How they control cost: 16-July-08
Sourav Mitra -
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 7:55 PM
Western companies, plagued by rising costs of moving work to India for the labor-cost reductions are seeking more predictable costs in a time of volatile currency and salary shifts:
1. They are increasingly outsourcing their offshore operations to Indian tech-services specialists. More than 150 companies have shifted in the past few years from running captive operations to using a mix of internally run and outsourced operations.
2. They seek gains in productivity through process improvements and innovation that the top Indian outsourcing companies have mastered.
[Click here for full story at Businessweek.com]
Outsourcing the offshore work = cost saving (but it is a sacrilege of the strategic doctrine of some strategy gurus of retaining strategic uniqueness by not outsourcing business processes)
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UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank:
1. It will buy back as much as $3.5 billion of auction-rate preferred shares after being sued in the U.S. for fraudulently selling the securities as low-risk alternatives to cash giving investors their money back in full
[Auction-rate securities were bought by individuals and corporations in auctions run by dealers.]
2. It will finance the repurchases by reissuing the preferred shares in a private placement through a trust that will be consolidated on the bank's balance sheet.
[Click here for full story at Bloomberg.com]
Making amends = lower cost of disrepute (litigation)