PS and we'll cut your census costs and run that for you too, no problem!
IBM offers Trump its ideas to Make America Great Again
Big Blue's big boss, Ginni Rometty, is hoping to dance on the tightrope that Big Orange has brought to the White House. Trump's unexpected election puts the technology industry in a tight spot, because many associate it with the economic conditions Trump exploited throughout his campaign. Globalisation demonised as a destroyer …
COMMENTS
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Wednesday 16th November 2016 14:11 GMT Anonymous Coward
@AC Re: Oh look
Sorry?
Look, here's a dirty little secret.
IBM under Rometty has shifted their business model.
They need to higher skilled work force that can be found in the US and they are already hiring those skilled workers. At the same time... they can't compete in the Offshore / Onshore model against the Indian firms... as well as some customers are starting to shift back to local sourcing talent. So Rometty is already bringing back the jobs to the US. They are also turfing those who they deem too expensive to train up and are hiring already skilled workers. Hint: Where will you find the most Scala developers who know Big Data? (Really know it?)
So if Trump does keep his promise on dropping the corporate tax... its a good thing all around. No more double dutch turd sandwiches ...
But with respect to Rometty's message? Meh. Jumping on the Bandwagon is just for show... good PR. She'd be doing the same thing if Clinton won too. Just the messaging would have changed.
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Wednesday 16th November 2016 23:14 GMT earl grey
Re: @AC Oh look
"Sorry?
Look, here's a dirty little secret.
IBM under Rometty has shifted their business model."
IBM under Rometty has shafted their employees over and over and over and ...well, you get it.
Older - you're shafted. Experienced - you're shafted Top of your frozen pay grade - you're shafted.
She's a wonder....bint!
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Wednesday 16th November 2016 09:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
Postcard from the edge
Reading the comments on the internal blog where this letter was posted is a joy, as it is a tidal wave of vacuous sycophancy. How many variations on single sentence "Thank you for sharing this great message" posts can IBM generate? An awful lot. Happens every time anyone very senior posts anything at all. Absolutely pointless use of social media. It's almost tempting to leave a comment along the lines of "Hold on Ginni - didn't Trump say he was thinking of punishing IBM for offshoring all those American jobs to India?" just to see if anyone notices in among all the brown-nosing guff that everyone else posts.
The other common annoyance is that this letter was announced internally with a company-wide email that simply said "look at this blog". If you're going to send an email to the whole company, you might as well put the actual letter in it. All senior managers do the same thing now - they have been told that they are rated on "social", so when they have something to announce, they put it on a blog then email everyone with the message to "come see this great announcement on my blog" to drive stats up. As a result, I now know even less about what's going on in the company because I'm damned if I'm going to fire up a VPN connection to read their crappy blog when they could have just put their announcement in the email they just sent out.
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Wednesday 16th November 2016 09:52 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Postcard from the edge
Hi AC. Thanks for providing a nice reminder of one of the reasons I no longer work for IBM. I have to admit I did enjoy reading those blogs, particularly when someone finally gives in and says "FFS are you guys for real? This is a disaster" or similar. I have to make do with following IBM on LinkedIn, where there are various comments, some apparently genuine, from people saying things like "so proud to be an IBMer" in response to a mundane photograph of an apparently "cool" office.
Rommety is a bit rich for trying to kiss Trump's backside. IBM is a perfect example of what people don't like, including plenty of those who weren't pushed to vote Trump. The company is run entirely for the benefit of Wall Street, and the execs at the top of the company. Sites in the US have been run down or shut entirely, with jobs moving to cheaper countries. The company is being bled dry and the biggest losers are those ordinary Americans whose jobs and towns have been destroyed by Rommety and co.
Having said that, I'm lucky enough to live in a country where, for now at least, workers do have some rights, and I took compensation when I left. I'm also lucky to have skills (despite IBM) so now earn more than I did.
That said, Trump's rhetoric and past record clash entirely: he couldn't give a shit about the little guy.
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Monday 21st November 2016 15:28 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Postcard from the edge
"How many variations on single sentence "Thank you for sharing this great message" posts can IBM generate? An awful lot. Happens every time anyone very senior posts anything at all. Absolutely pointless "
As former IBMer, I can only confirm this behaviour - but I will also add, that in my local (north UK) office many employees had seen thru these a-licking comments. Most, grind-stone (non-management), types in IBM UK see the light and are trying to get out with a decent pay-off. Good luck to them all. Ginny is doing a fantastic job, just as the Capt of the Titantic did!
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Wednesday 16th November 2016 10:20 GMT Steve Davies 3
IBM is the same as Drump
IBM == I've been mugged
Donald will do the same to America.
IMHO, he'll emerge from the Presidency without paying any tax and several times richer than now yet he says that he'll draw no salary not that $400K/year is a salary that any decent sized Public company would accept but still makes the £170K out PM gets look like a bargain (and they'll pay most of it at 50% tax on it)
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Wednesday 16th November 2016 10:28 GMT Anonymous Coward
Sycophantic posts galore
As another 'insider', the mountain of sycophantic posts that follow ANY management announcement makes keeping food down difficult, but this one could work. IBM has been a bully and a menace in the US workforce, and if Trump could 'reign' them in, and 'make' them hire more Amuricans, that would just how what a good president he is, a great president - probably the best.
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Wednesday 16th November 2016 10:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
"will free up capital that companies of all sizes *can* reinvest"
IBM said *can*. Not *will*. Yes, we can. But will we? Unless any law to repatriate capitals explicitly forbids (or at least limits) buy-backs or the like, boards are not going to funnel money into hires and R&D.
And I really find "company run" (or almost...) schools a little disturbing. Looks to me just a different way to enforce a Soviet-like system, where you know from cradle what your life will be...
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Wednesday 16th November 2016 11:57 GMT allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Re: "will free up capital that companies of all sizes *can* reinvest"
" For all you'll ever needTM " - The Goliath Corporation
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Wednesday 16th November 2016 11:50 GMT allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
"Before the election, many tech companies scoffed at the Trump campaign – or warned against it – which makes a rapprochement inevitable, and it's into this environment that Rometty has penned an open letter to the president-elect offering five policy suggestions from IBM."
So, did the others pick IBM? Did IBM draw the shortest straw?
Or is this just IBM's opportunistic self, pushing through the croud to be the first at the door?
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