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• San Francisco Chronicle: Stark offers universal health insurance plan. Employers, states and individuals would share costs. By Edward Epste. Excerpts: Rep. Pete Stark of Fremont, who would play a key role in the national health care debate if Democrats take control of the House in November, announced a plan Tuesday for universal medical insurance for all Americans. Stark, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means health subcommittee, offered a plan that is based on Medicare's payment rates and low-cost administrative structure and a requirement that employers provide coverage for all their workers, even part-timers.
  By offering his far-reaching plan, Stark laid down a marker, letting it be known that he and other advocates of the long-debated idea of universal medical insurance will be key players if Democrats get back the House control they lost in 1994, just as then-President Bill Clinton's sweeping health care proposals went down in flames. [...]
  "The question is whether society will provide coverage for everyone or for just a wealthy few,'' Stark said in announcing his AmeriCare Health Care Act. "Everyone should benefit from this bill, with the exception of the bankruptcy bar and collection agencies,'' said Stark, referring to families who have been driven into financial despair by uninsured medical expenses.
• New York Times: Drug Makers Pay for Lunch as They Pitch. By Stephanie Saul. Excerpts: Free lunches like those at the medical building in New Hyde Park, N.Y., occur regularly at doctors’ offices nationwide, where delivery people arrive with lunch for the whole office, ordered and paid for by drug makers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Like the “free” vacation that comes with a time-share pitch attached, the lunches go down along with a pitch from pharmaceutical representatives hoping to bolster prescription sales. The cost of the lunches is ultimately factored in to drug company marketing expenses, working its way into the price of prescription drugs. [...]
  A former pharmaceutical representative, Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau, called lunch “incredibly effective” in lifting pharmaceutical sales for the companies where she worked, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson. “We got the numbers of what the physicians were prescribing. If I brought in lunch one week, I could see the following week if that lunch had an impact,” Ms. Slattery-Moschkau said. [...]
  In Madras, Ore., meanwhile, a group of internists earlier this year banned not only lunch but also visits by drug representatives. Even in Madras, a rural town of about 5,000, the group got visits from more than 30 drug representatives a month, including two or three lunches. “The complaints that I would get from my patients were, ‘You’re 15 minutes late to see me.’ ” said Dr. David V. Evans, a member of the group. “ ‘O.K., I was back there talking to a drug rep.’ That wasn’t such a good thing.” Dr. Evans added, “It’s an issue of professionalism and integrity, really.”
• BusinessWeek: A New Twist On Retiree Health Care. Instead of ending coverage, some companies are turning it into a 401(k)-like perk. Excerpt: The nation's pension crisis, it turns out, is only the second-largest long-term liability facing U.S. businesses. Far greater are underfunded health-insurance promises to current and future retirees. The companies that make up the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index are an astonishing $321 billion shy of what they need, according to senior analyst Howard Silverblatt at Standard & Poor's Corp. (which, like BusinessWeek, is owned by The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP )). By yearend the Financial Accounting Standards Board is likely to require companies to put this liability on their balance sheets, a step that could shrink shareholder equity by as much as 9%.
  Many companies have been trimming those costs by dumping retiree health care entirely. In 1993, 40% of large employers offered such benefits to those over 65. By 2005 just 21% did, says Mercer Human Resources Consulting. But rather than drop benefits altogether, "a lot of clients are saying: 'Let's re-engineer our retiree (health) plans,"' says Edward Kaplan, national health practice leader at consultants Segal Co. A small but growing number of companies are trying one new approach: transforming retiree insurance into a 401(k)-type perk. Instead of promising to pay, say, half of a retiree's premiums, no matter how costly, these companies are setting aside a fixed amount for each pensioner's medical care. After that, retirees are on their own, even if costs top what's in their account.
• AFL-CIO: Americans Pay a Lot for Health Care, Don’t Get Much in Return. The United States spends more on health care per capita than any other similar country, yet has the largest uninsured population, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Some 16 percent of the U.S. population, or 45.8 million people, did not have any form of health insurance coverage in 2004. Ireland, Austria and Finland spend about half of what the United States spends, as a percentage of gross domestic product, but cover 99 percent to 100 percent of their populations, the report found. [...]
  Meanwhile, the Employment Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) released an issue brief projecting that a couple age 65 who reach average life expectancy will need $295,000 for retiree health expenses. And that figure, the study says, still may underestimate the amount of money needed to cover such costs.
  As employers increasingly shift the cost of health care to their employees, America’s workers are forced to pay higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments—if they can afford such coverage at all. To pay for soaring health costs and their children’s education, working families are going deeper into debt. A typical middle-income family earning about $45,000 a year saw its debt burden grow by 33.1 percent between 2001 and 2004, even after adjusting for inflation, according to a May report by the Center for American Progress. Debt has expanded by 30.3 percentage points to 108.4 percent of income—the first time that debt exceeded income since the Federal Reserve started conducting the survey.

• ThinkTwice for Summer 2006 [PDF]. Articles in this edition include:
  • Employees fight force-outs due to medical conditions
  • IBM to invest $6 billion in India. Where is your job going?
  • Study Reveals “Jobless Recovery” in Tech Labor Market, Despite Industry’s Contrary Claims
  • SSR’s Sold Out to Qualxserv
• AFL-CIO: Bush Denies AFL-CIO China Trade Petition: A ‘Slap in the Face’ to Workers. Excerpts: The Bush administration’s decision today to reject the AFL-CIO petition demanding China’s government stop denying workers their rights is “a slap in the face to Chinese and American workers who expect our government to uphold the law,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka says:

  In rejecting this petition, President Bush has shown once again that he is beholden to corporate interests at the expense of working families. It’s a travesty that after five years of failed trade policy that have contributed to the loss of almost three million U.S. manufacturing jobs and a record trade deficit of $726 billion, the Administration continues to take no meaningful action to support America’s workers or stop the abuse of workers in China.

  The AFL-CIO, along with Reps. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chris Smith (R- N.J.), filed a petition June 8 with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) charging China’s government systematically denies workers’ basic rights and prevents them from exercising internationally recognized workers’ rights, such as the freedom to form unions. Further, the petition documents how China’s failure to protect workers’ rights is an unfair trade practice that costs U.S. jobs.
• From the Job Cuts Status & Comments page
  • Comment 7/20/06: Some department members getting "out-take-a-hike'ed" in POK today; exact details still sketchy, firm indications that some LINUX, IMS, and DB2 support folks affected as well. All you can do is pray..... -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/24/06: IGS AMS in RTP will be the next group to be outsourced to India. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/24/06: Something that made me laugh out loud. In a technical conference here in the UK (for the few techies left in the UK), an IBM Exec said: - and I quote: "We are not moving the jobs to India for cheap labour" - 10 mins later, talking about IBM's competitors, including Cap Gemini, they are having trouble reducing cost, some do and some don't have the opportunity to "follow us to the BRIC's to reduce costs"!!! Slight contradiction, and one which tipped me over the edge at which point I left. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/25/06: The thing is - I cant understand why we would want to admit to our competitors that we have no strategy beyond BRIC and that we are now inviting 'family and friends' in a WW Jam to layout just that. Its unbelievable to me! Happy to be corrected though. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/25/06: Rumor is this years offshoring job losses will be MUCH worse than previous years cuts. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/26/06: Rumors of IBM looking to sell RTP sw development facility and move folks back to main site space vacated by Lenova. There are increasing rumors concerns in RTP about potential large job cuts as well based upon moves of SW development to other labs across the world. So could be job cuts and sale of facility that was through a major renovation to thee wonderful work environment of small cubicles, white noise filters and waterfree toilets that aren't properly cleaned. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/26/06: IBM General Manager Val Rahmani said, “We're not taking jobs from the U.S. and shifting them to India.” So a US worker trains their replacement in India, then gets fired; if that’s not shifting jobs what is it? Clearly IBM management believes it can make contrary statements to the general public as well as to its employees. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/27/06: I work in an IBM office where a new hire orientation takes place. I was recently part of a class that held over 75 people and I watch new loads of employees come in every week. How can these job cuts be so severe if there are so many new people including myself? Perhaps people just aren't performing. -Anonymous- Alliance reply: And perhaps those people getting cut were making too much money in IBM management's view. You should read the rest of this forum and our other forums. We think you'll discover that long-term IBM'ers with talent and experience are being cut away like they were weeds in a garden,.... except that they are the roses.
  • Comment 7/27/06: We've received word that the cost challenge for the division will be 20% this year - about the same day we get a note from our director claiming we know we can't cut our way out of this....fun. odds are 99 to 1 there will be cuts, directly due to moving jobs off-shore, in middleware/websphere jobs by end of the year. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/28/06: STG (Austin) is cutting contractors, hardware projects, high-dollar equipment. Surplus engineers are being directed to a job in the field.... -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/28/06: I heard 360 contractors were let go from STG in Poughkeepsie. Will let you know as I hear more. Likely too they'll spread over July and Aug. to avoid reporting excessive monthly numbers to Labor Dept. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/28/06: STG is reassigning 250 workers to lab services. These jobs require substantial travel which may be unacceptable to any worker who cannot travel due to family or personal life. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/28/06: Hey U.S. people! It's not going to give you any warm fuzzy's but you are not the only ones. It is happening in many countries and to managers as well as employees. My job (as a manager) got offshored a couple of years ago .. at the time they said there might be a position going I could have .. I tried to follow it up and got no response.. I tried to get other jobs but somehow they just didn’t want someone with my experience (or was it my pay level after 18 years) .. it dragged on for a while until my manager told me that I would be redundant if I didn’t find anything by the end of the week .. with 1 day left the other job miraculously came available.
    I then found that the initial job was to help them offshore some other jobs!! God I wish I'd said no. The manager of that area seems to source people that way, as they are desperate enough to do what he wants, including things that I personally consider unethical. When I didn’t want to do some of the more questionable things, it got nasty.
    Since that time I have had constant pressure to leave. It became quite blatant with my manager even telling me to! My health has been suffering with all sorts of little problems surfacing and then last year I ended up with chest pains .. it was diagnosed as a strained heart caused by hypertension and now I have to take pills every darn day.
    Then there was a redundancy program going on with several hundred people to be laid off and I had had enough so I told my manager I would volunteer to take it .. guess what: I was ignored .. didn’t even get a response until I escalated and then they just said no.
    The low level pressure to leave continues with small things like no communication of expectations, PBCs that go out of date (the PBC system wont allow an employee to update the PBC unless the manager sends it back to them). The thing I find very interesting is the number of people (employees, not managers) that don’t want to know you when you are being targeted like this. Its is a company that pits employee against employee. It's a scary, scared and scarred environment. I used to be an IBM manager, but now it’s a dirty word. -I'm on the pills now too-
  • Comment 7/28/06: POK is terminating hundreds of contractors. I heard that IBMers will go in August. -Anonymous-
• From the General Visitor's Comment page:
  • Comment 7/24/06: Words of encouragement for IBM'ers still under the torture of IBM management. I went through all the head games, the daily tear down of self worth, the 3 rating, no raises, new manager torture everything you all have been going through. I just want to tell you that there is good life after IBM..There are jobs where people appreciate you, pay you fairly, treat you with respect and honesty. Don't be afraid to leave IBM, you will feel so much better after you do.
    IBM is an evil place and Sam is the dirtiest player in the game. I'm sure someday we will be reading about his upcoming court trial for illegal dealings of some sort. To my old friends in Lexington, MA Rational division. Your skills are needed outside of IBM, people pay premium prices for Rational knowledge. If you know Rational products you will have no problem using Mercury products, there almost identical. Start looking for jobs, get out there and see what's out there..Monster Jobs is a great place to post. Get familiar with Testmanager and Robot as they are still in high demand.
    You are worth a lot out there so don't be afraid. The way you are treated is not right , let the Indians have it..who cares there nothing but slaves if you look at it from this perspective. They think we are stupid, uneducated and are so cocky..they actually think they will be a world power..WRONG..they invent nothing, they cannot complete projects and are so full of crap it is unbelievable....What we have and they will never have is the ability to create, to think outside the box, to be able to do it and do it right. You are the most valuable assets in this country...go sell it to the highest bidder and let IBM fall to the ground..take the power, don't listen to them and know that there is a much better life after IBM..my thoughts and best wishes are with you all.. -Joey-
  • Comment 7/24/06: To the person who wrote on 7/20/6 - Yes, I hear and feel your pain. I was with IBM 7 years-I am now on anti-depressants and a high dose of blood pressure meds. My job went overseas and I left 6/30/6. Best move I made, I never had those problems before IBM, now, I am more relaxed and feel like with a little time, can wean off the meds. I worked with a handful who have the same issue(s), I'm just glad I am no longer there_life is very very much better now. With time and IBM out of my system, I feel like life is going to get better....biggest plus was walking away from IBM. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/24/06: IBM is WASTING MONEY in IGS AMS on GRs who can't do the work and processes that are supposed to guide them but FAIL. The business model of PMs in US and techies in India is FAILING. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/25/06: In response to Joey's comments below. It is IBM that is in the wrong, not the Indians you are taking it out on. To say that they are uneducated is doing them a disservice; given the number of call center workers with degrees. India has a huge number of skilled workers with plentiful qualifications. Due to India's considerably weaker economic situation and currency these people are cheaper to employ than you or I (I used to work at Rational too). India doesn't force IBM to outsource, just as India doesn't force Wal-Mart to open stores there and wreck the local markets. It's called globalisation, it works both ways, and it ruins peoples lives the world over - just to make the likes of Palmisano richer at our expense. As an ex-Rational employee you should also know that projects go wrong when requirements are poorly defined in the majority of cases, rather than the workers implementing the solution getting it wrong.
    If you think that India won't be an economic power then you are sadly mistaken, I'm afraid. India's economy is growing at breakneck speed. They have a huge youth population and a growing middle class (consumers galore). At their current economic stage they are concentrating on doing things cheaper than Western firms. When this gets saturated and they get richer they will begin to invent more. Then they will lead on cutting edge technology. This is not going to happen overnight but remember Japan post-war? Familiar story, only India has started from a poorer background. Don't take it out on the Indians, they are only taking advantage of the market opportunity - this is capitalism. We've been doing it to them for decades, don't forget.
    I would agree however that life is better outside IBM. I had the same crap with 3 ratings then 2+ ratings and still no pay raises. I was there for 6 years and didn't see any money - only cuts. I left this year and funnily enough I got a huge bump up, more respect from my boss and best of all - I actually get to see my family after work as I get home before 9pm! Get out or get in the union, it's the only way. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/25/06: I must agree with the previous post 'Don't blame the Indian's'. If it was us we would do the same. I believe the end is near for the US workforce at IBM. But I also believe that our people can compete with anyone in the world. In the end our young people will find others types of work that will fulfill them. Co's like IBN will be looking all over the world for the cheap resource. While we find other areas to focus on. They lose in the end. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/25/06: In Joey's defense, he was saying that the Indians think we are stupid and uneducated. Some of them impart a "cocky" attitude that gives off that vibe....others keep it in check. But ultimately, I agree that this is not the fault of the Indians but rather the fault of the global market, which is no longer loyal to a country, community, or way of life. There is no loyalty to the American worker. We will slip, and the divide between the top executives and the rest of us will increase. But, they best be careful since that's a recipe for a revolution.... -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/26/06: To future dues paying members of the Alliance@IBM. I've collected hundreds of pages of IBM internal documents in the last few years, and believe me I fully understand the Fidelity process. FESCo is one of the largest and comprehensive HR/Benefits outsourcing companies in the world. And IBM has been using them for a number of years. FESCo manages NETBENEFITS, Employee Services Center, askHR, and a multitude of other services once held by IBM employees. In fact, many of the FESCo folks still work in RTP. While rumors pass around on this website, there are a few subject matter experts and please if I can help you understand the process, please contact the Alliance@IBM. Fidelity does not manage the HR partners,they are still IBM employees. Keep in mind that the employees services center provides non-binding advice to employees, refer to the Summary Plan Documents vs. listening to what you get from the VRU's (Voice Response Units). Steve Bergeron Alliance@IBM uvm2000@aol.com Governing Council Member - MA
  • Comment 7/27/06: When poison enters the system it takes a certain amount of time before the subject dies . Either they are saved or they die. I leave the rest of the story in your hands -i work for myself-
  • Comment 7/27/06: Interesting comment on unemployment insurance issue. IBM asked me to work one year in KY after 23 years in FL then let me go as I was older. FL and KY and IBM got together and found a way to deny me any unemployment payments. I forget the details, but it was obviously prearranged as they had a very fast answer. One more situation where older people are being chased out. Whatever. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/28/06: For the newbie of 75 new hires. You will have no pension. You will rarely meet your medical deductible each year. If you do invest in the Tax Deferred Savings Plan the match by your employer is considerably less than the match they make to long term employees. In other words...you're cheaper labor...but you will discover retirement and compensation won't come easy. Live Long and Prosper young pup. Given the current course American Businesses are on you will be working until your 80's. -New Hiree of Old-
• From the Pension Comments page
  • Comments 07/26/06: I wonder if managers, especially those at the low end, have figured out that once they retire, they will be subject to the same pension abuses the rest of us have faced. Even if they have “dirt” on the company, the statute of limitations on most such things is 5 to 7 years. After that they are fair game. Lump sum payouts won’t insure benefits such as health, and poor health in retirement can wipe out savings in a hurry, and we’ve all seen health benefits attacked. Plus they won’t have a union to complain to. -Anonymous-
  • Comments 07/26/06: How do we start a class action law suit against the most recent pension plan changes? -Anonymous- Alliance reply: Feel free to contact a law firm willing to take this on. Be aware you have to prove what IBM did was illegal. So far those that have looked at a class action lawsuit have struck out. As we have said many times before if employees had joined the Alliance in mass numbers we could have negotiated this. It was stopped in Germany because they have strong unions and works councils inside IBM. Here in the US employees still refuse to undertake collective action and the price is being paid.
• IBM employees on employee raises
  • Comment 7/24/06: I would like to say 29% is a fair increase for an industrial vampire, that is sucking the life out of its workers and this company. I have worked for ibm for eight years and its making me sick to my stomach when I see this leeching of the might of every ibm worker around the world. 1% to 2% etc, for most of the long term workers around the world. I think we should turn this percentage into unionised stakes and ram it into the heart of the greedy immoral soul sucking {corp-rat} that is Sam. i would just like to say every dog has his day and one day we will have ours! Regards, one of your workers. -gutted irish worker-
  • Comment 7/25/06: I was given an insulting 3% pay rise for a 1 pbc rating and told I should be grateful as most of my peers were given nothing. I have been with the company for 8 years and because I moved from MD to server and lost half of my shift premium and standard overtime I am now on the same salary I was 5 years ago. In that time my mortgage has increased and utilities have gone up by 40%. I watched the closure of MD with great sadness and saw my job being outsourced to AMKOR. Now I am starting to see alarming similarities in the atmosphere where I work now and the way it was before they shut down. Most of our low end products have been given to China so the writing is on the wall I just wish it was sooner rather than later so I can get my severance package and go on a long vacation and flush the bitterness and disillusion that IBM has instilled in me out of my system. Keep the faith and keep fighting. -Disgruntled Leprechaun-
  • Comment 7/27/06: 2003: PBC rating 1 - no increase. 2004: PBC rating 1 - no increase. 2005: PBC rating 1 - no increase. 2006: PBC rating 2+ equaled a 1.2% increase. After 2003, 2004 and 2005. I could only SHAME them into a 1.2% increase. Then I saw their assumption in their new friggin' Retirement Comparison Tool was 2.75% annually and told my manager that since they assumed this percentage, did that mean my 2006 increase would now be the 2.75%; his answer.. Is this an IQ test or something ? I told him "no" you dumb ass, was telling my "no increase" for the last several years at a 1 rating an IQ test ?.. Needless to say, I pissed him/them off. I don't care anymore. Going to quit soon. This place is a joke. New Employees - beware.. this will be happening to all of you too. JOIN the Union - NOW. It is your only shot at correcting these Executive Bastards. -Anonymous-

• "Technology vs Process explained again pt 1" by "Dose of reality". Full excerpt: First of all, this is a BCS message board - there's the trump answer to your constant attempts to treat this entire subject on a level that is so generic and broad as to render it absolutely meaningless. I don't give a rat's @$$ if Gates and Ellison want to farm out mindless, soulless, rote application development work to a bunch of resources that are to IT what an assembly line worker was to Henry Ford. It is no more testament to that unnamed country’s prowess in IT, than pirating DVD’s is testament to China’s prowess in the entertainment industry.
  You are about as naïve about this industry as anyone can be if all you can do is talk about a two tier model – MCK/BCG and everyone else. We are supposed to be delivering technology SOLUTIONS – application of tools that address objectives of reducing cost, increasing revenue, or otherwise improving operations. The gaps in understanding of context and process are not only handicaps when it comes to recommending business strategy – it is a major issue in an ERP implementation, CRM solution, web development – anyplace that the user experience meets technology, or anyplace where there are variations across businesses – in short virtually every APPLICATION of IT services. These require synthesis between process and technology, and the most effective model is where both skillsets are present to some extent in the same resource.
  Communication skills are also pretty important. We are simply cheapening the cost and hoping that resources that are overmatched can get lucky. It’s kind of like asking a recent graduate of SQL university to fill a role as an IT Architect. Does that make the analogy more real for you?!
  Who is the “we” in your “Secondly…” paragraph? It seems to me you are mixing indignations – legacy IBM indignation and foreign resource indignation. No wonder you are so irrational about this topic – you are a 2-fer. If IBM had a broad process capability, why did they need to acquire PwC? While there may be a few isolated staff that came up through the functional side, the vast majority of the legacy IBM’ers are technology retreads. Of course, given the attrition the past few years talking about pre-PwC legacy IBM’ers is more or less meaningless. If you were only referring to process capabilities in unnamed country resources, all I can say is “Give me a break”.
  So you are an architect? You are actually a lot closer to a SQL coder than you are to a consultant. I’ll bet you were really good at Jigsaw puzzles when you were a kid? Redundancy, capacity, compatibility, cost effectiveness, monitoring, integration, upgrades, etc.. Not exactly high value work in my book – high stress and high impact, maybe, but the people factor is as far away from what you build as it would be for SQL.
  Tivoli – a lot of back-end plumbing – it is necessary, but as far removed from business process as SQL. The only people factor you need to worry about are the architects and DBA’s – not the business. Your only contact with the latter is that you need to keep the system running. Sure – a tech-head can do it just fine.
  Websphere – a little closer to the real world, and has the same issues that the SQL world does. There is lots of dry development support that never touches a user, and for the components that touch end-user like portals, E-commerce, and wireless, the tech-heads constantly build within a process knowledge vacuum.
  Lotus – POS – enough said.
• "Profits drift down" by "the arab". Full excerpt: When a company has bloated infrastructure, one can only wonder how profits can stay where they have been previously. It forces high quotes that are simply not acceptable unless we are buying market share. Let me explain.
  We quoted around $100,000 for a job in Pakistan, with the second bidder being over $1 million. We won and we lost money! With the Middle East having a substantial back office, then having to report to a hugely bloated structure in Vienna that reports to London and then on to Armonk, is it any wonder that we have trouble winning decent deals and bidding at realistic levels. We bid, we nickel and dime on staff and then spend much more time delivering and loose money, and the stock drifts down. Economics 101 maybe but with our management team that are hung up on their egos, there is little chance for the company until there is true empowerment in the sharp end of the business, the part that is client facing.
• "No argument there" by "wonderaboutibm". Full excerpt: The only wisdom I have gained in all my years of consulting is this: good ideas are a dime a dozen, but good executions are rather rare.
  It takes less brainpower than one might think to whip up a "cool" technical solution with a little Tivoli here, a lot of WebSphere there, but so what? If it does not advance a business cause, it is for little more than nothing.
  Give IBM this much credit: I think they realized that at one point: maybe SP was more altruistic in those days. I think IBM had the (misguided) idea that PwCC would give them a bevy of great business executions. But IBM never had the smarts to pull that off, and now they have lost the will, or the interest. The best I can say for their move into (the unmentionable country) is that they somehow think nationals of that unmentionable country can do for them what the PwCC acquisition did not, in terms of invigorated business execution. The clock is ticking; even as a short term ploy, this one is a tightrope act.
• "But your paranoia is justified" by "wonderaboutibm". Full excerpt: Remember, IBM is a "global" company. That means that the powers that be are looking for the cheapest way out. I don't know the exact timeframe for the cut of 130,000 or so, but you know it is coming. I also hear that IBM is attempting to suppress reports of the coming job cuts in the U.S. But we all know better, and IBM's official silence is telling. We have become just another big blob. Perhaps it was inevitable, but one could always have hoped for better.
• "It is a matter of degree" by "Dose of reality". Full excerpt: There is nothing wrong with using commodity resources for commodity work. However, a proper mix has to be maintained for leverage. Where IBM went wrong was employing the philosophy if "X" is good, then 10 times X must be better. They substituted commodity resources for premium resources. That's the backdrop.
  Even without this backdrop, you will always have project level failures, and they are usually the result of asymmetry between executive compensation and executive delivery. I.E. partners that had to meet a set of targets that were not balanced, so they did whatever they could to sell the work regardless of the feasibility of delivery. We have the wrong kind of oversight here - bureaucratic and CYA, instead of pragmatic and business-focused.
• "Practical Experience" by "banktoconsult". Full excerpt: Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get in front of someone from an interview? Here's the situation: 3 years practical experience in the field in which they are hiring; no consulting experience; plenty of project management experience on national level; MBA, but definitely not from a top-tier school. Anyone have any connections or any advice on how to ensure that my resume and cover letter has a fighting chance? Feel free to respond or email me at banktoconsult@yahoo.com
• "You sound desperate" by "deep_eye". Full excerpt: bad impression for the pig to have of you and your candidacy. There is no magic formula for "getting in front" of someone. In fact, I've received so many contacts from them and their stooges to lure me back in, I'm surprised the entire consultant wannabe planet is not on their radar (two more emails from them this week alone). Do yourself a very large favor - seek employment elsewhere. Go back 6 months and read some of the posts on this board re IBM. I assure you, these are not fictional accounts
• "there's also the Hydra's teeth effect" by "DM Bingham". Full excerpt: I'm also a believer in the eventual demise of the Blue Pig due to the same market forces and managerial miscues mentioned above and in recent threads/posts.
  I pose an additional burden that the will add to the Azure Porcine's demise: there are thousands of former p!ssed off employees who are literally cursing the Monster every day and doing what they can to bring it down. Some are in positions to influence buying decisions, some merely talk to their neighbors, but in total it is a huge grassroots feeling of total animus towards one Company. Think of WHELS only raised to the third power.
  I believe neither Sears, Roebuck nor K-Mart, Montgomery Ward nor any of the other department store chains that broke on Wal-Mart's rise had such human elements totally hoping to see their former employer fail.
• "Coasting is the best policy" by "Toa". Full excerpt: I busted my gut scored a 2+, got nothing. Coasted and scored a 3, got nothing. Why bother to do any more than coast! The results in terms of an increase are the same and the added advantages in terms of lower stress more free time etc are so much better.