Finally, some good news. Amidst the standard fare of predictions of the inevitable decline and fall of US manufacturing, an interesting and encouraging 2011 report has been authored by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) called “Made in America, Again.”

According to the report, “Manufacturing is expected to return to America as China’s rising labor costs erase most savings from offshoring.” As US states become cheaper locations to manufacture goods compared to other developed countries, the report suggests that by 2015 manufacturing in some parts of the US will be just as economical as manufacturing in China.

The key reasons listed are: Read More »

Tags: BCG, China, Cisco, infrastructure, innovation, labor costs, Manufacturing, manufacturing renaissance, offshoring, outsourcing, reinvestment

Our Cisco WebEx colleagues in China engaged a study with Bite Communications aimed at learning more about China’s mobile workforce. “The Science of Company Productivity Survey” was launched on one of China’s leading portals for two weeks in June.

Among the findings, they learned in China, collaboration technologies can play an integral role in improving organizational effectiveness while helping employees achieve a more flexible, balanced and efficient work life. Given a range of choices, respondents chose web meetings as their preferred method of working with others.

A Quick Look at the Findings

In China, one day of the work week doesn’t seem to be any more crazy than the other. When asked when people feel most overloaded at work, the answer spanned the week!

Read More »

Tags: business advice, China, management, mobile, mobility, research, web meetings, WebEX

Fall and Rise

In David Lawrence’s and Glenn Anderson’s recent Manufacturing.net article on ‘The Fall and Rise of the American Manufacturer’, the authors are rather optimistic about the current state of U.S. manufacturing. Citing the Institute of Supply Management indicators of manufacturing activity expansion for 19+ consecutive months and their own observations from surviving their 125-year old employer, Cincinnati Milacron, filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 and emerging one year later to thriving profitability and bolder investments in innovation, the authors believe manufacturing is now fueling a sustainable economic recovery from the global recession.

Many economists agree, and in the world of public opinion, a recent survey by Delloitte and The Manufacturing Institute showed that 78% of Americans believe that U.S. manufacturing is vitally important to our economic prosperity and 76% believe it is also important to our standard of living. The survey ranked manufacturing ahead of technology, financial services, health care, communications, and retail.  My own optimism is checked by one key consideration required for long term success: Is it SUSTAINABLE?

Read More »

Tags: bankruptcy, China, Cisco, David Lawrence, Delloitte, Glenn Anderson, global economy, Japan, Manufacturing, Manufacturing.net, Milacron, National Association of Manufacturers, sustainable, The Manufacturing Institute

In 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake displaces 4.8 million residents and takes 68,000 lives in China’s Sichuan Province.

Following the 2008 earthquake, Cisco in partnership with the Chinese Government created a unique public-private partnership called Connecting Sichuan, a three-year, 45M corporate social responsibility program to revitalize the region, Read More »

Tags: China, CSR, disaster relief, earthquake, economic development, education, healthcare, networking academy, public-private partnerships, Sichuan

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal explores how US companies, including Cisco, are working with the Chongqing government in a wide-ranging public infrastructure project.  

First, as a matter of policy, Cisco has not and will not sell video surveillance cameras or video surveillance management software in its public infrastructure projects in China.  We were offered an opportunity to supply those products in Chongqing and, contrary to the suggestion in the article, declined that opportunity. 

Chongqing, as the largest municipality in the world, is seeking to provide a comprehensive set of e-government services, which the city describes as ‘Livable Chongqing, Smooth Chongqing (transportation), Green Chongqing, Peaceful Chongqing and Healthy Chongqing.’ The proposed goals of these initiatives include linking educational and health care institutions, public safety and using networking and smart building technology to drive energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

Cisco’s proposed participation in the Smart+Connected Communities project in Chongqing is based on standard, unmodified Cisco routing and switching equipment – the same equipment that is supplied to governments and private sector customers worldwide, in full compliance with US export regulations, which are based in part on human rights concerns, and does not include video surveillance hardware or software. 

We believe strongly that our policies correctly assess the human rights concerns in the use of networking technologies, and our decisions as to the nature of our participation in this project and others are consistent with our corporate social responsibility policies and our codes of conduct.  In particular, we believe that the sale and use of equipment built to global standards increase communication opportunities around the world and reduce the opportunities to deny citizens access to information. 

For more on Cisco’s approach in China, please visit: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/cisco-supports-freedom-of-expression-an-open-internet-and-human-rights/

Tags: China