Tag Archives: Global

Pepsico’s “water positive” schemes and Jugaad Innovation

In a book titled “Jugaad Innovation” Radjou, Prabhu and Ahuja write about Pepsico’s water positive supply chain in India i.e., the company saves more water than it uses. The secret – enabling a “direct seeding” rice planting process, thus saving … Continue reading →

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Renewable energy server farms in Iceland

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (April 2,2012) describes a server farm on solid bedrock, close to the airport, in the midpoint of the Atlantic, fueled by renewable geothermal energy and cooled by fans that blow in cool air from the outside. … Continue reading →

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US Manufacturing rebound and prospects

An article in the New York Times (April 4,2012) describes job growth at Master Lock, a manufacturer, and the 20% of the manufacturing jobs, lost during the recent recession, that have been added back to the economy. However, some of … Continue reading →

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What are GM’s choices for the Opel plant in Bochum, Germany ?

An article in the New York Times (April 2,2012) describes worker frustration at GM’s Opel plant in Bochum, Germany, with worries that it will be shut down in 2014. Wages at the plant are six times the wage rate in … Continue reading →

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Is fiber optic cable capacity too much ?

An article in the Wall Street Journal (April 3, 2012) suggests that fiber optic capacity expansion is too optimistic, pointing to 3% utilization of cable in big cities and new laser technology that expanded capacity in the past. But capacity … Continue reading →

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Unilever’s Sustainability Measures for its Supply Chain

A white paper by Verdantix Ltd (http://www.verdantix.com/uploadedfiles/products/Verdantix%20Unilever%27s%20Strategy%20Leverages%20Value%20Chain%20Influence.pdf) describes specific measures at Unilver e.g., measurement of its environmental impact per unit of consumer usage i.e., per tea bag or per dose of detergent, with a goal to decrease that impact by … Continue reading →

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What are GM’s choices for the Opel plant in Bochum, Germany ?

An article in the New York Times (April 2,2012) describes worker frustration at GM’s Opel plant in Bochum, Germany, with worries that it will be shut down in 2014. Wages at the plant are six times the wage rate in … Continue reading →

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The risk in Apple’s IP protection and litigation strategy

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (April 2, 2012) describes Apple’s jihad against Google, Samsung, Motorola and their Andrioid powered hardware devices. But each specific IP case dredges up prior art – work by other several years ahead of Apple, thus casuing … Continue reading →

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How many hours should Chinese workers work at Foxconn’s plant ?

An article in the New York Times (March 31, 2012) suggests that only 18% of the Chinese employees at Foxconn’s plant have complaints about working longer than the Chinese government mandated maximum of 49 hours each week, with overtime for … Continue reading →

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The collapse of Sony’s interest in Sharp’s Sakai plant

An article in the Wall Street Journal (March 29, 2012) describes a collapse in Sony’s interest in Sharp’s Sakai plant, whose production of high end LCD displays was expected to decrease costs for Sony, and garnered a 7 % investment … Continue reading →

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