The other day I mentioned (http://blog.joeware.net/2007/05/07/868/) how it appears IBM will be laying off 150k or so Global Service folks… There have been a few good comments I have run across to the article
This first one made me chuckle but it is so true folks…
First they outsourced off the call centre workers and I did not speak up because I was not a call centre worker.
Then they outsourced the testers and I did not speak up because I was not a tester.
… and then they outsourced me.
Ben Grimer | May 04, 2007 | 12:20PM
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This comment hit home, I have seen similar in large companies I have worked for on a couple of occasions for a couple of different things. In one large company, the CIO was a former IBM Sales guy and several projects came down to review global topics such as Monitoring etc and in every case the project teams were unofficially told prior to making the final decision… The answer is IBM. Execs don’t seem to put together groups to find the right answers, they put together groups to find the answers they want justified…
I have been with IBM Global Services for over 15 years, and I fear my “value” will come to an end not for any lack of skill or contribution on my part, but solely due to the myopic drive by the executives to make Wall Street happy, thereby maximizing their own net worth due to the enormous number of shares they all own.
One internal rumor regarding LEAN was that the external consultancy hired to actually perform the analysis was discharged after their principal finding was that IBM is far too top heavy in the executive and management ranks. Not having heard the answer they thought they were paying for, the executives subsequently took ownership of LEAN to pursue the path they had already planned.
Once again, those guilty of plundering and wrecking a formerly great company will retire to a continued life of wealth and ease just about the time the remaining shell implodes.
Anonymous IGS Employee | May 04, 2007 | 12:58PM
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This comment made me go hmmm, for all of about 5-6 seconds. It is an interesting idea but the problem is that if these people are all techy type people this would almost certainly fail. Most techy people can’t manage their way out of wet paper sack. Management skills and technical skills don’t seem to align really well. I have seen very few people in IT who could do both well consistently. Usually you have very good managerial skills or you have good technical skills or your skill set resides in the fact that you can hide that you don’t have any useful skills (you know who you are). As much as hate to say it and that my manager will love to hear me say, without good management, a bunch of techies are not going to do well running a company of 150k people. However, think if you took all of the displaced and really good onshore technical people from the likes of IBM and HP and other companies known for really smart people and put them in one company to compete with the pack… A company that uses offshore resources but in an intellligent way, not just throws them at problems and see if they stick. Sure it would be more costly to companies initially but I can see long term that company blowing the big ones out of the water from a quality standpoint and eventually maybe even from a pricing standpoint.
Bob,
What if those experienced, known by their customers, 150K engineers banded to create their own, non-top heavy, competitor to IBM GBS? They know the systems, they know the market, they know their customers, they should know that non-compete agreements are very hard to enforce. Cut out the management and the insane compensation of said management, and you can likely be competitive on bids, while presenting a much more acceptable face to your customers. Call you company XIBM.
And when IBM does fall, you’ll have the market to yourselves.
I, too, remember when IBM was the company everyone in computers wanted to work for. Obviously, not that company any longer.
david | May 04, 2007 | 1:27PM
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LOL
IBM – Idiots Become Managers
The IBM mantra: If 1 woman can have a baby in 9 months, then 9 cheaper women can have a baby in 1 month.
Or, to put it another way, 1 person with 15 years experience can be replaced by 15 cheaper people with no experience.
Doens’t work that way….
intheknow | May 04, 2007 | 3:42PM
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I wonder how much this will happen and how many customers will actually be unhappy about it… Note to customers when signing outsourcing deals…. Maybe put in stipulations on where the help desk needs to be or at least the percentage of workers. My experience is that folks don’t like calling India. The culture and the accents can be a bitch to get past when trying to explain a sticky technical problem.
LEAN came through this week and we lost several key hard-working employees, some with 30+ years experience. They will not be replaced by Americans or Asians. Instead, the remaining employees will pick up the slack, at least until the fortunate ones, myself included, are able to find a job with someone who cares.
As a good example of IBM’s complete disrepect and contempt of their customers, two weeks ago our level one help desk was outsourced to India WITHOUT THE CUSTOMER’S KNOWLEDGE! We were told not to leak the information to them “because they would be upset,” as if they would somehow not notice (they have not so far, although the customer’s complaint levels have risen dramatically).
A quitting IBMer | May 04, 2007 | 4:26PM
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A techie union… Interesting… Maybe this is the way to go… If someone plans on doing this though, they better do it before they spend their time moving the work over to India/China/etc or else they won’t have much leverage. I am afraid though that a techie union would suffer in the same ways unions in other areas suffer… the union exists to protect itself first and then the members second. In the meanwhile the union keeps sucking money out of the members. On the flight back from Vegas a week or so ago I was at the back and the flight attendants were talking about how the union takes $75 a month from them and the local gets like $6 and the rest goes to the corporate union and they are wondering what the heck they are even doing…
It’s time to unionize before it is too late!
feeling blue | May 04, 2007 | 4:43PM
