Are American high tech workers obsolete?

[Jerry Feldman]

I don't think so. 
The Board of Directors are looking at essentially growth in the value of 
their respective investments (not their personal, but the constituency they 
represent). They hire a management team to do this. 
Take a producer of commodity goods, like PCs. Your margin is shriking. You 
must (1)increase volume, (2) cut costs. At the same time, customers are not 
very loyal. Why would a customer buy otherwise identical systems from 
Compaq, Dell or Gateway, Much of that is consumer marketing. Right now, 
Dell has a successful marketing edge. In any case, the CEO must cut both 
costs and increase revenue in the short run. If support can be moved 
offshore at a significant cost savings without any reduction of service, it 
will happen. The same for software development. 
Another cost that gets reduced is R&D. Cutting R&D normally helps short-
term profits and hurts the long term viability of a high tech company.  
On 13 Aug 2002 at 13:31, Paul Iadonisi wrote:
>   And herein lies the stupidity, arrogance, and ignorance of most US
> businesspeople.  This is an INCREDIBLY short sighted point of view.  I'm
> with the CEO of Chick-Fil-A: People and Principles before profits.  The
> profits will come when you have a satisfied workforce that will gladly
> devote themselves to your company.  Many other factors must be in place,
> of course, but this is paramount.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Associate Director
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
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