jobs could be "offshored". I was shocked to learn that many companies have sent I.T. support jobs over seas to countries such as India. I was stuned by the fact the human resources functions were be sent over seas.

According to research, an occupation's "offshorability" has no relation to skill level, education, or wages. Bottom line, any one's job can be sent over seas.

I have struggled with, why USA companies would send jobs over seas and put workers on the unemployment line. Unlike many other countries, especailly Japan, we show very little value for US workers. If offshoring can save the company money, you are probably gone.

What if you were a CEO "cheif executive officer" would you outsource / offshore to increase profits. I believe for most people, the answer would be yes. The question is, how can this change? We must once again, make good products, buy American, and punish companies who offshore for a meassly short term profit at the cost of longer term prosperity.