Saturday, January 31, 2015


       In this section of my reading I learned more about the difference between outsourcing and offshoring.  I learned what a supply chain is, and how it is important in today’s business.  Lastly, I learned more in depth of the importance of google, and how it is shaping todays businesses.
       Outsourcing is a different than offshoring. Outsourcing is when a company chooses specific tasks of their organization to export to different countries where those tasks can be performed, and then returned back to the company completed and ready to go.  Offshoring is where a company not only takes some of their tasks to different countries, but is when they move an entire factory or entity of their business to a different country and there they continue their business in a more productive way.  This then becomes part of their global supply chain.  I feel that outsourcing would be a better choice for smaller businesses.  This way they can test out what it is like to work with and communicate with different countries.  Kind of like testing the water depth before you go cliff-jumping.  Offshoring would be a better idea for bigger businesses that could not only benefit from the smaller tasks of their business being completed off shore but moving an entire part of their business to a different country allowing them to become a more globalized, well known, and efficient company.  If you have the resources to expand to the extent that offshoring demands, than it can be a very valuable decision.
       I love how much Friedman goes in depth about Walmart's supply chain.  It really puts it in perspective.  It is incredible how organized they have made their process.  Friedman found out that once a customer checks out a product then immediately their system updates the manufacturer and notifies them to make another one of those products and to ship it to the Walmart store where it is needed.  I feel like without this technology that Walmart is using then it would be nearly impossible to keep up with the demand that Walmart shoppers require.  Walmart has used this network of supply chain to create a connected empire.  Walmart has made growth in the various companies that they retail for.  When customers have demanded more products from the easily accessed Walmart shelves then that creates more demand for the manufacturers to send Walmart more of their products.  I would assume this would also create some sort of leverage for Walmart that they could use against their manufacturers to become more aligned with Walmart’s needs and wants, etc.
       Google has become almost second nature to locating information for me.  If I have a question about what a certain word mean, what an activity is, where something is located, all I have to do is get on google and type in what I want to learn about and in just a few seconds more than enough pages come up and I am able to learn.  The only boundary is my willingness to discipline myself and continue learning.  What an incredible tool!  We literally have the world at our fingertips.  Anyone can become an expert at just about any topic through the medium of Google.  Google has helped businesses become more well-known as well as made it very easy for anyone to research a business from anywhere.




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