The difference between British and our US colleagues is neatly summed up by roundabouts (or traffic circles, if you’re American) and traffic lights. A former British Ambassador to Washington hit the nail on the head when he identified this (although I can’t find him credited with this major cultural discovery on the internet). Americans are direct: if …
Category: Multi-National Operations
Feb 17
Lean Beef
The current uproar in Europe over the food supply chain, after horse meat was found in products labelled as beef, shows an immediate benefit of Lean production and supply chain. To produce something cheaply the traditional supply chain tries to screw suppliers to get raw materials as cheaply as possible. The suppliers in turn will …
Jul 15
Business travel: Keeping mobile roaming headaches at bay
With summer holidays coming up and international roaming data at £1 for 1mb – thats one email with an attachment, it’s time for drastic action. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14129868
Apr 30
From Global Solution to Big Problem
In six easy steps: Central: “Here’s our Global Solution” Local: “Does it work for me?” Central: “We will get down to the detail later but it can do everything we need. We will work together on this, now let’s get on..” Local: “But I can’t use it because it doesn’t do this” Central: “This is the …
Jun 01
Achieving efficiency in a new dimension
My introduction to pan-European finance technology came on the day Europhile Tony Blair became prime minister. After casting my vote, I drove to my companies newly opened Paris office to struggle with installing a French version of Windows 95 from 24 floppy disks. Since then I have become well versed in the benefits and practice …
May 01
Travellers tool bag – What to take with you for the journey
As you venture forth on a multinational project delivery, Nic Evans looks at what tools you need to increase the chances of success. As soon as you start to cross borders, the geographic and cultural separation mean that the trusted techniques such as “Management by walking around” and “the team that drinks together, thinks together” …
May 01
Go Forth and “Multi-”ply
Going multinational opens up multiple extra dimensions in system complexity. The biggest strategic efficiency for multinational systems is gained by having front-end, administration and accounting systems that can travel in these extra dimensions Multi-Format – Culture-specific number formats (thousand and decimal separators) currency symbols (prefixes or suffixes) and date formats are essential to present users …
May 01
Snakes And Ladders – The Benefits and Pitfalls of Pan European Finance Systems
Henry Ford is the father of modern mass production. His production lines established Ford as the first global car manufacturer. Yet it was not until 34 years after his death that Ford produced their first global car – the Ford Escort. Ford set out to use common components worldwide, but by the time the Escort …
May 01
European Vision – Pan-European Finance Systems Delivery
For many international finance organisations there is a holy grail of a single system and standardised global processes that can deliver best practices and major efficiencies. But can a single platform meet all the diverse needs of the local businesses? Do the complexities, costs, delivery time and risk of global projects outweigh the benefits? In …