Years of Poems and Spirits

Excerpt from ASEAN website article: “The Founding of ASEAN”

Founding year: On 8 August 1967
Founding members: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand
Charter (Bankok Declaration, 2-pages 5 articles):
These aims and purposes were about cooperation in the economic, social, cultural, technical, educational and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter.

Occassion:
“It was while Thailand was brokering reconciliation among Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia over certain disputes that it dawned on the four countries that the moment for regional cooperation had come.”

Goal/Vision:
Adam Malik went on to describe Indonesia’s vision of a Southeast Asia developing into “a region which can stand on its own feet, strong enough to defend itself against any negative influence from outside the region.” Such a vision, he stressed, was not wishful thinking, if the countries of the region effectively cooperated with each other, considering their combined natural resources and manpower. He referred to differences of outlook among the member countries, but those differences, he said, would be overcome through a maximum of goodwill and understanding, faith and realism. Hard work, patience and perseverance, he added, would also be necessary.

unless they took decisive and collective action to prevent the eruption of intra-regional conflicts, the nations of Southeast Asia would remain susceptible to manipulation, one against another.

S. Rajaratnam expressed the fear, however, that ASEAN would be misunderstood. “We are not against anything”

At the end of their deliberations, the Foreign Ministers and the Special Envoy signed and issued Declaration in which they stated their determination to exert initially necessary efforts to secure the recognition of and respect for Southeast Asia as a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality, free from any form or manner of interference by outside Powers, and also stated that Southeast Asian countries should make concerted efforts to broaden the areas of cooperation which would contribute to their strength, solidarity and closer relationship.
–Joint Press Statement Special ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting To Issue The Declaration Of Zone Of Peace, Freedom And Neutrality
Kuala Lumpur, 25-26 November 1971

Latest Development (from Joint Media Statement of the Thirty Seventh ASEAN Economic Ministers’ (AEM) Meeting, Vientiane, 28 September 2005)
10. The Ministers received the reports of the High Level Task Force (HLTF) on ASEAN Economic Integration and the Senior Economic Officials (SEOM) which highlighted the progress made so far in the implementation of the measures to realize the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) as contained in the various roadmaps attached to the Framework Agreement for the Integration of the Priority Sectors. The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to realize the AEC notwithstanding the regional and global challenges. They called on all relevant officials to exert maximum efforts to implement the measures according to the timelines specified in the Roadmaps.

“… while I’m not suggesting that the AEC is a kind of defensive closed lock, it is a means through which ASEAN is attempting to confront the challenges of globalization, particularly the fear that foreign direct investments will all move to China. And they are hoping to use the ASEAN Economic Community as a means through which to present ASEAN as a large, single market that will be attractive to FDI”
—Dr. Helen Nesadurai of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore.

Subject: Product Development; Simens, India Development Center

1. Distributed product development makes good business sense. The key challenge is execution.

2. Beyond Language Difference:
a. Labor/employment culture: what is “loyal”, what is not? long employment and vacation vs. short employment and vacation.
b. Communication style/norm: hard to say “no”; the scope of “no problem”, etc.
c. Technology expertise: large system vs. personal computers—expectation of stable vs. unstable systems.
d. Educational level and social dynamics: Why India has soooo many engineers? Social mobility …
e. Regulations: immigration, labor movement

3. Simens Challenges:
a. Giant, Bureaucratic company
b. Complicated organizational structure (matrix structure)
c. Diversivied customers (geo location, product cycle, quality requirements, etc.)
d. Legacy system overhead (huge: code base, portofolio of systems to maintain, etc.)
e. Best #2 mentality (risk-aversion)
f. Global presence (tensions among different CoC vs. Regionals, cultural, style differences, communications, travel overhead, etc.)

4. Dinosaur has two brains: why Simens still so top-down, continental centric?

5. How to balance pursuit of “synergy” vs. “access to market”?? How bad is duplicating work in US and Germany? What if it speeds up response time?

6. Bangalore Challenges:
a. Wage pressure (per MS CFO, outsourcing still saves 1/2 cost)
b. Cultural differences: not testing “5, 6, 7, 8 …”
c. Infrastrucutre: polution, power, etc. (first and last paragraph)
d. High turnover rate: dis-incentive for HR investment, training, etc.
e. IP concerns

Overall, the Germans in my group has a lot to complain about Simens and German labor market condition. The Indian is intensely interested and very philosophical about outsourcing.

My thoughts:
1. Simens can further leverage US resources: e.g. outsource outsourcing to Boca Raton! e.g. MS has 1/5 engineers from India/Paki, US has the immigrant pool and experiences dealing with outsourcing.

2. How to find/train/use compatriots like us may be very important to bridge up both sides.

3. Why Simens did not involve the Indians during product design? If senior Indian guys help to draft the specification, it makes a lot difference!

4. It is simplistic to assume a more detailed spec will result in more efficient development. It is as important to transfer the “intangibles” (see “Beyond Language Difference” and my point #2)