Archivo de Agosto/2008

We have been speculating the last months about the main reasons for petrol price rising. The most acepted theory was about the growing demand made up in China and India. Others thougth that the agents along the manufacturing and distribution chain were taking advantage of that uncertainty, incrementing their respective margins punishing the final consumer.
We have also discussed in this blog about the Potential of the Stock Exchange Engine to influence significantly the price fluctuation, underlining the fact that only one of each six transcations represented a real transfer of crude.
It´s obvious that demand has not decreased more than a 20% during the last two weeks, so It should be a rigth moment to keep in consideration by the Competent Authorities to recover the accurate control mechanisms to avoid these situations again.
While the European Central Bank suffocates our economy rising the interest rates, the global system is permiting that the authentic manipulators of Inflation run uncontrolled.

Another trend affecting services is the Globalization.
(Wiki) Globalization in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional things or phenomena into global ones. It can also be used to describe a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces.
The phenomenon is not new but its speed is raising high in the latest decades.
The questions I would like to cover in the forum could be:
• How globalization impact service trading?
• Which are the factors that speed the trend?
• How globalization affects specific services?
• What are the future possible scenarios?
I found an interesting description for service trading modes (from National Education Association):
1. Cross Border Supply: IE provides education to students all over the world through distance learning classes available through internet and platform.
2. Consumption Abroad: One sample could be Euro Disney
3. Commercial Presence: Starbucks could be an example. http://www.infofranquicias.com/cd-7345/Starbucks-no-frena-los-planes-de-expansi%C3%B3n.aspx
4. Movement of natural Persons: Business School brings an Italian Lecturer and pays for that.
All these modes share common rules? Are we growing in them all? Are there leaner ways to play?
Wait for you in the discussion….

In the “Macro Visions. Trends” forum, the initial trend we are debating has to do with Productivity in Services.
We are finding that
There is not a clear general approach to productivity in services as compared with productivity in manufacturing environments.
Given that Productivity= Output/Input, we see that services would require a Quality/qualitative/intangible factor both in input and output not that important I n production environments
Technology adoption as well as other practices like bringing the customer into the process may help to increase output while reducing input.
Different practices could be mapped as those input reducers/increasers and their counterpart in output affecting productivity but we are interested in the medium/long term effect.
Since in services environments it is rather complex to stock a service (for instance a hair cut) output in the formula gets closer to real demand.
In this scenario, we are trying to identify and define some new ¿? KPis which help us to catch the flavours we are describing like “Productivity in time “, “service elasticity” and “productivity sustainability” which could provide productivity ratios with a good business meaning.
We are waiting for your input….