Obama promises Sarkozy a rose garden

He will reach out, finally, to President Nicolas Sarkozy after more than 12 months of scarcely disguised froideur between the French and American leaders.

Eight other European leaders have been invited to the White House before President Sarkozy, who is said to be too excitable and too unpredictable for Mr Obama?s taste. The French president, jealous at being upstaged by another, young and energetic world leader, has made a series of barbed or patronising remarks about President Obama.

In particular, President Sarkozy once liked to compare the self-proclaimed success of his own pell-mell reforms with the alleged caution and slowness of President Obama?s first year in office. Irony of ironies, the French presidential visit, often postponed, is happening today and tomorrow when the roles of the two men have been reversed.

President Obama is on the crest of a wave after pushing health care reform through Congress and agreeing a nuclear disarmament deal with Russia. President Sarkozy is in the political dumps ? including an all time low opinion poll rating of 30 per cent yesterday ? after a humiliating defeat by the Left in the French regional elections last weekend.

Mr Sarkozy needs the American trip to be a success – and needs to be seen to get along with Mr Obama – as a first step towards rebuilding his shattered aura of invincibility in France. President Obama appears to be ready to oblige him.

President Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, have been invited to a cosy dinner in the White House tonight with the American first couple. If the weather permits, the visit will end with an elebarate joint press conference by the two presidents in the White House rose garden on Tuesday.

On most issues ? such as Iran or Israel-Palestine ? they see more or less eye to eye or will agree to differ. President Obama would like France to increase its front-line contribution to the war in Afghanistan. This would be deeply unpopular in France and is therefore beyond a weakened President Sarkozy?s power to deliver.

President Sarkozy would like the US to move further and faster on climate change but can hardly press the issue after dropping his own plans for a ?carbon? tax.

The history of the awkward Obama-Sarkozy relationship began even before the American leader was elected in November 2008. As part of his campaign to denigrate the legacy of his predecessor and former mentor, Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy reached out to the lame duck President George W. Bush. He even implicitly criticised Mr Chirac?s decision to oppose the US-British invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The French leader therefore found himself less than popular with the new Democratic team which occupied the White House in January last year. He was furious when President Obama refused his invitation to lunch at the Elysee(acute on middle e) Palace after the commemoration of the D-Day landings in Normandy last June.

?This was unprecedented and spoke volumes,? said one diplomatic source in France. ?Obama couldn?t abide Sarkozy?s style and what saw as his child-like need to be always seen next to him.?

Over the next few months, President Sarkozy appeared to go out of his way to present himself as a more radical, and succesful, leader than Mr Obama. Criticised for launching a half-dozen, incomplete reforms, Mr Sarkozy said in December: ?I see that Mr Obama, for whom I have great esteem, and even great friendship, has placed all his bets on one reform. That has not made things easier for him.?

In November, Mr Sarkozy pointed out that Mr Obama has already ?lost three elections? since taking office. He bragged that his government had faced only one mid-term test, the European elections, and ?we were the winners?.

The former French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, suggests that the difficulties between the two men are partly personal but partly driven by Mr Obama?s lack of interest in Europe.

?Obama has no reason to feel close to Sarkozy,? he said. ?For one thing, he cosied up to George W. Bush for ideological reasons. But secondly Obama does not regard France, or Europe, as a priority.?

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Evaluating Logistics Outsourcing

Outsourcing, because of it being relatively young in the business or trade scene, is subject to a lot of research and evaluation. As a business, you can outsource practically everything from economics and accounting, management, human resource/hiring, customer service and logistics.

There are many reasons as to why companies suddenly want to start outsourcing some or most of their departments, and just as many are companies who would like to start an outsourcing business of their own. Most of the time, the reason is cost reduction and the desire to increase operational productivity. However, for logistics outsourcing, a big reason is to upgrade their IT capabilities at a fraction of the cost, or to be able to react quickly in a change in the normal freight and shipping environment, specifically if the shipper would want to change routes. When logistics is outsourced, a situation like this can be acted on quickly and efficiently, rather than going through several different departments simple to address the issue.

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Off Shore Outsourcing India

The outsourcing phenomenon has picked up momentum only in the past decade with the advent of the internet. Ever since undersea fibre -optic cables have been laid out, it has helped in boosting internet connectivity across continents. Cheap access to the worldwide web has helped in the growth and evolution of a knowledge economy which has resulted in a redistribution of wealth across the globe.

People who have been using computers for many years would re-collect that sending a file even 1 Mb in size used to take a whole night, now the same can be done in a jiffy. The wave of outsourcing became a flood when sending large amounts of data through the internet to another corner of the world became a breeze.

Another factor, which contributed to the growth of the outsourcing phenomenon, was the realization that India had a large talent pool of English speaking professionals who could deliver high quality work at low costs. Companies in the western world realized that sending work offshore proved to be a profitable proposition as the response was even faster than vendors based in the home country. Not just India, other countries in the eastern hemisphere also benefited from this realization.

Offshore outsourcing phenomenon is not just a flash in the pan but is here to stay for the long term. Several factors have contributed to the growth of this phenomenon. Foremost among them being the high quality of Maths and computer science graduates being churned out by Indian universities. Unlike the west, where the education system focuses on creativity and innovation; India's education system lays a heavy emphasis on absorption of mathematical concepts and rote learning . The net result being that India's logic -oriented graduates are adept at problem solving and number crunching while the west still retains its edge in marketing primarily due to an academic ecosystem which nourishes creativity and innovation.

Globalization has also had a major role to play in the offshore outsourcing phenomenon. Rising cost pressures forced companies to rethink their cost structures and business models which resulted in a globally distributed supply chain and work force. Work all over the world now goes to that location where it can be done best and at the lowest cost. On the basis of this cardinal macroeconomic principle, one can say that India will continue to retain its leadership position in the offshore outsourcing space.