June, 2009

There are still H1-B Visas available

For the current fiscal year, the allocated H1-B Visas have not been all used up by companies; this is the first time in few years this happens. What can we read from this new trend?

Does this mean that the US economy slow down causing companies not to hire more foreign workers or does it mean that the US is not as attractive is it used to be for foreign professionals?

I think it’s a combination of both factors, the slow down in global economy has caused hiring freeze everywhere and the tough US immigration laws are causing professionals to seek other countries like Canada and Australia or even stay home.

When conflict of interests de-rail good projects

One of the main reasons I left corporate world and started to work for myself or for small businesses is the issues of “office conflicts and inside politics.”

Right after graduation from college I have worked with a promising startup company in Houston, TX, they company patented a powerful website application to help users save money on their loans and find better deals.

The project had a very good start with a great hardworking team but office politics and conflicts in upper management killed the project and eventually led the company out of business.

I always sit down and wonder, how many great projects and ideas never saw the light because conflicting interest of various individuals or groups involved?

The High cost of low cost labor

Nothing gets me and makes me sad at the time as a manager as seeing low skilled labor trying to do a job that requires a professional training.

In the gulf region where I work now, companies are notorious for hiring low-skilled labor; cheap labor fills the street of these countries. Most of these companies are run by managers or owners who have very shot vision of the future, they hire low paid labor to save money but the final results are always disastrous. This kind of labor can’t do the job and the companies end up losing business and paying more for the job that was not done right from the first time.

Besides the low quality of work produced by this type of labor, the cost to the local economy is tremendous in the form of bad infrastructure and low quality goods and services.

Hiring the right skilled labor may cost more to start with, but on the long run, the benefits for the company are great in the forms of high quality work and good reputation in the market.

Sometimes you may have to re-invent the wheel

We always here the phrase “don’t try to re-invent the wheel”, but sometimes you have to think how the wheel was invented on the first place.

In business, we take a lot of business processes for granted, we don’t re-examine them to see if we can re-design the entire process from scratch to make it more efficient. To think “outside the box”, we must be ready to question everything even if we have to re-invent the wheel.

I know in another article I said “we must stop thinking outside the box at some point”, and that what I exactly mean, we must think outside the box and even re-invent the wheel, but the process cant go on forever, at some point we got to move on.

Millions of users made the choice not to upgrade to Vista

I am one of the millions of users world wide who kept working with XP and refused to upgrade to Vista. I still recall the many conversations I had when I was doing on-site support; users were wondering why Microsoft would release a new operating system while most of us were getting familiar and comfortable with XP.

In my opinion, XP was a real upgrade that made Microsoft gain back the confidence of millions of users who were fed up with the previous desktops operating systems. But as if Microsoft cannot sit still, in short years after the release of windows XP, the world was hit by windows Vista, which until today, is not the dominant Operating system for millions of users.

Now, after millions of dollars spent by consumers world wide upgrading to windows Vista, Microsoft is about to release Windows 7 and another round of upgrading.

For me, Windows XP is still doing the job.

Think outside the box, but not always

The first lesson we learn in management 101 is to “Think outside the box”, which is a valuable lesson. But thinking outside the box can’t not go forever, I mean in some companies you see the management struggling to come up with one solid business plan.

The management in these companies consistently struggling with new ideas but they don’t seem to settle down on one idea or business plan and focus on it. Exploring new ideas or trying consistently to improve your business process is great, but at some point you must chose a path for your company and follow it.

Thinking outside the box must stop at some point and you need to focus inside the box and work with what you have at hands.

Human Resource Development

As a professional, nothing excites me more than working with small businesses and helping them develop their business process: to cut costs and improve quality is what drives me to be more creative and more observing.

In the last two years, I have been working in what it called “the developing world”, working with people with various cultural and languages backgrounds. Working here always leads me to ask the same question: Why “the developing world” is always struggling although many countries have spent billions of dollars in development?

If I take the small business setting I work with as an example, I can clearly see the much needed work in Human Resource Development. Although the workers I work with are hard working, they don’t have the needed “skills” that would make them excel.

I can give few examples:

1-Not taking initiatives: most companies here have the centralized management systems “micro management” employees are not trained nor are encouraged to take their own initiatives to resolve work problems. In my current job, I try to encourage my employees to take actions to resolve problems on their own but I am having difficult time doing it since their minds don’t work that way.

2-No strong desire to move forward: I have given my employees many chances and give them suggestions to improve their skills to make them more competitive in the job market, but their response was disappointing.

3-Not taking pride on their jobs: they easily admit mistakes and don’t stand by their actions. This is one of the most difficult aspects of my job as manager when I have a staff that I can’t depend on.

The above examples are just a small part of a larger and more complex problem that faces the developing countries, there is a still a very complex relation that exist between the management and employees, this relation is governed by many factors that are not related to the business environment such as religion and culture.

Set high standards and lock in your customers

What keeps Microsoft profitable? Microsoft, among other things, locked in customers by having its applications, either by choice or otherwise, accepted worldwide. Most Businesses and even the general public cannot pass one day without using some of Microsoft products.

How can you use this concept in your business? I don’t like people using my services or products just because they have no alternatives, as many think of Microsoft products, but I want my customers use my service or buy my product because they can’t live without the quality I provide them.

Setting a higher standard of service or having a superior product is what will lock in your customers. As we witness the growing demands for Apple products, this is not due to apple ability to have businesses persuaded to buy its products but it’s due to apple ability to have superior products in the market.

City in Montana wants job applicants’ passwords to social websites

As reported by the associated press: “Job applicants with the city of Bozeman are finding that their private Internet discussions and pictures may not be so private after all.
The city is asking job seekers for the user names and passwords to Internet social networking or Web groups to which they belong. The decision is sparking an outcry from those who say the policy goes way too far.”

Why would an employer ask for such information? What benefits an employer can get from knowing your online habits? Do they want to know your personality by analyzing your online habits?
I am sure many of us, including myself, are outraged by hearing such news, but wait a minute…..aren’t companies already using such practices? Many employers want to check your credit history, your martial status and even run a background check on you.
This news created a negative publicity for the city and strong objection by the public, but it’s a clear sign of how the internet and social websites are shaping our lives.

This Sector of IT will remain strong

With layoffs affecting each industry, IT is no exception. IT had its share of layoffs, but one sector in IT remains strong. IT services which are directly related to the modern office functionality. Services such as (network setup, hardware repair and setup, phone systems setup, office application support, on-line or on the phone support, etc.)

These types of services are an integral part of any modern office setup; in fact they are part of many home offices setup. Imagine a day of your life where you can not have access to your e-mail or your LAN connection is not giving you access to the internet or to the rest of your office network, can you, as a business, afford it?

Big part of IT services became an integral part of our lives, they became a necessity, just like transportations or health care, we can’t afford a day without them.

I strongly believe that a need for a good technician will remain strong despite the economic ups and downs.