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AbstractIn this article, faculty members from three United States colleges and universities reflect upon mentoring undergraduate research in cultural anthropology and consider the educational and practice-based outcomes of student mentorship. Following a multi-year experience jointly mentoring students, we discuss our trajectories, lessons, and challenges in learning to support and advise undergraduate researchers. We reflect upon the impact of the “lone ethnographer” mentality as well as the possibilities of collaborative research, seeing the university as a site for ethnographic research and developing experiential programs. Collectively, we highlight the need to expand not only options for students to engage in primary research design, data collection, and analysis but also for anthropology departments and institutions to support instructors who prioritize student research opportunities and to provide training so that more instructors may do so confidently.

Data owners are creating an ever richer set of information resources online, and these are being used for more and more applications. Spatial data on the Web is becoming ubiquitous and voluminous with the rapid growth of location-based services, spatial technologies, dynamic location-based data and services published by different organizations. However, the heterogeneity and the peculiarities of spatial data, such as the use of different coordinate reference systems, make it difficult for data users, Web applications, and services to discover, interpret and use the information in the large and distributed system that is the Web. To make spatial data more effectively available, this paper summarizes the work of the joint W3C/OGC Working Group on Spatial Data on the Web that identifies 14 best practices for publishing spatial data on the Web. The paper extends that work by presenting the identified challenges and rationale for selection of the recommended best practices, framed by the set of principles that guided the selection. It describes best practices that are employed to enable publishing, discovery and retrieving (querying) spatial data on the Web, and identifies some areas where a best practice has not yet emerged.

This paper introduces DataGraft (https://datagraft.net/) – a cloud-based platform for data transformation and publishing. DataGraft was developed to provide better and easier to use tools for data workers and developers (e.g., open data publishers, linked data developers, data scientists) who consider existing approaches to data transformation, hosting, and access too costly and technically complex. DataGraft offers an integrated, flexible, and reliable cloud-based solution for hosted open data management. Key features include flexible management of data transformations (e.g., interactive creation, execution, sharing, and reuse) and reliable data hosting services. This paper provides an overview of DataGraft focusing on the rationale, key features and components, and evaluation.

AbstractPlanning Unplanned: Can Art have a Function? Towards a New Function of Art in Society, Barbara Holub and Christine Hohenbüchler (eds) (2015) Vienna: Verlag für Moderne Kunst, 256 pp., ISBN: 9783869840635, p/bk, £30.87Industry and Intelligence: Contemporary Art Since 1820, Liam Gillick (2016) New York: Columbia University Press, 208 pp., ISBN: 9780231170208, h/bk, £26.00Production Show 2016–2018: Prototyping/Discovering/Analysing, curated by Ruth Claxton and Gavin Wade, Eastside Projects, Digbeth, Birmingham, 1 October– 10 December 2016The Birmingham Big Art Project (BBAP), shortlist exhibition, various venues in Birmingham, 2016–17‘The Hop Project’ by General Public (artists Elizabeth Rowe and Chris Poolman), various venues across Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Birmingham and the Black Country, 2016–17Human Right, Stephen Willats, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, UK, 4 March–4 June 2017The Present in Drag, 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 4 June–18 September 2016Marie Yates, Works 1971–1979, Richard Saltoun Gallery, Great Titchfield Street, London, 24 June–22 July 2016

AbstractALL THE WORLD’S FUTURES Curated by Okwui Enwezor, along with 89 national pavilions and 44 collateral events, 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, 9 May – 22 November 2015ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK SQUARE: ABSTRACT ART AND SOCIETY 1915–2015 Curated by Iwona Blazwick and Magnus af Petersens, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 15 January–6 April 2015THE AGA KHAN MUSEUM COLLECTION AND THE GARDEN OF IDEAS: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM PAKISTAN Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, 18 September 2014–18 January 2015SIMON DENNY: THE INNOVATOR’S DILEMMA Curated by Peter Eleey, with Jocelyn Miller, Museum of Modern Art PS1, New York, 3 April–7 September 2015POLITICS OF FASHION/FASHION OF POLITICS Curated by Jeanne Beker and Sara Nickleson, Design Exchange, Toronto, 18 September 2014–25 January 2015

This article discusses the ongoing pertinence to the present of Fredric Jameson's work on postmodernism in the context of recent elaborations of “the contemporary” and “contemporaneity” in art history, theory and criticism. It is argued that, while postmodernism is fraught with contradiction and in any case irretrievable by now as a periodization of the present, it nonetheless remains crucially instructive for a fuller understanding and politicization of contemporaneity. In particular, both the nature of the relationship between culture and capital, as well as the theoretical imperative to totalize remain central to Jameson's problematic in ways that the discourse on the contemporary threatens to undo, in its resistance to historicism, and in its tendency to insist, not merely upon the heterogeneity, but upon the incommensurability of global cultures and space-times.

Several letters to the editor are presented regarding different issues about forestry in Great Britain including climate change, the National Trust's pollarding of ash and a response to articles about ash dieback in the journal.

The article offers information on the LinuxCNC electronic gear box for ML7 Lathe from LinuxCNC.

‘Mood music’ offers a playful and contained way to begin to give shape and expression to what may be difficult emotional experiences for young children. Community musician and trainer Bill Robertspresents songs and ways of using instruments to support emotional development

Africa. The word invokes powerful images about a continent that is the ancestral home for us all. Storytelling is an ancient tradition among Africans. Stories entertain, educate and encapsulate part of the African spirit. In that same spirit, three distinct voices and perspectives (two American and one African) collaborate here to tell a story about a sacred place that has slowly transformed into a tourist attraction.

AbstractOne of the original propositions surrounding higher education in the United States was that its purpose was to allow people to give service to society, and that the curriculum should provide values-oriented intellectual training (Wieckowski, Thomas Student-Community Service Programs: The Academic Connection. NASPA Journal29(3), 1992). This agenda has all but disappeared, as even liberal arts education focuses on a goal of earning rather than learning, and the values being absorbed by students are those tied to consumerism and the individual acquisition of wealth. The notion of giving back to the land (or society) and reaching out to help the community is alien to many, if not most, of our students. Indeed, in a recent survey of first year college students, only 22% said that “participating in a community-action program” was very important (Delve, Cecilia I. Community Service as Values Education. New Directions for Student Services, No. 50, 1990:2). Consequently, those of us committed to service-learning (community-service) are faced with two major tasks: helping students to realize that becoming personally involved with the local and global community is a valuable and satisfying piece of their education; and redesigning the curriculum to provide ways for faculty to integrate such values-oriented, action learning into their existing courses.

AbstractAnthropologists are skilled at developing rapport quickly with people from various backgrounds, and learning the essentials to participate appropriately in their activities. In Senegal, where many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have assumed an intermediary role between local populations and the government or other external organizations, it is imperative for them to be able to demonstrate the results of their efforts with local populations. The task is made easier when NGOs and local people find a way to effectively plan their efforts collaboratively.

For many years the water Industry has been plagued with a disabling injury frequency rate which is consistently higher than the all‐industry average as published by the National Safety Council. Water utility managements in general have been slow in recognizing the high cost of accidents and their effects on operating efficiency and production. As a result, the establishment of formal safety programs is low on the priority list of many water utilities. The purpose of this roundtable, held In Chicago, III., on Oct. 21,1980, was to discuss the need for sound safety programs, review the problems that contribute to the water Industry's poor record, and recommend solutions to those problems. The session was moderated by Thomas McKeon, chairman of AWWA's Accident Prevention Committee, and director of the Special Construction Projects Division of the Hackensack Water Co., Harrington Park, N.J. Participants in the discussion were Harry Becker, director of safety, AWWA; Mel Binney, personnel manager, City Water Board, San Antonio, Tex.; Dick Oliphant, safety director, Board of Water Commissioners, Denver, Colo.; Bill Roberts, assistant general manager, Water Works Board, Birmingham, Ala.; and Mark Rothenberg, operations director, Spring Valley Water Company, West Nyack, N.Y.

Presents information on long-distance business relationships and their effectiveness. Information on the business techniques of MG Taylor Corporation, The Cole Group and Legal Services Institute Incorporated; Advantages and disadvantages of long -distance businesses; Comments of business owners Matt Taylor, David Cole and Katie LaChance. INSETS: Technology tips.;Long-distance decisions.;Going virtual, by Alice Bredin.;Going virtual, by Christopher Allen.

Making a sincere commitment to providing quality education at the undergraduate level and linking the discipline to other fields that benefit from anthropological insights (e.g., education, health care, government service, the natural sciences) better ensures the success and the vitality of our discipline than concentrating our efforts on producing more postmodernist Ph.D.s who are not easily employable in the modern job market.

AbstractThe numerous problems Africans face are familiar to all of us, in part because an ever-present media depicts graphic scenes of civil wars and refugees, recurrent droughts, and the heart-wrenching human suffering associated with widespread poverty. The appeal of fieldwork in Africa has attracted a large number of anthropologists over the past century whose accomplishments and insights have contributed greatly to the advancement of the discipline as a whole. The immense human and biophysical diversity that characterizes Africa continues to provide anthropologists with a wide range of exciting research opportunities relevant to some perceived “problem.” Anthropologists have worked with their African colleagues on many of these topical problems, and notable examples have been published in previous editions of Practicing Anthropology.

The relatively large number of rust‐resistant mutants observed in the N2coming from N1plants not isolated in the Aberdeen nursery were not true Markton phenotype and it is suggested they are the result of field hybridization. There were no rust‐resistant mutants in the N2population grown from isolated N1plants.

The article focuses on the partnership between Chartered Semiconductor, IBM and Samsung Semiconductor for the development of advanced semiconductor processing technologies. The author cited that the collaboration aims to have each partner's products in production more or less simultaneously and then work together to improve yields in each plant. According to Steve Longoria, IBM vice president, the company recognized that Chartered and IBM have a set of unique and complementary skills as IBM has deep engineering skills and Chartered understands the foundry model. Samsung licensed the IBM-Chartered 90-nanometers (NM) technology and joined the partnership as a full development and manufacturing partner for 65 NM and beyond. INSET: Fabless follies.

The article reports on the growth of integrated circuit design in India as of November 2006. The growth are attributed to several factors such as the increased globalization of the microchip industry, a shortage of engineers and growing costs in the West, and qualified talent and lower salaries in the country. According to Greg Delagi, Texas Instrument's vice president and general manager of digital signal processing systems, India is more advanced than China in some areas such as center design, process nodes and Internet Protocol protection laws similar to that of the West, but lags behind in broad electrics ecosystem. INSET: Wage spiral.

The article provides information on the RFAB wafer fab project of Texas Instruments (TI). According to Phil Ritter, a TI senior vice president, the company decided to get involved in the community because it is the right thing to do and to achieve an important business outcome. Factors such as local tax abatements, the commitment of the state of Texas to upgrade the local university and the company's desire to keep the fab close to research and development in Dallas led to the company's decision. INSETS: Academia focuses on industrial needs;Chiller units lead to energy savings.

The article focuses on the fast growth of the electronics industry of China. A number of Chinese engineers are returning to their homeland to start fabless chip companies after getting education and spending their formative years in the West. According to Shaojun Wei, vice president of the integrated circuit (IC) design branch of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, the increasing number of returnees have made a huge impact on the industry. Other factors attributed for the quick advancement of IC design in China include the government's commitment to IC design and improved university training and global design centers. INSETS: Two high school buddies;Chinese company with an American history.

The article focuses on venture capital firms, which are limited partnerships of several investors that are most concerned about return on investment. Investments, mostly new business enterprises in technology, are made by corporate funds in order to accelerate access to new markets, new technologies and new talent, according to Warren Holtsberg, corporate vice president of equity investments at Motorola. Intel Capital, for example, made an investment in an Egyptian WiMAX venture which marked the first investment of the corporate venture fund in the Arab Middle East and illustrated the new strategy of Intel Capital of making more global investments. INSETS: The IBM way;Couldn't do it without Intel.

The article discusses the link between technology and pornography. Safira Solutions, developer of one of the early Wireless Application Protocol platforms, derive its revenue from customer relationship management software and the mobile Internet. The company's customers range from games to adult content. In fact, cybersex is an important part of Safira's revenue. The mobile Internet is the latest channel invaded by pornography. Pornographers reap profits from each new channel they access, and not keeping up with technological innovations would mean risking their business.

The article analyses the issues surrounding executive compensation in the U.S. The three concerns raised about CEO pay include: severance packages, replacement of stock options with stock grants for long-term incentive pay and connection of long-term incentives to performance metrics. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is planning to require all proxy statements to provide detailed information on those three areas. The draft disclosure rules are being deliberated will be finalized later in 2006. Aside from the action taken by SEC, board compensation committees are spending more time on CEO packages due to wide negative reaction to CEO pay when it seems excessive, and shareholders actions like filing a lawsuit. INSETS: Proposed SEC disclosure rules dig deeper;Thumbing their noses.

The article discusses the challenges faced by Western companies in protecting their intellectual property (IP) in China, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. There are several reasons behind the lack of importance given to IP protection in the country, including its focus on low-cost manufacturing. The report claims that the efforts of Western companies to pressure China to protect IP rights might be in vain. The Chinese patent system allegedly has many loopholes. The reports recommends to companies to rely on less traditional legal protections in China in dealing with IP issues. INSETS: How to preserve IP value;Socialist ideology prevails.

The article presents information on startup electronic companies in the U.S. in 2006. Factors such as hiring employees, developing technology and raising money are all crucial to the success of a startup company. Moreover, one other point that chief executive officers will make is that no startup company is a real company until it has customers. Patrick Soheili and David Fritz, chief executive officers of Cradle Technologies and Silistix, respectively, believe that a large company should be the first customer of a startup company. INSET: Advice to startups: listen and don't overpromise.

This article features the 10 most influential executives in the U.S. electronics industry from 1975-2005. Morris Chang created the silicon foundry business, freeing semiconductor startups from the financial burden of building fabs. When Chang founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., in 1986, to make chips under contract, it gave startups an affordable manufacturing strategy when fab costs were skyrocketing. Aart De Geus led the team that created Synthesis Compiler, a leap forward in electronic design automation that saved chip designers time and money. Synthesis automates reading a high-level electronic design description and implements it at a lower level of abstraction work that used to be hand-cranked. As CEO of Arrow Electronics from 1986 to 2000, Stephen Kaufman set standards that upgraded the entire distribution industry. Kaufman worked in the automotive parts industry briefly before joining Arrow.

This article provides an overview of the principles in the electronics industry from 1975-2005. Although the industry has constantly changed over 30 years, Moore's Law and a few other fundamental principles have been as consistent and solid as bedrock. Moore's Law virtually mandated increased specialization. This, in turn, led to new business models, including those relating to chip foundries and contract manufacturing. Moore's Law has spawned complexity, specialization and partnerships. These trends, in turn, spawned globalization, driving companies to look abroad, at first for cheaper labor and later for a bigger pool of scientists, engineers and partners. Operating around the world also created the ability to work on designs around the clock and to develop new markets.

This article focuses on the innovation strategy used by KLA-Tencor. Like any other good CEO, Ken Schroeder of KLA-Tencor spends a lot of time thinking about his employees. But unlike most other CEO, he spends a lot of time thinking about what they know and what they still need to learn. The emphasis on learning apparently works. For one thing, it contributes to employee turnover of less than 5 percent on a global basis. And the learned staff's outpouring of innovative products has kept KLA-Tencor on the leading edge for more than two decades. KLA-Tencor, which had net income of $244 million on revenue of $1.5 billion in fiscal 2004, routinely has the highest margins among semiconductor equipment companies. Central to its strategy is a collaborative, creative environment that fosters innovation and emphasizes learning. KLA-Tencor ranked fifth overall and first in Silicon Valley on Training magazine's 2004 Top 100 list. The products, including a services unit and the expert systems, and the need to stay two steps ahead of the chip industry's march toward smaller geometries are the innovative hallmarks of the company. But the culture that produces this innovation is where the management lessons are found. INSET: Innovation is where you find it.

This article discusses the acquisition of Artisan Components by ARM Holdings in the U.S. in 2004. After years of disaggregating by outsourcing silicon to foundries, adopting commercial electronic design automation tools and licensing Internet telephony (IP) from third parties, chip companies, driven by cost and complexity, are selectively reaggregating. The ARM core business is a family of standard 16- and 32-bit reduced instruction set computer embedded microprocessors. In 2003, about two thirds of shipments by silicon partners of ARM were for wireless devices. ARM also offers software to support its processors, development tools and related system IP. With its physical libraries, memory and input/output IP, Artisan will boost the company's system IP business. ARM has 136 licensees, mostly integrated device manufacturers. Artisan has about 2,000 customers, mostly fabless semiconductor companies because its libraries are mainly used by foundries. The most direct competitor of ARM is MIPS Technologies, which, along with ARM, created the embedded IP processor business. Like most ARM rivals, MIPS does not see a significance in the Artisan deal. MIPS has also begun to add more value through IP that complements the processors in key vertical markets.

This article profiles Renesas Technology, a semiconductor company formed as a result of the decision of the Hitachi and Mitsubishi to merge their semiconductor units in 2002. Hitachi owns 55 percent and Mitsubishi 45 percent of privately held Renesas, which has a small board of directors and a management team with considerable autonomy. Neither Hitachi nor Mitsubishi wanted to keep most of what remained of their chip operations. The merger made sense because the products complemented each other. Merging the Hitachi and Mitsubishi semiconductor units, which were second and fourth in microcontrollers in 2002, automatically made Renesas number 1, ahead of Freescale (formerly the semiconductor division of Motorola) and NEC. In microcontrollers Renesas offers a broad spectrum, from 8-bit to 32-bit technology. Yet it supports two architectures with proprietary instruction sets. Renesas President Satoru Ito says a driving factor behind Renesas was the parent companies' recognition that conglomerates cannot make speedy decisions. Ito's prime example of how much things have changed under Renesas is its decision to nearly double its capital expenditure that first year, from 70 billion yen to 120 billion yen. INSET: Consensus meets executive decisions.

This article focuses on the basic research deficit in the U.S. and its implications for the electronics industry, national economy and defense as of October 2004. Basic research, conducted mainly in universities and national laboratories, Is aimed at advancing fundamental scientific knowledge. Applied research for commercial product development and solving specific problems both flow from the wellspring of basic research. The U.S. still leads the world in research, but the primary patron of basic research, the federal government, has steadily decreased the amount it invests. Mirroring the broader trend in overall research and development spending, federal investment in the physical sciences, math and engineering fell from 0.25 percent of gross domestic product in 1970 to 0.16 percent in 2003, according to the Alliance for Science & Technology Research in the U.S. The basic research deficit has grown insidiously, despite some half-hearted measures by policy makers. In his fiscal 2005 budget, President George W. Bush proposed $132 billion for all research and development, including basic research, applied research and technology development, a 4.3 percent increase over 2004. The proposed budget was a mixed bag for electronics-related basic research. INSET: When the CMOS workhorse retires, what will replace it?.

This article discusses strategies of system on a chip (SoC) manufacturers in the U.S. to manage risks associated with the increasing complexity in SoC designs as of September 2004. In 2004 Moore's Law, first enunciated by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore, who foresaw the number of transistors on a silicon chip doubling every 18 months, has prevailed for more than 30 years, leading to not only more integrated circuits but also increasingly complex ones. As a result, where several chips and circuit boards were once needed to power a device, now all necessary components can be etched into one piece of silicon with tens of millions of gates. Such an SoC performs more efficiently than a stack of wired-up circuit hoards and is cheaper to build per gate. When simple SoC debuted, a decade ago, the concept was hailed as having the potential to solve numerous chip integration issues. However, as the number of gates has increased exponentially to reach today's level of complexity, SoC also cause a rash of new problems. From design to preproduction, an SoC costs $2 million to $5 million at 130 nanometers and $15 million to $20 million at 90 nanometers. Any SoC will be driven by whether it is economically, not technically, feasible. The technical issues for SoC are daunting, but more than ever, chip executives are focused on the cost and management issues, especially in three areas: defining markets, staffing, and intellectual property strategies.

This article deals with the rivalry between Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel. In the $27 billion microprocessor market, Intel is the leader by a whopping 4-to-1 margin. AMD plays the dutiful follower, offering original equipment manufacturers a second source for x86 microprocessors used mainly in low-end desktop computers. Their rivalry is more like Avis versus Hertz: AMD tries harder but remains second fiddle. However, by trying harder and being smarter, AMD has taken the lead in 64-bit x86 technology, used in servers and high-end workstations, and in next-generation flash memory, used in consumer electronics and some business devices. AMD is a company best known, after all, as a fast follower of Intel's innovation. The big news is that AMD is doing reasonably well in the server business, growing from negligible to noticeable, according to Joe Byrne, a Gartner analyst. It led the transition from the 32-bit x86 architecture to the 64-bit x86 architecture. Intel had to follow. It was a curious example of leadership on the part of AMD. AMD took longer to recover from the downturn that most, notching nine quarters of red ink before reporting profits in its two most recent quarters. It had net income of $45 million on revenue of $1.2 billion in its most recent quarter. AMD had revenue of $3.5 billion in 2003 and Intel had $30 billion.

As of 2004, compensation committees exert more influence on executive pay packages than consultants have ever see. Whereas compensation committees used to be little more than a rubber stamp for the CEO's proposal, they now hire their own pay consultants, scrutinize alternatives for long-term incentives, decide which performance metrics align best with business strategy, actively debate these packages and communicate better to shareholders. The Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance law dictates only that boards stop giving loans to executives and that executives pay back incentives if financials have to be restated. Consultants identify several new trends, including compensation committees' hiring their own consultants. Compensation committees have longer and more lively debates. Consultants don't expect to see actual changes before 2005. Executive pay consists of salary, annual bonus and long-term pay. Salary and annual bonus aren't changing, but long term pay is. Compensation committees are favoring other long-term incentives over time-based stock options. The new era in executive pay is marked by one other characteristic: renewed emphasis on the concept of pay for performance. The problem with options is that the share price often rises or falls in response to circumstances over which executives have little control. Some compensation committees are considering factoring in customer satisfaction, market share and time to market for key products and other nonfinancial measures. INSETS: ELECTRONIC BUSINESS HIGHEST-PAID EXECUTIVES 2003;Which CEO delivered the biggest bang for the buck?.

This article features several executives and their illustration of how perplexed people remain from the double and triple booking of the last boom in the electronics industry, as of May 2004, which, according to market research firm iSuppli, caused an aggregate inventory write-off of more than $30 billion in the bust. Apparently, each link in the chain, original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, is looking for ways to avoid fallacious forecasts, double booking and other mistakes that exacerbated the worst electronic downturn in history. According to Derek Lidow, chief executive officer of iSuppli, inventory liability resides with suppliers, and as a result, some suppliers have put in place more-automated supply chain management systems that should reduce the spread of components throughout the world. As Lidow argues, excess inventory is everyone's risk. Responsible companies all along the supply chain are acting to stem excesses before they exist. For one, Texas Instruments began to adopt just-in-time processes before the downturn, according to Mike Senecal, semiconductor supply chain manager. INSETS: Inventory control arrives just in time;A bigger gap between supply and demand may be on the way.

This article looks at the challenges and triumphs of various U.S.-based startups that established research and development offices in India. Doing research and development in India is not a strategy for every startup. Peter Fenton, a general partner at venture capital firm Accel Partners in Palo Alto, California, says most but not all of his portfolio companies have an offshore strategy. One portfolio company, Riverbed Technology, is developing a more efficient way to run dataheavy applications over wide area networks. For some startups, the Indian research and development strategy has proved fatal. Ishoni Networks, which was developing a chip for voice and data services over the Internet, lost human capital and Internet protocol when its India-based engineers left for a competitor. The Santa Clara, California-based company filed for bankruptcy in December 2003. No Ishoni executives or partners are talking to the press. David Lane, a general partner at Diamondhead Ventures, knows of other fatalities which he declines to discuss. From a startup perspective, offshoring research and development can have tremendous economic benefits but if handled incorrectly, it can fail new business enterprises. INSET: Squelching a rumor.

This article discusses the opportunities and risks created by moving research and development (R&D) outside the U.S. In 1987, Cadence Design Systems became the first electronic design automation vendor to open an R&D center in India. Since 2000, the company has opened two R&D centers in China and one in Russia. Electronics companies have done R&D offshore for years. Doing R&D in India and China reduces costs. Offshore R&D strategy also has risk. Haphazard execution offshore can lead to lower productivity and put intellectual property at risk. A growing outcry emerged over the loss of U.S. jobs due to the offshore trend. A few executives, including Intel CEO Craig Barrett, believe that the offshore wave is fundamentally different, a strategic inflection point full of political uncertainty. The three most prevalent popular nations for offshore R&D, India, China and Russia, have strong educational systems. Individual companies will remain competitive if they take advantage of the offshore workforce. Barrett said that Intel has no obligation to suffer financially just to employ U.S. citizens. If the U.S. wants to remain competitive, it must improve education and funding for R&D. INSETS: Some insight on India;How to remain perpetually employed;Some insight on China.

This article features Michael Marks, chief executive officer of Flextronics International. Mark's idea to create industrial parks became a key to his company's success. Flextronics has spent a billion dollars on six industrial parks, one each in Mexico, Brazil, Hungary and Poland and two in China. The parks, which have cut costs by 1 to 4 percent have been the key to Flextronics' success building low-margin products such as Microsoft Xbox and Hewlett-Packard printers. These low-cost manufacturing sites give the company the ability to execute original design manufacturing. During Mark's 10 years at the helm, Flextronics has always been a few strategic steps ahead of its competitors. Marks pays close attention to his customers, empowers his executives and keeps bureaucracy to an absolute minimum. Flextronics has made acquisitions than other contract manufacturers, acquiring suppliers, competitors and original equipment manufacturer plants that have given the company better geographic diversity, lower-cost sites and broader competencies. The company suffered during the downturn but weathered the storm better than its competitors. For this reason, Electronic Business journal names Mark its 2003 chief executive officer of the Year. INSET: Personal File: Michael E. Marks.

The article compares how contract manufacturing (CM) firms, Solectron Corp. and Flextronics International Ltd., handled the 2003 economic downturn. With revenue of $13.6 billion, up from $12.9 billion in 2002, Flextronics outmanaged Solectron before and during the 2003 downturn. Before the downturn, both companies aggressively pursued acquisitions. They also won accounts with big original equipment manufacturer, diversified geographically and expanded their business. In the downturn, they both undertook restructuring, but Flextronics moved faster to cut capacity, reduce workforce and move manufacturing to lower-cost sites. As the fiscal quarter ended May 31, 2003, Solectron took a restructuring charge of $3 billion. Both depended too much on telecommunication, but Flextronics branched out into consumer electronics. Solectron mishandled its new assets, lost sight of customer service and became a bloated bureaucracy in which decisions passed through many layers of management. Flextronics integrated acquisitions smoothly, steadily improved customer service, and kept a lean, flat structure in which the executives closest to the customers make the key decisions. Pamela Gordon, president of Technology Forecasters Inc. said that what Flextronics did well and Solectron did poorly offers lessons for the entire industry.