April 2007
I hope you had a great Easter holiday. And for those of you in the US and Europe, I hope you had a great Spring Break as well. Mrs. Claus & I have had a great month so far. Most of our time was spent at the refugee camp though I did make a few trips back to the US for opening day of baseball. That was fun!
Probably the biggest news was today though. I went back to the North Pole for our mid-April staff meeting. I am happy to report that all the reindeer are doing well. They are in the middle of their spring conditioning drills and they look as fit as ever. But I digress.... the big news was that Candy reported back on the "best shoring" initiative to supplement our labor force. She spent six weeks exploring options and running financial cases. We've narrowed our geographical choices down to India & China based on available skilled labor and current wage rates. We don't know yet if we will contract through a third-party manufacturer or if we'll set up our own operation. The team was certainly encouraged by the report and we're feeling a lot more confident in our ability to grow the operation and remain fiscally sound. The next steps will be for me to go to India & China later this month. I plan on spending about 10 days there visiting with various manufacturers and local government officials. It will be a fact finding trip only.... I don't anticipate any negotiations and/or final decisions on location. As I don't get back unil the first week of May, I'll share with you my trip experiences and findings in the May post.
In the meantime, stay on the "nice" list! Don't forget Santa Claus knows!
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