There is fascinating article in yesterday’s Washington Post by Paul Schwartzman that chronicles the choices one family has to make as they face economic hardship. The article evokes a range of emotions from sympathy (doting father, bad luck, articulate family) to outrage (spending unemployment money on gambling, beer and cigarettes).  I found that the most [...]

Posted on CRM Buyer (read full story here)
03/12/09 4:00 AM PT
The economy has forced countless businesses to restructure, rethink strategies and reprioritize initiatives. Don’t let a short-term, survival mindset cloud the long-term focus — there are opportunities here. Aggressively negotiate SaaS contracts, keep an eye out for bargains, and don’t underestimate the value of CRM, [...]

I was a having a conversation today with a co-worker today about politics, the economy, the state of the world, etc… In 2002, the infant mortality rate in the US was 7 per 1000 live births; in 1933, it was 58.1. In 1915, the maternal mortality rate rate was above 600 for every 100,000 births — [...]

In an uncertain market, it is important for organizations to learn to do more with fewer internal resources. In a recent study of over 4600 respondents, nearly a third (31%) believed that shortage of labor / talent is a top challenge for their organization.  Furthermore, on a year-over-year basis, staff development/expansion was down significantly as [...]

The current issue of Foreign Policy has an article that attempts to dispel the notion that The World is Flat. According to author Pankaj Ghemawat, less than 10% of patents, phone call revenues, management research, direct investment and “management cases” cross borders. In his opinion, if globalization truly lived up to its hype, he [...]

Apparently, according to a Sony exec, in good times people look for the best prices and lower deals (they can just buy a new one if it breaks). In bad times, they are more interested in quality products that will last. The refs are weak in the cited article, but it is an interesting [...]

Although he is right about the shortage of IT engineers and deficiencies of math education in the US, given the degree of animosity and passion that surrounds the immigration/outsourcing debate, it would be foolhardy of me to quote this interview with Wipro Chairman as exclusive support for my position. However, he does raise an [...]

The immigration and off-shoring debate is certainly an emotionally charged issue. In the spirit of the balanced debate that I called for in my Monday post, I’d like to respond to one of the commenter’s points individually:

“Slave Wages” – according to the US Dept of Labor, median annual earnings of computer programmers were $62,890 [...]

In the software business, there has been a wave of consolidations over the past few years. In the CRM software space alone, there have been over 20 acquisitions in the past 36 months. The research house Gartner expects several more through 2007. What happens to you, the customer, when one of your [...]

A report by the National Venture Capital Association that was delivered to members of congress last Wednesday suggests that immigrants started one in four venture backed companies in the US since 1990, and that companies started by immigrants have market valuations in excess of $500 billion and employ 220,000 in the US. I am sure [...]