Are American high tech workers obsolete?

[Jerry Feldman]

Yes. As we know everyone is graded on some form of measurable performance. 
Reducing costs in itself can have disasterous long term affects, even if 
books are not cooked. Dell is an interesting study. One reason is that it 
is still run by the founder. Sun is another. In both cases you have a long 
term CEO. A CEO who is in it for the long run will try to make good long 
term decisions, not short term maximize my personal wealth and cut and run. 
Dell is much better positioned to weather the current storm because they 
are trim, have an excellent marketing program. Its competitors were forced 
to make cuts. Downsizing in any business hurts morale, even if the 
downsizing is necessary and done right. 
 
On 13 Aug 2002 at 14:33, Hewitt Tech wrote:

> Interestingly, the short term solutions, cooking the books, laying off most
> of the workforce etc.. often have very negative long-term consequences> -Alex
> 
> P.S. Dell is an interesting example of a company with an inovative
> financial/business model but otherwise commodity products.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jerry Feldman" <gaf at blu.org>
> To: "Greater New Hampshire LUG" <discuss at gnhlug.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 2:13 PM
> Subject: Re: Are American high tech workers obsolete?
> 
> 
> > 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
> > PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9
> >
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-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Associate Director
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9