(For a glimpse of what’s coming up next year for shared services and outsourcing, check out our ” Predictions for 2009 ” feature…)

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Helen Neale
Senior HRO Analyst and HRO Research Manager, NelsonHall

Many HR professionals will look back on 2008 as a year of significant change for HR organizations on a global basis. Companies, particularly within the financial services and construction industries, are still experiencing very difficult times, and will unquestionably do so for a prolonged period. HR organizations have been challenged to deliver significant change programs while simultaneously trying to manage the day-to-day complexities of running the HR function. As redundancies increase, and the morale and stability of the workforce’s own financial situations take a significant nose dive, HR challenges are in constant flux.

Key 2008 challenges I have identified include:

Managing extensive exit programs while trying to keep organizations’ morale high: HR organizations have had to recognize and guard against the toll high levels of redundancy take on those remaining in the company. For example, it is critical to continuously and openly communicate with key employees during times of high redundancies to ensure that key people do not “jump ship” as the morale of those remaining is affected. Therefore, HR departments have been tasked with “keeping their heads while all about them are losing theirs”. In other words, making sure remaining employees are happy and therefore productive, so it’s as close to business as usual as possible.
Support for organizations within emerging economies: despite the difficult times in 2008, some businesses are looking to expand into countries where there are significant growth opportunities including Russia, China and Korea. Alongside the difficulties within Western economies, growth in China, for example, is still critical to the strategies of many larger organizations. In particular, companies are looking to take advantage of the incredible market for consumer products within such emerging economies. HR service delivery has, therefore, had to balance the requirements for change programs centered on employee reductions in the US and Western Europe with the need to increase HR delivery in these emerging countries. Questions these companies need to address include: do we need to engage with a preferred recruitment provider in Asia Pacific to manage employee hires in the region? Do we need to expand the HR delivery footprint to include more localized presence in some of these countries as our company footprint expands?
Keeping costs and investment in HR low while still delivering effective service: HR can be one of the first functions to take the hit when times are tough. CFOs often look at their HR departments for operational cost savings. Therefore, HR has been under pressure to effectively deliver services with reduced resources and investment. While HR functions have seen significant redundancy levels in 2008, they are required to maintain the high levels of employee satisfaction HR directors demand. This is a major challenge to one and all, especially given low investments in HR.

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Fran Morton
HR Transformation and Learning Outsourcing Consultant

Despite the gloom and doom of the second half of 2008, we saw a couple of big ideas gaining traction:

Transformation is what’s needed to get HR to the next generation. With transformation as the engine, HRIS and outsourcing take their proper places as approaches and tools to achieve the ultimate goal.
Full HRO (done in one huge mega-bite) isn’t necessarily the best answer. The rise in single or few-process outsourcing demonstrates clients “get it” that everything at once is not the only way.

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Phil Searle
Founder and Managing Director, Chazey Partners

What a year! 2008 started with the global economy steadily growing and concerns with inflationary pressures, followed by fast rising oil and commodity prices, but with no hint of what was to follow. Then came the dramatic collapse in the financial sector, continuing falls in house prices, the recent sharp decline in the price of oil and now talks of deflation and even a possible return to the Great Depression. Wow! So how has all this affected shared services and BPO? What major challenges have shared services and BPO practitioners faced in 2008 and what will 2009 look like? Here are my views.

Globalization: globalization has manifested itself in many ways, including significant advancements in communications and technology, the rapid growth of new markets such as China and India, and the movement of workload, people, data and currency across the globe. Offshoring of work to other countries (either internally through captives or externally through BPO providers) has allowed companies to tap a much lower labor cost pool. Indeed, earlier in the year, the question was whether some of the new lower cost locations were overheating, which saw an expansion into even newer locations such as Vietnam and parts of Africa.

BPO continued to expand rapidly in 2008, although mainly through the signing of more selective outsourcing contracts (e.g., within specific functions such as finance and HR and then for specific activities within those functions), and less in multi-tower cross functional outsourcing deals.

Talent Management: there were concerns in 2008 over the cost, availability and quality of resources (especially people) available to shared services and outsourcers. While this is still the case in terms of quality, the recession has definitely lessened the cost and availability concerns. Nevertheless, effective talent management is critical to successful shared services and outsourcing, and more organizations have grown to recognize this in 2008.

Shared Services Value Proposition: while many in shared services understand completely the value of implementing and operating effective shared services operations, many outside of the shared services community don’t fully “get” shared services or its value proposition. I quote here from my recent interview with Michael Cox, Chief Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas:

“Shared services is not well understood at all. The aims and methods that shared services use to deliver effective and efficient support services to businesses may be well understood but the term “shared services” is not. Say ’shared services’ and my mind conjures up no instantly clear image of anything.”

The Global Economy: this is, of course, the big one from 2008. The dramatic change in the economic environment has impacted everyone. Recession is with us in the West, and growth forecasts for the booming economies of China and India have been recently cut by the IMF into much lower single digits. Just in the last few weeks we have seen significant layoffs across all industries, including in shared services and outsourcing operations. Another impact of the down economy is that the previously booming expat employment experienced in developing countries has been curtailed. Furthermore, budgets have been cut or suddenly frozen, causing at least a short-term shelving of many “investment” projects which might involve some optimization around technology, shared services or business transformation.

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Emer O’Kelly
Director, Triagen Ltd (formerly European Finance Director, Avid Technology Europe Ltd)

[Companies were] mainly REACTIVE to the dramatic economic downturn. They concentrated on very short-term issues and on somehow getting through 2008, and did not commit cash to projects even if they made good medium- or long-term sense.

A number of weaker companies have already failed, and they appear to be getting little sympathy from either the banks or, for that matter, other players like audit firms. Many fear there will be a second wave of failures (or near-failures) of better businesses, which cannot be allowed to go under without a fight. That will challenge the market more than letting the truly weak companies go.

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George Penton
ERP Solution Management for Shared Services, SAP America

With the downturn of the global economy this year, shared services centers have been forced to react to unforeseen conditions, and have faced much greater than usual challenges in managing their credit-to-cash and procure-to-pay business processes. Ineffective management of the company’s inflow and outflow of cash, including longer collection cycles and worsening DSO can, unfortunately, be perceived as lackluster performance by the SSC. This impacts the perception of good service delivery by the SSC, especially in companies in which the SSC is not yet mature or not yet seen as a value-added business partner. Today’s reality is that effective cash management is key. Companies that effectively manage the flow of cash into and out of their organizations (their financial supply chain) will be able to weather this economic storm much more effectively than companies that do not.

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John Haworth
Consulting Principal, Global Sourcing, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

A key consideration for best practice organizations is to be mindful of the effect of staff reductions on the employment brand of a company. The who, why and how of staff reductions will be observed by the retained staff, and word of the manner of these actions will find its way into the broader employment market. Capricious actions will lead to employment brand damage, while careful, well-executed, and generous separation terms will serve to maintain the employer’s brand as the labor market improves. Honoring prior service, making eligibility for rehire explicit, even thinking about granting service credit for those employees who may be rehired down the road could be techniques that cost little in the here and now. These approaches could go far in making the severed employees not only think well of the employer, but also help the employer keep a pool of experienced ex-employees well disposed to potential future employment.

We see the cost argument trumping all at the moment, and large scale buyer-financed, near-term investment in service delivery improvements moving out of the picture. There are, however, providers who seem to be willing to finance or defer implementation/transition charges in order to capture (and retain) clients who fit their models well. Buyers of services need to be aware of their ability to negotiate terms and imaginative solutions with providers, rather than reverting to seemingly comfortable, but discredited, models whose optics look like pure cost take out. Since there can be no sustainable benefit from these models, buyers need to be advised to understand that investment is necessary for service delivery transformation, and that it is a question of making transitions to the new model affordable, not non-existent. This too, is a consideration for now and for 2009 at least.

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Brian D. Smith
Partner and Managing Director, Financial Services, TPI

In 2008, the outsourcing market faced several challenges including portfolio optimization, attrition and rising costs in India, as well as currency fluctuations. Companies found portfolio optimization to be a challenge as they balanced onshore and offshore resources between internal and external providers, and between geographies. Due to attrition and rising costs in the FS “primary” back-office offshore environment – India – many considered alternative countries. In addition, currency fluctuations, particularly the drop in the value of the dollar relative to the rupee and the euro, impacted the business cases for new offshore initiatives, and in some cases made existing arrangements uneconomical for the buyer, for the seller, or for both.

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Phil King
Associate Partner/Shared Services Solution Leader, Atos Consulting

Starting up shared services is an enormous challenge at the best of times. Faced with the rapidly changing economic and political landscape of 2008 and looking forward to an uncertain 2009 makes it even harder. On the other hand, the drivers for shared services – and doing it right – are made stronger.

So what were three key challenges and trends I observed in 2008? The first and foremost, which I wrote about in November, has been getting approval for a business case for start-up in challenging economic times, when every investment will be scrutinized in detail for payback and ROI by any board and/or executive team, and risky projects will be avoided. So for those presenting a business case, it has been, and continues to be, important to look for value-added benefits. Headcount savings and efficiency benefits are necessary, but the best cases have also stressed improved controls, working capital benefits, and support for wider transformation of support functions such as finance, HR and IT. As well as a strong benefits case, approvers will also be looking for a tightly run project with well documented and managed risks. Over the years there have been many shared services lessons learned, and in tough times it will be even more important for start-ups to take heed.

The second challenge I have seen is that shared services is moving from the former domain of large multinationals and big public sector organizations, with support staffs running into the thousands, to become a consideration for smaller businesses and government bodies. For example, a mid-cap company that has rapidly expanded into several countries may see shared services as an attractive opportunity to gain control and prevent a proliferation of processes and duplication of activities before it becomes a much larger problem. However, in this case, it may not be as simple to create economies of scale, particularly if several languages need to be catered for. On the other hand, the benefit gained by creating shared services is that at least some critical mass is achieved, reducing the exposure that comes from having relatively small in-country staffs. The key here is creative design. It is important that systems and processes are as effective as possible, and designed in detail, that the organization can be flexible and that language requirements are reduced through automation.

A third and interesting trend is that shared services is increasingly moving beyond finance functions. We have seen HR adoption over the past few years, but in 2008 I have, for the first time, seen successful shared services implementations in customer service and order fulfillment. It seems ironic that concepts of customer service would be transferred from finance into front-office functions, but it has been effective. I can see this as a future trend as, more often than not, customer order management has been kept as a local in-country or business unit function due to its heritage of being based on local market relationships. However, as more and more companies globalize or address their markets at least on a regional basis, and supply chains are more centralized, the case for sharing customer service across geographies is enhanced. The challenge for start-ups here is that they are “front-office”, potentially more politically sensitive, and any implementation problems can directly affect the core business. So extra attention must be paid to change management activities and making sure the new shared services unit will deliver good service right from the start.

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Ray Matteson
Director of Learning Operations, Raytheon Professional Services

Training providers are having to demonstrate the same or higher levels of value while operating under an extreme cost cutting environment.

Buyers are needing to build the business case and demonstrate the value of an outsourcing relationship while providers are constructing solutions that transform an organization and reduce costs amidst economic climate pressures.

The economic times are also forcing companies to truly focus on their core competencies. They now look beyond just the traditional training services and investigate the other services that support training (e.g., education assistance, customer support, supply chain, consulting, etc.).

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Chris Nuttall
Partner in PA Consulting and a Leader of PA’s Management Group for Sourcing and Shared Services

Key challenges in 2008:

Customer focus/service challenges: Many shared services organizations face significant challenges in maintaining an appropriate focus on the customer, especially managing customer expectations and service. Customer surveys often fail to pinpoint key pain points, and customer sophistication is increasing, faster, in some cases, than the shared services organization can manage. Many service providers have grown too fast and struggle to maintain customer service standards. Customers have not always been as vigilant as they should be in managing to agreed service levels.

Financial challenges: Cash flow challenges – operating, investing and financing – remain front of mind, especially defining appropriate levels and timing of desired cash flows and managing the right mix of operating and investing cash flows. Budgets have been cut, and the key challenge is not just managing with less cash but balancing cash inflows and outflows effectively.

Capability challenges: Managing shared services and outsourced organizations requires specialist skills, knowledge and experience. Many organizations struggle to identify the right talent, and/or under-invest in training and development to create a high performance team of skilled, experienced and motivated people with up-to-date knowledge and the right capabilities. Many providers face resource and skill crunches, and continue to experience capability churn, exacerbated by high wage inflation.
Knowledge management challenges. Long-term shared services arrangements and outsourcing contracts can result in a loss of institutional knowledge…buyers may lose it, and providers may not share it. This can erode customers’ and providers’ abilities to effectively manage their relationships.

Market challenges: As the number of large service providers decreases, market power is shifting to the largest service providers. In addition, a proliferation of smaller, viable, providers is creating challenges around provider discovery, or how to find the best providers, and governance, or how to manage multiple providers for an end-to-end process.

Governance and team-working challenges: In a single-provider environment, it is straightforward to identify the responsibility for a service outage, process deficiency or software bug. But in a multi-provider environment, this becomes very challenging. Many customers and providers have difficulty in teaming and developing appropriate inter-relationships and levels of trust that deliver a joint business outcome.

Enterprise-wide and portfolio challenges: Executive management teams can be uninterested in shared services and outsourcing, especially as they may not understand the enterprise benefits, costs and risks or alignment to strategy. Many initiatives continue to be managed as one-off arrangements, rather than as part of a broader portfolio approach, resulting in lost synergies and the take-on of unnecessary operational risk.

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Craig Ackerman
Vice President, Shared Services, HMSHost

Challenges included:

Keeping vendors to schedule on automation deliverables. Our approach: use a PMO-driven process; meet frequently, reviewing progress and issues; over-communicate expectations; and commit additional resources as needed to stay on schedule.

Competing for scarce internal resources. Our approach: review projects and priorities quarterly; maintain internal project management and technical teams; and use a structured and disciplined approach to project management.

Improving working capital in a down market. Our approach: implement and communicate tighter receivables processes and procedures; standardize vendor terms; and study the feasibility of supply chain financing.

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Venkat Gopal
IT Outsourcing Advisory Consultant

Financial Challenges: Under the current economic situation, the pressure to manage cost and cash flow is extremely heightened, seizing a major part of business management’s bandwidth. But companies still need to run their businesses and their insatiable appetite to see external service providers do even more on this front is understandable. Providers have had to constantly and periodically present to the customer’s management how they have efficiently managed their 3 Ps – people, processes and pricing – by leveraging the benefits of traditional offshoring services. Customers are now also expecting providers to help them further stretch their budgets by enabling them to leverage more from process reengineering and global shared services centers. The centralization of back-office tasks can lead to significant cost savings from economies of scale, improved utilization and standardization. Process reengineering delivers the greatest cost savings and thus plays a pivotal role in the success or failure of a shared services strategy. It impacts the core of an enterprise’s functions and, as such, customers expect service providers to put their skin in the game by being open to embrace contractual terms embedded with higher risk-to-reward ratios.

Knowledge Management Challenges: Most service providers have traditionally underestimated the value derived from improved knowledge management and, hence, have been torpid in making the required investments in this area. However, successful service providers have leveraged this to their complete advantage and have reaped the benefits from harnessing their knowledge management strategy by forming deep and mutually beneficial alliances with universities, centers of learning, industry bodies and thought leaders. Some of the successful service providers have also tapped, on a global basis, experienced and retired domain and process experts for specific contributions. Service providers should build a panel of such individuals for idea generation and knowledge management.

Market Challenges: It has been observed over the past few years that engaging a large service provider is not necessarily the only answer to a successful outsourcing relationship. Recently, we have seen contract sizes become smaller and shorter in duration. Simultaneously, the scenario that is emerging is leading toward the proliferation of many specialized shared services and outsourcing firms that are much smaller in size and have deep industry domain experience, process knowledge, configurable solutions/intellectual property and tools that provide a jump-start to address the challenges faced by the customer. The traditional approach to provider discovery may not be ideally suited for identifying, rating and qualifying such specialized service providers. Thus, customers need to equip themselves differently and adopt a completely different approach to provider discovery.

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Trade exchange between different cultures and countries has long yielded rich rewards for those who recognize the potential.

After all, as far back as the 1st century BC, merchants and caravans followed the Silk Road – the overland trade route from northern China to the Western World – and brought precious silks, tea and other resources from China to the rest of the world. Not only did linking different countries and cultures prove profitable, but new and greater products and ideas flowed between the countries.

The Silk Road of the 21st century is technology driven. This trade exchange, built on fiber-optic cable, sprang from the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Now, it is the R&D departments of companies from the United States and other countries that benefit from the resources and opportunity found in China.

Today’s China, the fastest growing country in the world, offers the:

• Biggest engineering talent pool

• Biggest emerging market

• World’s number one manufacturing industry

Strengthening ties, country-to-country, people-to-people, has shown time and time again that remarkable achievements, that otherwise would have been impossible, can come to fruition.

Long Circle urges you to explore the opportunities that exist in China today, especially if your business focus is embedded systems technologies for software and hardware.

With our global reach, we could see the importance of China, and we have grown significantly in the past five years in this critical market. Today, we have $5 billion in revenues and 12,000 employees.

GE 2005 Annual Report/

Letter to Stakeholders

Biggest Engineering Resource Pool

The last few years have convinced Fortune 100 companies and start-ups alike that China, home of the fastest growing economy in the world, is key to achieving their strategic plans, as well as the business objectives of their R&D departments. GE, Microsoft, Motorola, Intel, Nokia, Oracle, and SAP are just a few of the multinational companies with R&D operations in China, and for some important business drivers:

o Lower costs

o Lower wages

o Expanded productivity

o Reduced time-to-market

o Strengthened R&D embedded technology engineering resources

Wages are lower offshore, there’s no question about it, but the experience the workforce has must be in product research and development, not IT. With China’s deep pool of engineering talent, especially R&D embedded technology engineers, companies can expand and strengthen their R&D resources.

For example, the Microsoft Research (MSR) Asia lab has engineers working on a wide range of advanced technologies – from spoken-language technologies such as automatic speech recognition to face detection and tracking, face modeling and recognition, cartoon generation, image and video retrieval for MSN, and Xbox camera-based game interfaces. According to Forbes, Microsoft’s investment in all China-related R&D activities is approximately $100 million US dollars annually. In addition, with currently more than 800 employees in China, Microsoft is predicted to grow that number substantially over the next three to five years.

Biggest engineering talent pool; most engineering graduates each year

Engineering Graduates China India United States

Source: Duke University*352,000 112,000 137,000

Source: Unknown ** 600,000 350,000 70,000

*Source: A study released in December, 2005 by Duke University (and also widely quoted in the media, including The Christian Science Monitor) citing the number of engineering graduates in each country yearly.

* Note: Statistics widely quoted, from Fortune Magazine to Senator Ted Kennedy’s speeches. However according to the Wall Street Journal online, these figures are misleading and no one can track down a concrete and reliable original source.

Biggest Emerging Market

How could any organization that wants to be successful in the global arena ignore China today?

China is the world’s most populous country – 1,313,973,713 (2006 est.) – and organizations like the Finnish mobile telecommunications giant Nokia expect China to be a key growth driver for their global operations. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations’ mobile phones and network equipment.

According to Infoworld’s online Web site:

“China has 400 million mobile users and its 3G (third generation) networks are not yet switched on, providing a future avenue for further growth. “ According to a study done by Norson (Hong Kong) Information Technology , “. . . after three years of 3G availability, more than 84 million Chinese will use 3G services.”

Consequently, construction is underway on Nokia’s new and expanded China headquarters, scheduled to open in 2007, that will host over 1500 of Nokia’s R&D, sales and marketing operations, pre-production, logistics, sourcing and manufacturing operations.

During China’s President Hu Jintao’s recent visit to the United States, he attended a dinner at the home of Microsoft’s Bill Gates and called for broadening the relationship between the United States and China.

“Today, many cargo ships are very busy crossing the Pacific Ocean, laden with the rich fruit of our strong trade ties and friendship between our two peoples,” Hu said. “I am sure that with the further deepening of China’s reform and opening up, we are going to see an even broader prospect for the economic cooperation and trade between China and Washington State and China and the United States as a whole.” Source: Reuters

According to the US-China Business Council:

• China’s economy grew 10.2 % in the first quarter of 2006.

• The government’s new focus on balanced growth and its attempt to shift from an investment- and export-driven economy to a consumption-driven one will mean more policies to promote consumption.

• GDP (purchasing power parity): $8.158 trillion (2005 est.)

• GDP – per capita: purchasing power parity – $6,200 (2005 est.)

• GDP – real growth rate: 9.2% (official data) (2005 est.)

• GDP – composition by sector:

Agriculture: 14.4%

Industry and construction: 53.1%

Services: 32.5% (2005 est.) Source: [www.uschina.org]

World’s #1 Manufacturing Industry

China is “the world’s factory” and produces $60 billion worth of consumer electronic goods a year. The “Made in China” label is found everywhere.

When China became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), it agreed to abide by WTO standards and regulations, along with the rest of the WTO countries. And this opened up one of the world’s largest economies to the rest of the world. Forward-thinking organizations did not hesitate to capitalize on the unprecedented opportunity.

For example, GE has long regarded China as an essential piece in the company’s strategic plan. According to Jeff Immelt., “We have been there for 15 – 20 years, so we know how to do business. We have been on the ground. We have 12,000 employees. And I think at the end of the day, China is trending towards being a great global competitor and following the rules. And that is important to us and it’s a way that we can be successful as well.”

Today, companies doing business in China find tax incentives, excellent civic infrastructure, government support, a political environment that encourages foreign business, rapid economic growth, a deep pool of engineering talent and college graduates, and improving legal, banking and financial systems.

China Strategy: Choose the Right Road to China

There are basically three paths an organization’s R&D department can follow to successfully gain entry into China. Take time to consider the best route for your company, especially if your focus is in R&D embedded technology.

? Single, Independent Project

Beginning by outsourcing a single, independent project is an excellent way to start on the path to China. Typically, these projects involve software and hardware development, testing, maintenance, or product enhancement. This transaction type outsourcing is turn-key, straightforward, and has a quick ramp up time. An R&D department can:

o Capture an opportunity within a short time frame.

o Boost bandwidth to meet short-term demand.

o Outsource clearly defined short-term projects.

Companies going this route find cost savings through transaction-type outsourcing and capitalize on short-term cost savings.

? Partner Program

A long term, relationship-based service program is another excellent way to leverage China’s technology resources. A dedicated team within the China outsourcing vendor’s R&D department can be created, trained, hosted, and managed exclusively for your embedded systems R&D technology projects. Clients take advantage of lower wages, while benefiting from a team educated on the Client’s corporate values and culture, providing a true business level alignment. A China R&D department can:

o Offload non-core functions.

o Fill in needed skills.

o Increase engineering efficiency.

o Increase return on R&D.

? Offshore R&D Center

Many companies find they benefit most from a one-of-a-kind incubation center that is an extension of their R&D department back home. Building a R&D facility from the beginning and introducing best practices provides the optimal solution to meet your company’s strategic goals.

Your company takes advantage of China’s low cost workforce, manufacturing capacity, and emerging markets and there are no intermediaries or third party costs.

A China R&D Center can:

• Provide confidence and security to handle sensitive data and intellectual property inhouse offshore.

• Train talent according to your company’s unique standards and values.

• Increase talent retention by providing attractive culture and a sense of belonging.

• Share services with other functions of the company.

• Engage in long term innovation-driven research that does not usually generate immediate profits.

• Access the China labor market directly.

Turn to China

Throughout history, new products, new ideas, and new opportunities have come about by crossing borders. The global exchange of trade, expertise, and capabilities means exciting ideas and innovations which benefit everyone.

China today is a country with unlimited opportunity. However, personal connections and relationships are essential to any successful business in China. Would your company like to expand into China, but is unsure about potential roadblocks such as regulations, recruiting, and setup? The right vendor can smooth your way.

In addition to entry into China, a potential vendor’s technology expertise must not be overlooked. For example, does the potential vendor focus on embedded technology? Do they have experience with manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original design manufacturers (ODMs), independent software vendors (ISVs), system integrators (SI), and value added service providers (VASPs) who rely on embedded hardware and software technologies?

Intellectual property is a concern everywhere, but especially in a new environment. What are a potential vendor’s procedures for protecting your intellectual property?

Remember, when searching for the best route to leverage China’s vast resources and opportunities, it pays to make certain you have the best vendor as your guide.

A journey of a thousand miles

Begins with a single step.

Lao-tzu (604 BC – 531 BC)

Chinese philosopher

About Long Circle

Long Circle provides outsourced engineering services to companies whose products and services rely on embedded software and hardware technology. Long Circle and the Long Circle China Center of Excellence enables U.S. companies to reduce costs, increase engineering bandwidth, and broaden market reach by providing low-risk, strategic access to China’s engineering talent, manufacturing industry, and emerging markets. To learn more about Long Circle, visit http://www.longcircle.com.

I am still in high school. I still need another year to finish my high school program. I am already 19 years of age. However, is getting my High School Diploma is not my best option? Should I just go to community college and begin some classes? I have taken various AP, Honors, an Advanced classes, I just never got credit for them. I dont know if a University will accept me without a diploma. My ACT Score is 33.

1. I am an eBay Powerseller and Top Rated Seller; with experience in global logistics, and importing an exporting, and working with Chinese Manufacturers and other outsourcing experience. This was my first company I started when I was 17.

2. I am an AdWords Qualified Professional and Search Marketing Expert, I have my own Search Agency that is a partner with Google, and I offer Lead Generation services to Law Firms and Sole Practitioner Lawyers. I also hold Advanced Google Certification in Analytics in search engine and performance based marketing and statistical and quantitative SEM analysis. (And I just want to be more financially sophisticated as a personal goal.)

3. I am currently studying for my Series 7 Exam, a financial exam to become a licensed stock-broker. I have a Financial Firm that will sponsor and offer me employment.

4. I am running for a current political position in my country, we have started my campaign, and I have a very high chance of getting elected. I am very active in my political party and backed by my party.
I meant to add:

“(And I just want to be more financially sophisticated as a personal goal.)”

Under point 3, not point 2.
My GPA at presence is 2.1.