IBM – “Don't go to work for IBM”

Well, you can reduce cost by hiring half the staff necessary to support a customer and hope you don't blow any SLAs. Obviously any business will try to reduce their operating costs to increase their profits but when they do it at the expense of the customer the long term prospects are poor. I'm a current IBMer and I do my job very well. I also do well the jobs of several other peers and parallel employees in Dubuque, Bangalore, Rio etc who lack the skills and training of the people they're replacing. IBM's current approach is to hire cheap 'highly trainable' people and give them extensive process and procedures document. If you you think that is a long term healthy approach to supporting your customers and building your business I have some stock options to sell you. IBM would do well to retain their top talent and strike a balance between cost and performance that keeps the customers on contract and happy rather than bleeding off talent to increase the profit margins against declining revenue.