New forms of public participation are viewed as a means of engaging a public that is disenchanted with formal political styles and institutions, write Janet Newman and John Clarke in Publics, Politics & Power: Remaking the public in public services (www.sagepublications.com). They find that the ideas of ‘dirty politics’ and the perceived disenchantment of the ‘political class’ from everyday life play important roles in this.

“There is a new emphasis on the informal and everyday, the use of new media and Web-based technologies to reach out to the public, and the search for ‘authentic’ publics, untrammelled by the messy associations with a discredited political domain.”

This, in turn, invokes a ‘politics of faith’ rather than a ‘politics of scepticism,’ or a politics of redemption rather than a politics of pragmatism, the authors note, citing research studies. “Such politics are visible not only in the increasing use of public relations techniques (the satisfaction survey, the focus group, the marketing campaign) but also in new ways of addressing citizens through popular media and Web technologies.”

Politicians attempt to develop new styles of direct engagement with citizens — Webs, blogs, TV, phone-in programmes, chat shows, e-petitions — that bypass traditional democratic channels, the authors inform. “We can also see the traces of a shift to a style of politics that may be both populist and consumerist.”

Ideal for an in-depth study.
Seven predictions about offshoring

The first of the seven predictions about offshoring, that Robert E. Kennedy makes, is that global sourcing will continue to grow, rapidly. He cites a Forrester Research study of 2004, to remind us that the vast majority of the revenues generated by Indian IT (information technology) workers come from about 50 of the Fortune 1000 companies.

“At the other end of the offshoring spectrum, something like 25 per cent of the Fortune 1000 had no involvement in global sourcing, and the remaining 700-or-so companies in the middle had mostly ‘dabbled’ in offshoring,” writes Kennedy in The Services Shift: Seizing the ultimate offshore opportunity (www.ftpress.com).

Many of those firms counted as currently offshoring have only started their journey, he adds. “Tiger Tyagarajan, former CEO of GECIS and current Executive VP at Genpact – the largest and likely most sophisticated global offshore vendor — recently estimated that more than a dozen years into its offshore journey, GE has realised only 30 per cent of its potential for global sourcing.”

The second prediction is that the key word will be ‘global,’ rather than offshoring being an ‘India’ phenomenon. “Ten years from now we won’t be talking about ‘India and a few others.’ We’ll be sifting through dozens of viable offshore centres, each offering different combinations of cost, talent, regulations, and macro stability,” Kennedy foresees.

He also anticipates that the scale of serviced projects will decline dramatically. “In the future, the threshold for offshoring a service function will decline precipitously — to as few as a half-dozen jobs. Why? Because suppliers will come up with increasingly specific competencies that will service increasingly specialised market segments.”

A book with insights that can make you shift in your seat.
 

Untouched by Google

Is Google invincible? No more than Microsoft was until the Internet came and shook it to the core, declares Sramana Mitra in Entrepreneur Journeys, Volume 1: How to stop looking for a job… and start up your life’s work (www.hachettelivre.co.uk). On the weakness side of Google’s ledger, she sees Vertical Search Engines as the most potent long-term threat.

For example, “Kayak.com delivers more precise results because it is customised to search for hotels.” Such customisation, reasons Mitra, is only possible when the user’s context is already known by the search engine.

“While Google has stubbornly defended its admirably simple one-bar user interface, a host of significant Internet brands have developed context-sensitive search engines in major vertical categories.”

According to Mitra, Google has left untouched not just the travel vertical, but other big areas including jobs, automobiles, real-estate and health. “If the roll-up I expect in travel also happens in these areas, Google will likely maintain its business and stock market performance momentum through 2009, but five to seven years out, the company may not look so invincible.”

Persuasive arguments.
 

When value proposition goes missing

Buyers of IT services pose a variety of challenges to the vendors, writes K. Venkatesh in Marketing of Information Technology: Concepts, products, services and intellectual property rights (www.tatamcgrawhill.com).

Predominant challenge is ignorance and lack of clarity about requirements, the author rues. “Unnecessary wastage of effort is incurred if the requirements change during the engagement. Some buyers get into sourcing of business-to-business applications without assessing the IT readiness of their trading partners.”

Empathising with the buyers, Venkatesh sees a common difficulty in comprehending the clutter of technologies and associated buzzwords. He also speaks of the lack of true value proposition as a frequent complaint about IT vendors.

“Typically, global IT projects are won based on low price (among competing vendors), and the winning vendor internally puts such projects on reverse auction within its subsidiaries across the globe. The subsidiary that quotes the least price again wins the bid and struggles to deliver, facing cost overruns…”

Sobering messages.
 

Gadget gyan

Screensavers are fun, but be aware of what you put on your computer, advises Clare Maxfield in Making Your First Job Your Dream Job: Get set, move in, move up (www.wisdomtreeindia.com). She cautions against the use of any screensaver message that may be considered disagreeable or offensive by others. “Often large companies will have their company logo on the computer and you won’t be able to change the screensaver.”

Another tip, in the chapter on using gadgets, is to use the subject line of e-mails, rather than to leave it blank. Also, write your e-mails as you would any proper document, says Maxfield. “Typing everything in capitals is both laziness and shows lack of grammatical knowledge. The use of capitals is also considered the same as screaming at a person.”

A section on mobile phone etiquette counsels that texting while driving can be dangerous. “Pull over and stop the car if you really have to send any messages.” Don’t text while others are speaking to you, the author instructs. “There is a growing trend of people who are in a group conversation to send text while others are speaking. You may as well have turned your back on the person.”

Recommended read.
 

Tailpiece

“We found that our customer-acquisition rate went up as a result of…”

“The efforts of a better sales team?”

“No, through simpler mailers that happened after we disabled a flowery thesaurus on the intranet!”
 
From the shelves.

D Murali