Project identifies six industry clusters to support region’s recovery.

September 2011(Tokyo) — Global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, Nishigo Village of Fukushima Prefecture, and Shimogo Town of Fukushima Prefecture have joined together in a collaborative initiative to develop industry clusters and create job opportunities for the post-earthquake/tsunami recovery of Fukushima and Japan’s industrial development.

The aim of this collaborative initiative is to help Fukushima recover from post-earthquake/tsunami problems by developing industry clusters that would leverage local assets, attract new business enterprises and create a self-sustaining economy. The initiative also aims to develop a model that addresses challenges facing modern society, such as aging and food security, and that can be replicated throughout the world. The two municipalities, located in the southern area of Fukushima Prefecture, are safely far enough away from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and have good accessibility to the metropolitan Tokyo area.

To date, some 20 business enterprises have expressed their interest in participating in this collaborative initiative.

Within this context, Nishigo Village, Shimogo Town and A.T. Kearney have started discussions with Japanese central government ministries and agencies to align the project vision with the Japan Government’s growth strategy. Hereafter, the two municipalities will apply for special economic zone status. This zone would be developed by the Japan Government to accelerate related investments from all over the world. A.T. Kearney will continue to support Nishigo Village and Shimogo Town to realize this objective.

A.T. Kearney worked on a pro bono basis to help the municipalities identify the six industry clusters. 1. Vegetable Factory: Fully-sealed plant rooms will clear a radiation problem. Production, processing and packing will be vertically integrated for cost competitiveness and job creation.

2. Renewable Energy: The aim will be to operate each vegetable factory with 100% renewable energy (solar thermal, hydroelectric, wind, geothermal, etc.).

3. Logistics: A logistics center furnished with both a radiation measurement system and a system for vacuum cooling vegetables would be built near the vegetable factories for delivery of safe and fresh vegetables (including those cultivated outdoors in addition to the factory vegetables) to the metropolitan area.

4. Medical & Nursing Care: Several types of nursing care facilities, a school for Japanese and Chinese caregivers, and an R&D center focused on nursing care robots will be built to develop a new solution for an aging society. Training high-quality Chinese caregivers is aimed at hosting Chinese customers on the site and supporting the development of the Chinese nursing-care industry.

5. Facilities Management: The site will provide high-quality energy management service and sanitary control that is essential for the vegetable factory and medical and nursing-care facilities.

6. Tourism: “Medical tourism” will be developed by leveraging rich local tourist attractions, such as hot springs, ski resorts, and golf courses, in addition to the medical and nursing care-related facilities. These also would be attractive for the family members of medical and nursing care service users.

Project identifies six industry clusters to support region’s recovery.

September 2011(Tokyo) — Global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, Nishigo Village of Fukushima Prefecture, and Shimogo Town of Fukushima Prefecture have joined together in a collaborative initiative to develop industry clusters and create job opportunities for the post-earthquake/tsunami recovery of Fukushima and Japan’s industrial development.

The aim of this collaborative initiative is to help Fukushima recover from post-earthquake/tsunami problems by developing industry clusters that would leverage local assets, attract new business enterprises and create a self-sustaining economy. The initiative also aims to develop a model that addresses challenges facing modern society, such as aging and food security, and that can be replicated throughout the world. The two municipalities, located in the southern area of Fukushima Prefecture, are safely far enough away from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and have good accessibility to the metropolitan Tokyo area.

To date, some 20 business enterprises have expressed their interest in participating in this collaborative initiative.

Within this context, Nishigo Village, Shimogo Town and A.T. Kearney have started discussions with Japanese central government ministries and agencies to align the project vision with the Japan Government’s growth strategy. Hereafter, the two municipalities will apply for special economic zone status. This zone would be developed by the Japan Government to accelerate related investments from all over the world. A.T. Kearney will continue to support Nishigo Village and Shimogo Town to realize this objective.

A.T. Kearney worked on a pro bono basis to help the municipalities identify the six industry clusters. 1. Vegetable Factory: Fully-sealed plant rooms will clear a radiation problem. Production, processing and packing will be vertically integrated for cost competitiveness and job creation.

2. Renewable Energy: The aim will be to operate each vegetable factory with 100% renewable energy (solar thermal, hydroelectric, wind, geothermal, etc.).

3. Logistics: A logistics center furnished with both a radiation measurement system and a system for vacuum cooling vegetables would be built near the vegetable factories for delivery of safe and fresh vegetables (including those cultivated outdoors in addition to the factory vegetables) to the metropolitan area.

4. Medical & Nursing Care: Several types of nursing care facilities, a school for Japanese and Chinese caregivers, and an R&D center focused on nursing care robots will be built to develop a new solution for an aging society. Training high-quality Chinese caregivers is aimed at hosting Chinese customers on the site and supporting the development of the Chinese nursing-care industry.

5. Facilities Management: The site will provide high-quality energy management service and sanitary control that is essential for the vegetable factory and medical and nursing-care facilities.

6. Tourism: “Medical tourism” will be developed by leveraging rich local tourist attractions, such as hot springs, ski resorts, and golf courses, in addition to the medical and nursing care-related facilities. These also would be attractive for the family members of medical and nursing care service users.

Source: www.top-consultant.co.uk

The report analyses investment in fixed and wireless networks required to support the dramatic increase of Internet traffic. Even without fibre roll-out to all homes and businesses, the industry will need to invest 8 billion euros p.a. above its current trend rate just to maintain current service levels and prevent the Internet choking on the rapid growth in video content. Yet those who benefit from higher traffic volumes are those who generate it (typically content sites and over the top providers) and those who consume it (typically end users), while telecommunications companies today earn almost no revenue from the incremental traffic. Incentives for more efficient usage of bandwidth and for investment in future capacity are therefore depressed by this “structural disconnect”.

Mark Page, an A.T. Kearney partner and lead author of the report commented: “Recent traffic growth figures and mid-term forecasts for future growth are impressive but raise serious challenges regarding the viability of the current Internet model”. Without significant improvement in price signals and investment incentives, this will put innovation at risk and have knock-on effects for those sectors which hope to launch new services dependent on high performance networks.

The report therefore analyzes four potential ways to address the imbalance: modifying customer pricing; introducing traffic dependent wholesale charges (mainly impacting over-the-top players); launching a new set of enhanced quality services over the public Internet, and offering similar enhanced quality services based on bilateral agreements between market players. The report quantifies each of these options and finds that, although all of them could contribute to make the Internet more viable, none of them alone is enough to solve the full problem. Therefore the solution is likely to be a blend of options.

Page added: “Policy makers should adopt an open and supportive approach regarding new business models which are emerging now. Some of the recent public debate has not been helpful: for instance a misguided belief that the Internet—or even fundamental principles of free speech and free enterprise—would suffer from the introduction of more balanced and rational charging. The opposite is true: without clear economic incentives, network congestion will choke off innovation and usage.”

This report was commissioned by four leading European telecommunications companies (Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom-Orange, Telecom Italia and Telefónica) as an independent contribution to the policy debates currently underway about sustaining economic growth, realising the goals of the European Digital Agenda and preserving an open and competitive.

Source:  Top-Consultant

Global management consulting firm A.T.Kearney today announced it has achieved carbon neutrality across its worldwide operations, fulfilling its first-in-the-industry 2007 pledge to be carbon neutral in 2010. A.T. Kearney has 1,700 consultants in 54 offices in 37 countries.

A.T. Kearney’s approach to carbon neutrality is built on four planks that reach across its entire organization: defining and measuring a rigorous set of carbon indicators, empowering employees globally to develop greener office protocols, innovating new models for client-service delivery and investing in climate-protecting projects meeting the highest international quality standards. The firm’s carbon neutrality is part of a broader initiative designed to deliver sustainable, environmentally sound results to A.T. Kearney’s global client base.

“Our clients are increasingly committed to finding more sustainable ways of doing business and we are dedicated to helping them do that,” said Paul A. Laudicina, A.T. Kearney’s managing officer and chairman of the board. “Our pledge to become carbon neutral was predicated first on changing the way we operate, then making up the difference with high-quality carbon-offset investments.”

In 2007 A.T. Kearney established a set of carefully defined baseline metrics against which to monitor and measure its carbon footprint. Since then, the firm has worked to significantly reduce carbon emissions throughout its operations, achieving a 5% reduction in 2008, a 14% reduction in 2009, and aspiring to a 20% reduction in 2010.

More than 80 percent of A.T. Kearney’s carbon footprint is related to travel. The firm developed advanced tools to calculate carbon emissions for all travel criteria including airline, hotel, car, rail, public transportation and taxi use and measures the carbon impact of travel by employee, office location and client project. A.T. Kearney’s efforts to measure and track business- travel emissions have been recognized as pioneering and best practice by numerous travel industry groups.

A.T. Kearney also established a global network of Sustainability Czars throughout its operations to spearhead local initiatives and drive cultural change throughout the organization. Offices have implemented more sustainable policies and practices, including renovations certified for energy efficiency and environmental design and state-of-the-art collaborative technologies.

“We are proud to be the first among our traditional high-value added consulting peers to be carbon neutral worldwide,” Laudicina said. “A.T. Kearney’s advice to our clients is now 100 percent carbon neutral.”

Source: Top-Consultant

Merger discussions between management consultancies Booz & Co and AT Kearney have collapsed, leaving both strategy specialists exposed to predators and the loss of leading partners and staff.

Talks between the firms were revealed in June, but ceased early last week with a joint statement saying: “AT Kearney and Booz & Co confirm that they have ended discussions about a possible merger of the two partnerships. While the two firms greatly respect each other’s legacy and capabilities, they have determined that their future aspirations will be best realised as separate partnerships.”

In a market dominated by large, global consultancies and characterised by a fall in pure strategy consulting in favour of a broader approach, the collapse of merger talks may make both firms’ positions more precarious, with competitors keen to poach talented employees and partners who are worried about their future, and large consultancies perhaps playing the acquisition card.

The merger was set to create the third largest independent strategy consultancy in revenue terms behind McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group. In 2009, AT Kearney reported revenue of $786 million (£519 million), down from about $900 million in the previous year. Booz & Co achieved revenue of about $1 billion last year.

Joining forces would also have created strength in numbers through the combination of AT Kearney’s 2,500 employees and 240 partners, and Booz & Co’s 3,300 staff and 200 partners.

Source: Management Consultant News Direct