IBM: The “I” Stands for “India” [UPDATED]
by John Paczkowski
Posted on March 25, 2009 at 12:40 PM PT
When IBM CEO Sam Palmisano advised the Obama transition team that the $30 billion in information-technology stimulus handouts Big Blue is angling for could create more than 900,000 new jobs, he didn’t say they’d be created in India. Yet, apparently that’s the case. IBM (IBM) is reportedly planning to sack “a large number” of employees in its Global Business Services division, shifting their duties overseas to workers in India. The breadth of the reduction isn’t yet known, but chatter on the Alliance@IBM boards suggests it could be brutal. Said one commenter, “I talked to two different Band 10s in IBM Global Business Services yesterday who have both said that tomorrow will be a big day for firing in almost all of the GBS business units. Both of them are expecting that they will be cut because the percentages are going to be higher at the higher levels. Both made reference to this could be called a black Thursday.”
UPDATE: Black Thursday, indeed. Sources close to IBM tell Reuters the company plans to eliminate 5,000 jobs.
Comments
IBM gained a reputation as a great place to work when its domestic mainframe business was going strong.
A potential investor, as opposed to a potential employee has to admire them though for unreservedly going where the action is.
Without emotion they enter and exit lines of business as well as parts of the world. They are far from being the one trick pony that many tech companies turn into.
Maybe they too are worried that if their US business becomes “too big to fail” they could find their salaries being set by people in Washington who have never run a business or even worked outside of government.
Posted by Mac Beach at March 25th, 2009 at 1:11 pmI am an investor in IBM. At least, I was. I’m selling my IBM stock. I’m not a big stockholder, so India Business Machines will get along just fine without me, but I am sick and tired of companies built by American work and ingenuity outsourcing good jobs so the upper management can make a bigger bonus. I don’t want to see a penny of the government stimulus money going to these damn carpetbaggers.
The American people have just about had it. People like “Mac Beach” may think we’re just going to lie down and take it, but there’s a revolution brewing. While no one would be happy to see the government setting people’s salaries, we’re sick of fat cat CEOs having their salaries (and bonuses and stock options) set by the interlocked cabal of high rolling directors who approve every little whim of upper managers, knowing that if they scratch their buddy’s corporate back, well, their reward will be coming, too.
Screw IBM. Bastards!
Posted by Chuck Farley at March 25th, 2009 at 2:20 pmEvery year in the annual report someone always puts in a motion to outsource the CEO, this year is past but next year EVERYONE needs to vote to outsource the CEO and board positions to India. My IBM division was sold but before that they were eyeing outsourcing our work. The funny part was, we have very technical engineers, and then project managers who are not technical people at all. The guy stands up at the mic and says they want to keep “the highly skilled project managers” and just let developers go to india! I guess it’s just managements way of perpetuating itself.
Outsource the CEO to India!
Posted by John Williams at March 25th, 2009 at 2:58 pm@Chuck Farley: So, what companies you gonna invest in after the revolution?
Or will that still be possible?
Posted by Mac Beach at March 25th, 2009 at 8:25 pm@Mac Beach – for one thing, I know when it comes to software services, I get a better overall deal when I work with American workers. Ask software engineers about the crap that India produces. It’s cheaper, yes, but it takes 5 times as long to produce and the quality is not good. It’s the kind of thing that looks good for a company for a quarter or so so senior managers can get their bonuses. In the end, you either have to get Indian companies to redo their stuff so much that it’s later and more expensive than if US workers had done it in the first place. If you get a senior manager drunk enough, he/she will admit the same thing. So I’ll invest in small software companies and small IT services companies.
Mac, a revolution doesn’t mean hippies smoking dope hanging out in some CEO’s office. But I’ve never seen so much anger among the people who do the real work in this country, the ones who show up every day and do their jobs. There’s something fundamentally wrong with our economy when the average CEO is paid about 300 times the average worker (CEOs averaged about 30 times average worker compensation less than 40 years ago). Things are going to change.
Posted by Chuck Farley at March 25th, 2009 at 10:14 pm@Chuck Farley:
You might be surprised to know that I am completely familiar with the phenomena you describe. I retired early from government consulting to get away from the very atrocities you mention.
My quibble is that some overpaid CEOs are responsible for this. In business, if a competitor does something to undercut your cost structure you have to find a way to reciprocate.
The legislation that got all of these people over here are pushed by both parties (for different reasons) and Kennedy’s name frequently comes up as an author.
The picture the sponsors paint is of getting highly qualified physicians and scientists to come here from around the world, the reality is that we get computer technicians that are not much better than clerical workers. They come here with phony credentials and you end up having to either teach them the work or do it for them. I hate to think of the ramification of those doctors and scientists being equally unqualified.
If you are expecting this revolution to come as a result of government action, or the new administration, don’t hold your breath, they are a part of the problem if not in fact the cause of it.
We’ll see if the scandal in the DC government involving Indian workers goes all the way up to Obama’s appointment to handle Federal government IT procurement. I was optimistic about statements the man made, but that was before the scandal broke and questions of his own personal ethics arose.
By the way I worked for a company for a few years owned by Indian immigrants (from many years ago) and even the company owner thought there was corruption going on with some of the upstart companies. He refused to partner with them on contracting work and was willing to give up work rather than to do so. Some of these people are honest, and top-notch. Some are not. The problem is with policies that let people from one or two countries to flood in while holding people from other countries back without regard to their actual qualifications.
Posted by Mac Beach at March 26th, 2009 at 8:22 am