Prime Time 6, Coursebook mit Audio-CD und DVD

a) Read the extract from the interview and complete it with suitable questions that fit the answers given. Choose from the words below. In groups, compare your ideas. competition to globalise to develop India Germany knowledge global division necessarily Silicon Valley to stay labour talent Question: Answer: ere really is no alternative, for two reasons. It’s foolish to believe today that the smartest people are in one nation. e second is sourcing, at least if you are a big company. If you are smaller, and have a team of 100 or 200 engineers, you can stay in one country and try to attract the best guys. But if you are a big company, you need to tap into the global talent pool. In Germany, we now have the big public debate about there being a shortage of engineers in the country. Well, I don’t care, or at least not as the chief executive of SAP. Question: Answer: When it comes to deep application integration, we go to Germany. It’s where we have many people with a deep knowledge of nance, manufacturing, human relations – those kinds of things, and knowledge of those functions in speci c industries, the domain speci c knowledge. at kind of deep knowledge is essential to platform work, designing the basic architecture of the core product. Question: Answer: In Palo Alto, we make use of the kind of innovation and creativity that is in Silicon Valley. It’s a place where a lot of new companies and technologies pop up and you can more easily integrate those new things into your thinking and your products. A lot of the internet work has been done there, the technologies that open our products to others. Question: Answer: We do a lot of implementation of the design work in India. Our intent was to go there for the large talent pool. But we’ve been in Bangalore for seven years and we’ve grown somewhat gradually there. You cannot go in and hire 2,000 in a year and believe they are going to be ready to develop high-quality integrated so‚ware applications. (Steve Lohr, The New York Times , 9 June 2007) b) On a world map, present SAP’s global operations. • Label each city with the type of work that is done there. • Also put down the reasons why certain locations were chosen. Outsourcing – the pros and cons a) Have a look at the following arguments that are often used when the pros and cons of outsourcing are discussed. b) Decide for yourself which of these arguments support outsourcing (pros) and which are against it (cons). Colour the pros green and the cons red. c) For each argument, write down a short explanation or example that justifies your choice. d) What other arguments can you think of? 3 loss of control securit issues fewer regulations lower wages access to better technolog job opportunities in developing countries lower material and processing qualit focus on core business different languages 69 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verl gs öbv