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With strong demand for growth and pressure by Shareholders, businesses are going Global not only to seek new market but to optimize the operations based on “who can do what, best and of course at least amount of dollars spent.

There are clients with whom I have worked or I am working which have operations in over 100 countries with major corporate work done in almost 4-5 countries spanning different time zones. Time management is a big thing in such cases. It is very difficult to get people from India, UK, China and US all working at the same time and available for a conference call. Usually, what ends up happening is that people in different parts of the world have to stay late in office or come in early to attend the remote conference call. How can we avoid it? Well, I have a very strange kind of thought but after thinking through it, it makes sense to me. But before I explain that let me take one example. We want to schedule a 1:00 PM CST US Time a conference call with people from UK, India and China. So, 2:00 PM CST in US (Normal working time are usually 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM) and it will be equal to 7:00 PM UK time (normal working time, are usually 8AM – 4:00 PM) that means a person in UK will have to stay around 3 hours extra in office for the conference call or dial in from home, usually the person stays in office since it is easier and you have resources available, which you might not get at home. The following table gives some more time zone perspective.

US Central 8:00 AM 5:00 PM 2:00 PM CST    0
UK 8:00 AM 4:00 PM 7:00 PM                           3
India 8:00 AM 5:00 PM 12:30 AM                       7
China 8:00 AM 5:00 PM 2:30 AM                        9
        
        
        
Proposed        
US Central 1:00 PM 10:00 PM 2:00 PM CST             0
UK 1:00 PM 10:00 PM 7:00 PM                                   0
India 1:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:30 AM                             2.5
China 1:00 PM 10:00 PM 2:30 AM                              4

The above table shows that if we adjust the working times across the entire world then the world will be truly flat, everyone sleeps at the same time, works at the same time, eats at the same time and the world will be truly productive compared to what it is now. Things are starting in this direction but some countries have different shifts for different time zones. What I am saying is not just shifts but all working times should be changed. This will happen for sure but it is just a matter of time, when?.

Posted under World News