IBM fund retrains to fight U.S. job drain

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A nice but of marketing

"Palmisano said that a global marketplace for technology skills, such as software programming, is good for the economy overall"

Indeed it is, a few points about this PR exercise:

1. If you're hiring an outsourcer to write your software. Realise that communicating with people across the other side of the planet (even Europe) is not a cost free exercise. Its a real pain in the butt. I'm doing a project for a French company now, and I keep going up there because the phone, email & video links are no substitute for sitting in front of a computer with their techies.

2. Realise that the grass really isn't greener on the other side of the world. The best programmers are in the US. If you're looking for a particular skill, you'll probably find it in the US, because most of the technology originates from there. Companies that have decided to fire their US staff and hire offshore (includes IBM) may tell you otherwise, but they're selling you on their choices.

3. If a company has just fired its staff and hired fresh graduates, it lost the skills its staff learnt and so it has less "human capital" to offer you. Why wouldn't you just hire those fresh graduates directly and save the middleman fee?

4. I've seen several of these go belly up and I think its a bad choice to introduce a communication & distance barrier into projects needlessly.

5. Ask yourself the big question. Is your outsourcers decisions saving YOUR OWN company any money? If thats the claim, then it should stand the $$$ test.

For me, this offshore outsourcing is all spin.

Firstly we're told Americans are stupid and have been neglecting their University education, but empirical evidence says otherwise.

Then its that its cheaper offshore, but the kind of money their spending (83K/person/year) says otherwise.

Then its a free trade issue or some such and its done for the good of the US economy.

What a load of rubbish, its just a tax dodge isn't it? They put as much high cost work into a country offering a tax discount, so that as much income as possible is taxed at the lowest rate possible. They then bill back to the US and Europe at the max rate possible to reduce their tax bill in high tax countries. Profits can be repatriated with a nice tax break.

Posted by: Nigel Johnstone   Posted on: 03/01/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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