{"id":6493,"date":"2015-07-19T11:24:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-19T03:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=6493"},"modified":"2015-07-19T11:24:02","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T03:24:02","slug":"i-cringely-the-u-s-computer-industry-is-dying-and-ill-tell-you-exactly-who-is-killing-it-and-why-i-cringely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/19\/i-cringely-the-u-s-computer-industry-is-dying-and-ill-tell-you-exactly-who-is-killing-it-and-why-i-cringely\/","title":{"rendered":"I, Cringely The U.S. computer industry is dying and I\u2019ll tell you exactly who is killing it and why – I, Cringely"},"content":{"rendered":"

First is the lemming effect where several businesses in an industry all follow the same bad management plan and collectively kill themselves.\u00a0 We saw it in the airline industry in the 1980s and 90s.\u00a0 They all wanted to blame regulation, then deregulation, then something else. The result was decimation and consolidation of America\u2019s storied airlines and the services of those consolidated companies generally sucks today as a result. Their failings made necessary Southwest, Jet Blue, Virgin America and other lower-cost yet better-service airlines.The IT services lemming effect has companies promising things that can not be done and still make a profit.\u00a0 It is more important to book business at any price than it is to deliver what they promise.\u00a0 In their rush to sign more business the industry is collectively jumping off a cliff.\u00a0This mad rush to send more work offshore (to get costs better aligned) is an act of desperation.\u00a0 Everyone knows it isn\u2019t working well.\u00a0 Everyone knows doing it is just going to make the service quality a lot worse.\u00a0 If you annoy your customer enough they will decide to leave.\u00a0The second issue is you can\u2019t fix a problem by throwing more bodies at it.\u00a0 USA IT workers make about 10 times the pay and benefits that their counterparts make in India.\u00a0 I won\u2019t suggest USA workers are 10 times better than anyone, they aren\u2019t.\u00a0 However they are generally much more experienced and can often do important work much better and faster (and in the same time zone).\u00a0 The most effective organizations have a diverse workforce with a mix of people, skills, experience, etc. By working side by side these people learn from each other.\u00a0 They develop team building skills.\u00a0 In time the less experienced workers become highly effective experienced workers.\u00a0 The more layoff\u2019s, the more jobs sent off shore, the more these companies erode the effectiveness of their service.\u00a0 An IT services business is worthless if it does not have the skills and experience to do the job.\u00a0The third problem is how you treat people does matter.\u00a0 In high performing firms the work force is vested in the success of the business.\u00a0 They are prepared to put in the extra effort and extra hours needed to help the business \u2014 and they are compensated for the results.\u00a0 They produce value for the business.\u00a0 When you treat and pay people poorly you lose their ambition and desire to excel, you lose the performance of your work force.\u00a0 It can now be argued many workers in IT services are no longer providing any value to the business.\u00a0 This\u00a0is not because they are bad workers.\u00a0 It is because they are being treated poorly.\u00a0 Firms like IBM and HP are treating both their customers and employees poorly.\u00a0 Their management decisions have consequences and are destroying their businesses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source: I, Cringely The U.S. computer industry is dying and I\u2019ll tell you exactly who is killing it and why – I, Cringely<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First is the lemming effect where several businesses in an industry all follow the same bad management plan and collectively kill themselves.\u00a0 We saw it in the airline industry in the 1980s and 90s.\u00a0 They all wanted to blame regulation, then deregulation, then something else. The result was decimation and consolidation of America\u2019s storied airlines … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “I, Cringely The U.S. computer industry is dying and I\u2019ll tell you exactly who is killing it and why – I, Cringely”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reposts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}