The Nearshoring Option

FountainBlue's March 16 Connections event was on the topic of The Nearshoring Options.

In this month's Connections event, we described Nearshoring options, in comparison to off-shoring options, share some Nearshoring success stories from large high-tech, life science companies as well as a smaller start-up's successes. Our experienced panel of experts shared criteria they used to determine outsourcing solutions. Our attendees shared their challenges and successes with our panel:

• Facilitator Matt Perez EVP of Engineering and founder of NearSoft
• Panelist Brian Higgins, Manager at KLA Tencor
• Panelist Dr John Linehan, Stanford Professor
• Panelist Steve Mezak, author of Software without Boundaries
• Panelist Ray Scott, CEO, Axolotl

We discussed how offshoring and Nearshoring options impact the company's business model in the long-term and in the short term. Below are notes from our discussion.

Nearshoring is an attractive option for companies that need to partner with providers outside their organizations to meet their development needs and timelines.

• Educated, intelligent developers are becoming more and more available
• More experienced technicians are being trained even in the United States
• US citizens well acculturated into the American society are leading development firms from their native countries and can serve as interpreter/facilitator between development teams
• Nearshoring addresses the time zone challenges presented by working with countries on the 'other side of the world' (of course that's all relative)
• When issues arise, they may be solved more quickly when time zone factors aren't as heavily involved

Before you consider a Nearshoring partner, consider the following factors:

• The education level of the country/organization/people that you're working with
• The infrastructure support for the country you're considering
• Your personal software development needs
• The culture of your organization, and that of the country you're outsourcing to
• The relationship you have with the organization
• How close the Nearshoring team is to the rest of your teams
• The political and economic stability of the country you're working with
• The time zone question - how many time zones away are they and how would that impact yourself and others on your team? would you need to adjust to early morning or late evening hours, and which are you more comfortable with?
• In general, minimize the education, communication, distance, etc., separation between yourself and your development partners in order to maximize your degree of control

To make the best use of Nearshoring relationships:

• Make priorities and statements of work clear, while also communicating and adjusting as needed
• Consider whether you're using Agile method (like UML, SCRUM) which is more collaborative and iterative or Waterfall with complete specs
• Use communication tools to facilitate and coordinate development efforts; these might include IRise, RavenFlow, BuyProcess (Unified Modeling Language), MS Project, Online software as a service tools such as Artifact Software, Clarison, etc.,
• Build the largest pipeline for information flow between the various development players so that you can better stream video, audio and other data; real-time video tools might include Microsoft or IBM Lotus
• Understand specialties for each region
• Understand travel and infrastructure development limitations/constraints (there are tier 1 areas in India like Bangalore and tier 2 ones like New Delhi)
• Consider copyright requirements not just for your direct providers, but also for their providers

For more information:

• See Nearsoft's Outsourcing Risks page

http://www.nearsoft.com/outsourcingrisks.php

Take Accelerance's software IT readiness test http://www.accelerance.com/readinessTest.php3

Take Accelerance's Vision Resourcessm - Outsourced Team Selection Service from Accelerance http://www.accelerance.com/visionResources.htm

Subscribe to the Accelerance RunTime eZine http://www.accelerance.com/runtimeSignup.htm

Women in Policy

Our March 9 event was on the topic of Women in Policy

With the latest election results, Silicon Valley, California has the distinction of having two women representatives in the Senate as well as the speaker of the house. This month's conversation will focus on having women in policy at the local, state, regional and national levels and their impact on our business and personal lives. We will feature the personal and professional stories of the women policy-makers on our panel and share advice on how best to navigate the political landscapes to make the kind of sustainable impact that benefit men and women, in business and in life.

We wish to thank and acknowledge our speakers for their candid and inspiring practical advice on how to support women in forging change at home, in our communities, and at work.

Facilitator Leslee Guardino founder of the Women's High Tech Coalition and Partner at Canyon Snow
Panelist Cindy Chavez, former Vice-Mayor, City of San Jose
Panelist Kathleen King, City of Saratoga City Council
Panelist Liz Kniss, Supervisor, County of Santa Clara
Panelist Bev Strand, Manager, Strategic Partnerships, Worldwide Diversity & Inclusion, Cisco, Member, California Commission on the Status of Women.
Panelist Michelle Wright-Conn, Cisco Global Policy and Government Affairs

Below is additional information and advice on how to support women forging change at the policy and business level:

There has been little change in the last 40 years:

• Women are still not earning at the same levels as men.
• Women are still balancing home and work challenges, being required to do more, multi-task better, work longer hours.
• Women bring a different perspective to policy: It's not just a gender difference, a woman's overall experiences, views and approach are different.

Advice on how to support women forging change:

• Consider the globalization of talent and how it impacts our policy, personal and business perspectives.
• Be exposed to diverse perspectives.
• Take on a challenge, and help others also be one inch taller as they do the same.
• A woman's more collaborative approach might better address the war, healthcare and image issues currently posed at the national level.
• Perhaps adopting a mandate on the percentage of women in office would have a positive impact on policy, much like it had for Rwanda.
• Take the initiative to find out who is running for which office, whether they're men or women and make a point of supporting women and men forging positive change. Your voice matters!
• Be more confident in the abilities of other women.

Advice for yourself, as you lead at work and in community:

• Leverage the more intuitive, more self-aware nature women might have.
• Support technology, and women in support innovation and technology at the policy level.
• Think outside the box; view things with a different lens.
• Expect to be treated with dignity and respect, and make a stand when this is not the case, for yourself, for your colleagues, for those who will come after you.
• Doing the right thing for people generally is also doing the right thing for the economy.

Leading with Power, Influence and Integrity

FountainBlue's March Workshop Topic was Leading with Power, Influence and Integrity, with Camille Smith, Work In Progress Coaching http://www.wipcoaching.com.

In our branding workshop, we talked about how to create your own personal brand of leadership. In our communications workshop, we talked more expanding your communication style so that you can better communicate your desires to a wider range of personality styles. In this workshop, we brought the two concepts together.

• We examined our personal commitments and motivations and their impact on ourselves and the people around us.
• We worked through exercises that challenge us to think through what we really want and how we can engage others to share our goals.
• We explored the differences between unexamined wants and consciously created commitments and their impact on our actions and communications.
• We investigated several types of power and how to choose the one that is most likely to produce the outcomes we intend.
• With this knowledge, we were challenged to generate the "missing ingredient" that would allow us to lead ourselves and others with power, influence and integrity and produce results that create successful businesses and fulfilling lives.
• We left intrigued and inspired by the conversation and empowered into action. We look forward to continuing our discussion on how to elicit effective leadership skills in ourselves, and in those we work and play with. Below are notes from our discussion.

Thoughts on leading with power:

• You are completely responsible on how to use your power, grow your power, balance it with influence and integrity.
• Be willing to stretch your comfort zone.
• Understand your passions, and your commitments. Take action on your commitments.
• Know your skills. Build on your skills and strengths.
• Build relationships bigger than goals. Relationships are the foundation of power and influence.
• Listening leads to relationships, not listening leads to fragmentation and suffering. Build power through listening and engaging others.
• Learn as you lead.
• Power: The ability to do or act.

Thoughts on leading with influence:

• Surround yourself with empowering, like-minded people.
• Understand your skills and build relationships and communities which would respect your skills, complement your skills.
• Build relationships bigger than goals. Relationships are the foundation of power and influence.
• Listening leads to relationships, not listening leads to fragmentation and suffering. Build influence by listening.
• Be the kind of leader who cares, shows character, is competent and consistent and shows commitment.
• Influence: the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.

Thoughts on leading with integrity:

• Understand how you can be healthy and whole.
• Understand the internal conversations you're listening to now, and be prepared to think deeply about why you are having these conversations and how you can shift them so that you're actions, commitments, communications are in alignment with who you are.
• Know where you are headed, why you are headed there. Ensure that your power, your influence is in alignment with your direction.
• Start first with where you are headed - your passions and values. Then build relationshipos and communicate and engage to build power and influence toward a common vision.
• Be flexible enough to allow your passions, values, desires to evolve.
• Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not. Oprah Winfrey
• Integrity: wholeness, perfect condition

Below are recommended Articles from Harvard Business Review as well as books:

• In Praise of the Incomplete Leader, Deborah Anacona (2/2007) http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0702E
• What Leaders Really, Do John P. Kotter (12/2001 excerpt) http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0111F&referral=1043
  “Leadership is different from management, but not for the reasons most people think. Leadership isn’t mystical and mysterious. It has nothing to do with having “charisma” or other exotic personality traits. It is not the province of a chosen few. Nor is leadership necessarily better than management or a replacement for it.
  
  “Rather, leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action. Each has its own function and characteristic activities. Both are necessary for success in an increasingly complex and volatile business environment.”
  
• Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office 101: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make that Sabotage Their Careers by Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D. http://www.amazon.com/Nice-Girls-Dont-Corner-Office/dp/0446531324
• The Naked Truth A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters by Margaret Heffernan http://www.mheffernan.com/