@Risk

Despite the economic roller coaster of the past few years –or perhaps because of it –Americans continue to value a strong manufacturing sector.

The third annual Public Viewpoint on Manufacturing survey, recently released by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute, found once again that the vast majority of those polled consider America’s manufacturing base “important” or “very important” to their standard of living.

The research, which included a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Americans in August across all 50 states, indicates a consistently high regard for manufacturing, both in terms of its role in the US economy and our global standing, as well as in terms of its importance in job creation. Among the survey highlights: (more…)

Businesses today want to enhance their performance, and intriguing new research from KPMG indicates that firms are turning to shared service models and internal process improvements in order to meet those goals.

More than half (59 percent) of those polled in the KPMG 2Q11 Sourcing Advisory Pulse Survey said they anticipate greater demand from clients for shared services delivery models.  Most (51 percent) also saw more demand for internal process improvement. Interestingly, outsourcing demand remained flat, including both business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT outsourcing (ITO).

In other findings:
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As companies dig out from the worst recession since the 1930s, business leaders continue to feel the threat of sustained economic trouble.

This persistent concern is front and center in Aon’s 2011 Global Risk Management Survey, which polled nearly 1,000 business professionals from 58 countries. The survey found that the economic slowdown is the number one risk facing organizations across all geographies, with 67 percent of respondents reporting loss of income in the last 12 months associated with this risk.

In another interesting highlight from the study, failure to innovate/meet customer needs made the top 10 list of global risks for the first time in the history of the study, debuting at number six. This development reflects growing concern about the risk of losing market share to more forward-looking competitors. What’s more, technology failure/system failure also earned its first top 10 spot, ranking ninth on the list. Technology concerns lead to fears about additional risks, including business interruption and damage to brand, which are also found to be top of mind for survey respondents.

Here’s the complete list of Aon’s 2011Global Risk Management Survey Top 10 Risks: (more…)

Is US manufacturing poised for a renaissance?

A new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) says it is –and I find the analysis quite convincing.

For starters, BCG points out that the gap between US and Chinese wages is narrowing rapidly. Thanks to the demand for skilled labor in China, Chinese wages are rising at about 17 percent per year, while the value of the yuan continues to increase.

At the same time, flexible work rules and a host of government incentives are making many states—including Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama—increasingly competitive as low-cost bases for supplying the US market.

According to BCG, net labor costs for manufacturing in China and the US are likely to converge sometime around 2015.

Factor in the costs, risks and headaches of inventory and shipping, and the advantages of offshoring shrink even more.

The BCG analysis, which is part of an ongoing study of the future of global manufacturing, concludes that: (more…)

Cybercrime is on the rise, and unfortunately, it’s a trend that shows no signs of slowing down.

In fact, a new report from McAfee and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) found that the cyber underground economy now makes its money on the theft of corporate intellectual capital, including trade secrets, marketing plans, research and development findings and even source code.

McAfee defines this intellectual capital as the “new currency of choice” and says that cybercriminals have discovered that there is great value in selling a corporations’ proprietary information and trade secrets which have little to no protection.

“Cybercriminals have shifted their focus from physical assets to data driven properties, such as trade secrets or product planning documents,” Simon Hunt, vice president and chief technology officer, endpoint security at McAfee, said. “We’ve seen significant attacks targeting this type of information. Sophisticated attacks such as s Operation Aurora, and even unsophisticated attacks like Night Dragon, have infiltrated some of the of the largest, and seemingly most protected corporations in the world. Criminals are targeting corporate intellectual capital and they are often succeeding.”

The report, Underground Economies: Intellectual Capital and Sensitive Corporate Data Now the Latest Cybercrime Currency, found that: (more…)