And it follows that the programs employees prefer incorporate the social and collaborative aspects that define the apps they use in their personal lives, according to an on-stage conversation between Flextronics CIO David Smoley and Workday Co-CEO Aneel Bhusri at the GigaOM Net:Work Conference held in San Francisco Thursday.

For business leaders, this new environment requires a willingness to improvise and being very open to change. “You have to be willing to continuously grab things if they’re interesting, try them, and throw them out if they don’t work,” Smoley said. “In a way, you have to be a ‘yes’ guy, you can’t tell people no.”

This flexible attitude is needed to get the most out of today’s workforce, which is comprised of people who are used to having control over the technology they use. “We’re much more intently aware at the highest level that every employee is first a consumer,” Bhusri said. “There’s this massive revolution happening in consumer Internet, social media, that is training people to use systems in a certain way. So when they get to work they also expect their systems to work in a certain way.”

The à la carte nature of collaborative software is not all rosy, though. There are often generational gaps that come to play, as well as integration pains. “Tools are very individually specific and team specific. One customer may want to use Cisco WebEx, while the next customer may say they want to use Skype. Often even within companies you’re constantly pinging between different tools,” Smoley said. “The hope for a guy like me is that all this will actually converge, and that unified communications will be unified some day.”

But the panel’s moderator Stowe Boyd, who monitors these trends as an independent analyst and as an analyst for GigaOM Pro, did not think that day would come any time soon. “I think continued chaos is more likely.” At least we will all continue to live in interesting times, both at home and at work.

Photo by Pinar Ozger.

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At the same time, SunPower reported $592.3 million in revenue for the third quarter, up 54 percent from $384.2 million in the year-ago period.

The company warned investors of the poor second-quarter financial results when it released preliminary numbers two weeks ago that showed declining gross margins and losses. The second-quarter losses reflected a $32.5 million charge for getting rid of solar cell manufacturing contracts and inventories.

SunPower hired manufacturers to produce solar cells when its own factories couldn’t produce fast enough to fulfill orders. SunPower also recorded charges of $29.3 million that had to do with its changing its strategy to target the residential and commercial rooftop market segments, which offer higher incentive rates.

“Those results are unacceptable,” said SunPower CEO, Tom Werner, during a call to discuss the earnings on Tuesday afternoon.

Cost-cutting plan

Werner said the company is on a cost-cutting path and plans to boost its own production capacity while cutting manufacturing expenses. The San Jose, Calif., company makes and assembles solar cells into panels and sells panels to distributors and power-generation project developers. It also runs its own solar project development business.

SunPower plans to set up a panel assembly plant in Mexicali, Mexico, because its North American market has been growing. The company expects better financial performance in the second half of this year, primarily because of the demand for its solar panels and services in the commercial and utility market segments in the U.S. and Canada.

SunPower also intends to climb back to profitability with the help of the French oil giant Total, which bought a 60 percent stake in SunPower earlier this year. That deal came with a promise by Total to guarantee up to $1 billion in credit support for SunPower over five years for its power project development business. As a result, Werner said the company just signed an agreement on Tuesday that will give it access to $200 million in cash. The two companies also will work together in research and development.

Weak solar market

Two big developments have pummeled the solar market this year: the declines of government subsidies in the world’s two largest markets, Germany and Italy, and the resulting piling up of solar panels that forces their owners to sell more cheaply.

Italy in particular took longer than expected to decide on its subsidy cuts early this year. That wait put solar power projects on hold and lowered sales for many companies, including SunPower. SunPower posted net loss for the first quarter of this year. Italy was SunPower’s largest market in 2010, accounting for about 40 percent of its revenue, according to its annual report. The U.S. followed with 29 percent of revenue and Germany with 11 percent.

SunPower isn’t alone in feeling the sting. First Solar also reported lackluster second-quarter financial results last week.

Although Italy announced the new solar incentive policy in May, the details of how the policy will be carried out weren’t considered clear enough by banks, Werner said. As a result, the banks haven’t been lending at the same rate as they did previously, and that has caused installation paces to slow down, he added.

“Once we have clarity, the good news is the market is going to come right back,” Werner said.

Photo courtesy of SunPower

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Total is offering $23.25 per share for up to 60 percent of the Class A and Class B shares – a 46 percent premium over the closing price of Class A stock and 49 percent of the Class B stock on Wednesday. Total also promises to give SunPower up to $1 billion of credit support over the next five years to support its power plant development business and allow the solar company’s current management to continue running SunPower.

The deal gives SunPower the much needed capital to compete while it makes Total a major player in a market it’s been in for a long time but primarily through its ownership in a solar cell producer and a project developer. Last November, Total announced a plan to build a solar panel factory in France that will accommodate 50 MW of annual production. The company also invested $45 million to get a near 20 percent stake in Massachusetts-based Konarka, the organic solar cell developer.

The solar market has grown quickly in recent years thanks to generous government subsidies in Europe, the U.S. and Japan. It also has propelled the construction of large factories by those who could raise the massive amount of capital needed to accomplish that feat. Many Chinese solar cell and panel manufacturers have benefited from regulatory and financial help from their governments to build hundreds of megawatts of factories. The U.S. government also has provided loan guarantees to back billions of dollars of loans to help companies such as Solyndra and Abound Solar to do the same, though the expansion plans of these companies still don’t rival the Chinese manufacturers’.

SunPower already has borrowed money and sought out partners to expand its manufacturing operations in recent years. The company announced a joint venture with Taiwan’s AUO Optronics last year to co-operate a 1.4 GW solar cell factory under construction in Malaysia. Also last year, SunPower said it would partner with Flextronics to run a 75 MW solar panel assembly plant in California. The companies held a factory dedication ceremony earlier this month.

“With Total’s $1 billion credit support agreement, solar research and development investments and the other resources available through its global network, we have taken the next step in positioning our business for continued growth and long-term success,” Tom Werner, SunPower’s CEO, in a statement. “Our relationship with Total will improve our capital structure enabling SunPower to accelerate our power plant and commercial development businesses, and expand our manufacturing capacity with lower cash requirements.”

SunPower not only makes solar panels, it also develops power plant projects and has become a major player in the U.S., where it has a home court advantage. The company was founded in 1985 and is among the largest solar panel makers worldwide.

The boards of both companies have approved the agreement, which will still need to clear anti-trust authorities in the U.S. and Europe.

Photo courtesy of SunPower

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Chu & Brown on the solar factory tour

Here’s my photos of the event:

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