“There is a growing realisation that it is no longer a nation competing against another nation or a company competing against another company but rather a supply chain competing against another supply chain.”

In a quadrant titled ‘supply chain barometer’ they capture the current position of India. Apparently most companies are in a box named ‘supply chain confusion’, owing to the lack of a clear supply chain excellence vision, despite an increase in top management concern. Also, supply chain activities are still managed with a functionally fragmented approach, rue Sahay and Mohan, after surveying about 150 companies.

One of the questions posed to the companies required the rating, on an eight-point scale in terms of selection and usability, of ‘the use of IT solutions such as supply chain, ERP, e-commerce, EDI, Internet/Intranet, data warehousing/mining.’ Alarmingly, nearly a third of the respondents had not considered supply chain, e-commerce and data warehousing.

Intriguingly a good number of respondents had considered but not invested in supply chain solutions. “While they are well prepared for the future, to minimise inventories and lead times, what holds them back are the resources to implement these solutions.” A daunting problem for many companies was found to be the ‘appropriateness’ of the SCM solution.

A book that can help you take stock of your supply chain strengths.

The opportunities of globalisation are accompanied by challenges, not the least of which is the effective adaptation and performance of the expatriate in a foreign assignment, write Madeline Crocitto and Maali Ashamalla in an essay included in International Business and Culture edited by Kip Becker ( www.jaicobooks.com).

“Expatriate success and failure can be attributed to performance based on ability and adjustment measured as the ‘fit’ of an individual to the new cultural environment.”

The authors suggest that parent company personnel and host country nationals should proactively assist the expatriate to develop networks, because the expatriate is noticeably dissimilar from the other group members.

“Network building involves selecting individuals to be in the network and understanding how they are contacted… One way to initiate this process is for the host country facility to provide the expatriate with introductions to several employees of the facility.”

Premium pay for foreign assignments is common, especially to cover differences in cost of living and to serve as an incentive. Similarly, employers should reward the patriates who help the expatriate become acculturated to a new country, the essay recommends. “Patriates designated as coaches should receive some form of direct or indirect compensation for the extra time devoted to assisting the expatriate, especially if it is expended outside of working hours. The social credit and contributions to culture-building by patriates should be recognised by the organisation.”

Recommended read to get over any culture shock.

Security has become a prominent theme in many a database these days, and it’s no wonder, says Robert G. Freeman in Oracle Database 11g New Features ( www.tatamcgrawhill.com). “With hackers, terrorists, corporate data theft, and loss of backup tapes on their way to storage facilities, DBAs (database administrators) need to watch out for the security of the data in their charge.”

A chapter on ‘security’ in the book deals with auditing, passwords, FGAC (fine-grained access control), tablespace encryption with TDE (transparent data encryption), and so on. One of the features of 11g is hacking prevention with failed logon delays. “Oracle will incrementally delay the next logon or password prompt after the third failed attempt, up to a maximum of 10 seconds.” Also, there is case sensitivity.

Oracle passwords are now hashed using SHA1 encryption, informs Freeman. “The SHA1 algorithm produces a 160-bit hashed output of the database password. Additionally, hashed passwords are ‘salted,’ which ensures that the resulting hash value for each hashed password is different, even if the password is the same.”

For the practitioner’s study.

Competence is not performance but is a qualification to perform, defines Seema Sanghi in The Handbook of Competency Mapping second edition ( www.sagepublications.com). “It is, in relation to performance, a necessary but not sufficient condition.”

Sometimes, extremely competent workers may fail on the job due to a variety of personal or environmental factors, Sanghi reasons. In the opposite, “those lacking competencies can make up for a lot of shortcomings with exceptionally hard work.”

The book talks about the ‘how’ of competency models – the frameworks that describe ‘the combination of knowledge, skills, and characteristics needed to effectively perform a role in an organisation and used as a human resource tool for selection, training and development, appraisal and succession planning.’

For instance, when using ‘a competency-based selection system,’ there can be many benefits, Sanghi informs. To start, the model provides a complete picture of job requirements, ensuring that the interviewers look for characteristics needed for the job, while at the same time providing candidates with ‘a clear and realistic picture of what will be expected of them.’

Other benefits are: a greater likelihood of hiring people who will succeed, minimising investment in people who do not meet expectations, ensuring a more systematic interview process, and delineating trainable competencies.

Apt material for the IT manager who is hassled by human resource worries.

It is possible to start a coaching business with nothing more than a business card and a telephone, but Web sites and newsletters can be two effective ways of expanding your operations, says Carol Wilson in Best Practice in Performance Coaching ( www.vivagroupindia.com).

Search engine optimisation is another way of picking up business, she adds. “Search engine optimisation is a way of ensuring that when people put a world like ‘coaching’ into an engine such as Google or Yahoo, it is your coaching Web site that comes up on the first page.”

Internet networking is just like the real-world PR, notes Wilson. “The more places you can get yourself or your company mentioned, the wider the word will spread and the more weight your name will carry.”

When writing copy for your Web site, add weight by maximising the use of ‘hard’ material, such as the names of companies you have worked for, the author instructs. “Signed testimonials from people claiming that you did indeed help them to achieve their vision are valuable and well worth including.”

You can do more – like joining e-mail forums, sending e-newsletters with useful information, inviting people for free introductory sessions, and so on. What is, however, important is this valuable final advice on marketing, from Wilson: “When I first built up a practice the last thing on my mind was picking up coachees.”

She recounts: “I focused on honing my craft, the value I could bring to others, and maximising my enjoyment of the session by having fun, learning about other people and injecting as much humour as possible. These are the qualities that attract both corporate and private coachees.”

Moral, therefore, is simple: ‘Focus on the quality and the money will look after itself.’

Unputdownable.

Tailpiece

“I knew he has a double-camera, double-SIM phone, but not…”

“Uh?”

“That he is good at double-talk!”

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