G’day from Sydney! I have just spent the most wonderful week on hols in Tokyo – where I lived for a couple years at the end of the 80’s – and found that so much has changed yet, under the surface, nothing has changed. Before I hit the headline subject, the thing that struck me most on my return to Tokyo was not that everyone has a smartphone (natch) but that from my observation, the most popular type was the flip-phone. I don’t think you can even find such an animal now in the UK, but in Japan there’s multiple brands and more colours than a rainbow. And by the way, it is apparently de rigeur to have your mobile umbilically attached to your person in some way or other! And of course, no speaking on the phone when on public transport – the signage (in English) urges that you “Please put your mobile into manner mode”. It’s just, well, so politely Japanese!
Now for the offshoring news, which I picked up from the Australian Financial Review (i.e. “Aussie FT”) over brekkie on a gloriously sunny Sydney morning. It appears that Suncorp, Australia’s largest general insurer, has invited India-centric BPO players Genpact and WNS in “to help map business processes”. For some reason, the Australian Financial Sector Union has jumped to the conclusion that perhaps this is a prelude to offshoring a bunch of jobs to India. As if! Suncorp management professes to being “entirely transparent about its business simplification program” and says it is too early to say whether this will result in any “changes in business operations”. Now if I were a betting man …