战略采购与价值链定位

文/林时安
procurement（采购）和sourcing（寻源）两字通常被当成同义词，但其实它们有两种截然不同的含义。
procurement（采购）对企业的财政来说很重要，在策略上却不然；sourcing（寻源）是一项组织并调整价值链的策略性过程。当一个经理人开始有“寻源”考虑时，它将产生策略上重大的改变。相对的，“采购”只是在“寻源”的策略下所开展的活动。
sourcing（寻源）
“寻源”概念的源于任何企业的价值链活动都可以切割、分解、移转、交易，它不依附在任何企业内部的价值链上，它随时可以移出，交由“他人”来完成，这个“他人”就是能够把该活动做得更好的人。
如果自制（make）无法比“他人”把某一种价值链活动做得更好，就表示企业有“对外寻购”——委外（outsourcing）的必要。
近年来由于全球采购（global sourcing）一词在各种媒体使用与报道，以及《世界是平的》和《维基经济学》等财经畅销书的流行，管理界对委托外包、采购的概念多少有点认识。寻源这一概念看似平常，很多企业负责人根本没有“寻源”的想法，原因是：他们认为价值链活动必然要依附在整条价值链上，它不能被拆解、切割，所以也没有“寻购”的必要。而另一极端是像飞利浦这样的世界级公司，除了核心活动外，通通外包，成为“无工厂”的公司。
上述的“切割、分解、移转、交易”，将对为组织产生极大的变革与调整，寻源不是将能力或活动委外处理与否（whether to outsource），而是如何寻源（how to source）价值链中每一项活动。这种能力称为“专长寻源”（capability sourcing）。

专长寻源与价值链定位
企业如果将“专长寻源”发挥到极致，会把原本纯粹公司内部功能，转变成全新的产业。如飞利浦、UPS（已经转型为大型物流服务商）、明基，都是将资源专注在单一功能上而创造出新事业的例子。

对价值链“切割、分解、转移、交易”的前提，也是“寻源”的前提，是分析企业价值链活动的架构，检讨公司的专业能力。分析的步骤是：
1、列出价值链上每一项活动的主要活动。
2、检讨每一项价值链活动所需的专业技能（专业能力）。
3、检讨执行这些活动的技能高低，能否以高于同行业的技能水平来从事同样的价值活动。
4、集中资源与努力，使上述最佳技能保持领先。
5、缺乏领先优势的价值活动，必须考虑委外。
上述价值链定位的重点是：企业务必使自己的每一项价值链活动都做到最好，而最好的标准是：企业必须拥有从事这项活动在同行业中最好的专业技能，这项技能甚至好到“全世界最佳”的程度，因为在全球化时代我们面临世界上其它具有此项技能者的竞争，“全世界最佳”是核心专长能力的必要条件。

如果企业的专长能力无法达到“全世界最佳”，就必须考虑将不具优势的价值链活动“委外”给具优势的专业厂商，这些专业厂商最好具备“全世界最佳”的专长能力，两家公司最好采取“合作”关系，共同提供“全世界最佳”的产品或服务。所以，“寻源”不但能降低成本，更能使企业从不具优势的经济活动中转变到更具效益的活动，使企业有足够资源全力发展核心专长能力，以创造全世界最佳的竞争优势。

延伸阅读：《世界是平的》、《世界是新的：新兴市场崛起与争锋的世纪》、《维基经济学：大规模协作如何改变一切》、《隐形冠军》。

向咨询顾问移樽就教

文/林时安
Every has changed, and most things are most difficult.
自20世纪50年代以来，迄今全球咨询顾问约50万人。
优秀的咨询顾问是一群亮丽的人群，冷静（cool）、优秀（polished）和身价高（pricey）。他们是有很好想法并走在管理前沿的世界级专家（a world-class expert with a very good idea upfront）。
优秀的咨询顾问以其技术性知识（technical）、技能或经验（skills or experience），为我们解惑答疑，提供问题的解决方案（solution），解除成长的烦恼。
作为优秀的咨询公司或咨询顾问，为了自身宣传或发挥自身价值，拓展商业市场，大多乐意与他人分享他们的观点和经验。
咨询顾问们高瞻远瞩、放眼未来，抓住变化，赢得先机，他们的观点很多时候是有效的和有价值的。
这里选择了一些咨询机构或商业公司，他们通过网站、电子刊物或刊物，免费让他人分享成果。这里收录：德勤研究、安永图书室、IBM商业研究院、甲骨文中国通讯、科尔尼论丛、毕马威网上刊物、普华永道出版社。

简要介绍如下：
德勤研究
http://www.deloitte.com/
对社会实际问题提供最新见解。
德勤研究机构发表的研究报告涵盖了对多个行业的分析、经济形式预测和战略以及跨行业的研究。

安永图书室
http://www.ey.com/
安永图书室载有通讯、报告、白皮书和其他前沿意见。

IBM 商业价值研究院
http://www-900.ibm.com/cn/services/bcs/iibv/
IBM 商业价值研究院是 IBM 全球性的组织，通过与 IBM 的客户和项目实施团队的密切合作，就特定行业和业务领域开展深入探讨和研究，并通过发布行业调查报告、白皮书，发表文章和演讲，举办高层圆桌论坛、研讨会等形式，与高层企业管理者分享 IBM 的战略洞察力，帮助他们预见行业发展趋势，发现和评估战略机遇、确保预期回报、制定发展计划和确定业绩评估标准等，以便在随需应变时代创造最大业务价值。

ORACLE中国通讯
http://www.oracle.com/global/cn/oramag/index.html

麦肯锡视角
http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/chinasimplified/mckonchina/
麦肯锡大中华地区的咨询顾问就正在塑造今日中国商业环境的趋势和事件所撰写的文章和报告。

科尔尼论丛
http://www.atkforum.com.cn/
汇集了近10年来全球各个专业领域的高级咨询顾问撰写的文章，内容涉及专业管理课题、行业经济焦点以及社会热点问题等，希望能为您带来新颖的观点和全新的视角。

埃森哲研究报告和观点
http://www.accenture.com/
埃森哲有一批资深专家常年致力于广泛的课题研究，涉及商业热门话题、行业趋势分析、管理理念与实践等等。他们将研究成果和智略撰写成专题论文、研究报告和书籍，希望借此帮助企业开拓创新、提高绩效、实现卓越。

毕马威网上刊物（KPMG Virtual Library）
http://www.kpmg.com.cn/
Welcome to KPMG China's virtual library. You can read and download our latest publications and newsletters by choosing the subject you are interested in on the left of this page.

PwC HK Press Room 普华永道出版室
http://www.pwchk.com/home/eng/pressrmindex.html

Keeping Up with Workforce 2020 跟上2020劳动力趋势

Keeping Up with Workforce 2020 赶上2020劳动力趋势
by Daniel W. Rasmus
02/24/2009
© 2009 Booz & Company Inc. All rights reserved. a strategy+business exclusive
资料来源：www.strategy-business.com/media/file/leading_ideas-20090224.pdf
作者：Director of Business Insight. Microsoft Business Division. Microsoft Corporation
If business decentralization is a long-running trend with more stutter-steps than successes, it’s primarily because the technology to make decentralization work deftly has yet to be perfected or adopted by skittish organizations unwilling to fully take a chance on the unproven. But by 2020, innovative competitors — and inevitable gains in remote, mobile, and virtual devices — will make it impossible for most companies to deny that information technology is profoundly reshaping the workplace. By then, in many businesses, workers will no longer be bound by geography or by clocks.
In order to position their organizations to attract top talent, drive breakthroughs, and serve customers better, managers need to recognize the effect that information services will have on the evolution of the workforce. The sooner organizations adopt and internalize the technology and skills needed to thrive in an increasingly virtual and flexible work environment, the sooner they will enjoy the significant economic, social, and environmental benefits a decentralized organization makes possible.
Although the end result of any developing model is difficult to predict, we have established a number of likely scenarios that depict the workforce of 2020 and the strategic implications for employers looking not just to stay ahead of the curve but to shape it to their competitive advantage.
The punctuated workday. 工作日片断化
Software already makes it possible for people to work anytime, anyplace. But although the technology to enable remote and distributed work not tied to tasks at a desk has been available for years, human resources and IT leaders have failed to put it to best use. In fact, because of the absence of a coordinated strategy for managing a virtual workforce, the opposite has occurred: Increased connectivity has made it more difficult for people to draw lines between their work and their personal lives.The emergence of the millennial generation (born between 1981 and 2000)—
dominated by former “latchkey” kids who may appreciate the value of work–life balance — will pressure employers to embrace technology that empowers workers to control when and where they work, as well as the policies to prevent overwork. These converging trends will create a punctuated workday, in which people work for several hours and then leave the workplace to run errands, attend events, or care for elderly relatives or young children, only to return to their work for another period of concentrated activity. Access to remote, mobile, and secure information resources irrespective of physical location and time of day will make this possible.
Boomer brain drain. 劳动力更替
The vanguard of the baby boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1962) is at the cusp of its planned retirement. According to U.S. Census reports, an average of 7,918 Americans turned 60 every day in 2006, which amounts to 330 every hour — a rate that will only accelerate in the next 10 years. Even after allowing for a percentage of boomers who will work longer than their parents did, this mass exodus from the workforce creates a number of issues.
Organizations will need to invest more and earlier in knowledge transfer techniques and create real incentives to encourage their most experienced and critical workers to share their knowledge and information. For example, information management systems should be implemented that offer easy access to both details about organizational process and deep pools of learning that individuals have amassed over the years. Strong mentoring programs that help boomers transfer their skills to younger workers and that ease the way for older boomers to adapt to new social and technological realities will prove essential to making this knowledge transfer work.
Just-in-time learning. 随时学习
Technology is important as a means of connecting people in the new world of business, capturing the output of their creativity, and providing them the information crucial to the decisions they face.
Still, it is not the only necessary component for a strong learning environment. To successfully educate and retain talent in the future, a commitment to a culture of learning is required. Knowledge contributors should be recognized and rewarded. Incentive structures should be examined and modified to encourage people to develop their own skills and those of their colleagues through collaboration, discussion, and mentoring. A wide variety of other sources, such as personal connections through Web-based social networks and online education, will allow people to learn what they need to know, when they need to know it. Companies must harness these resources and embrace technological innovation to promote and emphasize organizational learning and action.
The thinning of management’s middle. 中间管理层减肥
Interestingly, it will be the members of Generation X (born between 1963 and 1980), once stereotyped as “slackers,” who will be called on to fill the gap left by baby boomer departures in the years before the millennials can contribute meaningfully. The trouble is that Gen Xers only number about 53 million in the U.S., sandwiched between about 78 million boomers and 80 million millennials. This means Gen Xers will have a relatively short span of control: Soon after Gen Xers assume managerial positions, they will be overwhelmed in number by millennials vying for those same jobs. As a smaller group, Gen Xers will have to create efficient arrangements for employees to interact and communicate well in order to achieve high productivity in a punctuated workday. They will also need to manage effectively a workforce made up of contractors, freelancers, and other partners.
The blended workforce. 劳动力角色混合
Over the next decade many employees won’t be employees at all; they will be temporaries, contractors, contingent workers, outsourced workers, freelancers, and, in business-to-business transactions, customers. Today, there are more than 42 million independent workers in the United States, or about 31 percent of the workforce.The sheer size of that group indicates a major shift in employers’ expectations of workers. More diverse and geographically distributed organizations will need to implement process management strategies and use performance management software. With outsourcing sure to be even more common in the future, managers will have to pay attention to project handoffs and coordination costs between partners. To keep their blended workforce happy, they will also need to create interesting work in an engaging workplace and pay workers’ invoices on time or risk exacerbating turnover, creating yet another fissure through which knowledge can drain.
Commitment-based work. 基于承诺的工作制
Because physical presence at a workplace will not be required for many information services jobs, workers may be measured and compensated according to individual tasks or projects rather than on an ongoing basis. Some organizations will adopt a more flexible commitment-based employee measurement system that allows workers to choose how, where, and when they work, as long as they meet preordained deadlines. In this environment, the annual review will itself be up for review and likely be replaced by new reward structures. With worker loyalty tied to work engagement rather than economic stability, work quality can be better judged and rewarded in the moment. Technologies will need to evolve to track these projects by metrics other than the number of hours worked.
Citizen regulators. 公民监督者
With bloggers exposing more and more of a company’s internal processes and problems, it won’t be long before citizens’ voices, amplified and directed by information services, reach parity with government regulation. This phenomenon may change the employee–employer relationship, as employees, chiming in under assumed aliases, use Internet forums as a suggestion box to advocate for internal change.
Companies committed to staying on top of shifts in workplace attitudes and expectations need to recognize how inextricably intertwined the workforce and the information services of tomorrow will be. Understanding the strategic implications that emerge from the evolution of both will enable organizations to position themselves better to innovate, attract top talent, and win in the marketplace.