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GE's Move To Boston Could Revive Local Tech Business Ambitions (networkworld.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Networkworld: Two-hundred people will run General Electric from the company's new headquarters in the Fort Point part of the city and another 600 will work in its labs. According to Immelt's vision, the headquarters will be open for interacting with startups and academia in which GE is both convener and catalyst. In an interview with Boston's business and political elite yesterday, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of GE Jeff Immelt said GE moved to Boston for two reasons: to win the Internet of Things and rethink how companies work in this winner-take-all technology and innovation economy. If GE's top management can add the missing ingredient by transferring the know-how for growing businesses to billions of dollars in quarterly revenue, Boston could regain its preeminent position for technology business leadership equal to its reputation for leading-edge research and development.
Ever since Welch left GE the thing becomes sort of rudderless
If they think a move to Boston can get them their rudder back, welcome to the real world
Enough said. The effort anybody spends on driving my focus on the shit hole people are turning this place on is a complete waste of money.
Boston won't be a tech leader again. They're not culturally diverse enough to attract top talent and top companies. Silicon Valley is very welcoming to Asians, Hispanics, homosexuals, and any other diverse group you can think of. Boston simply doesn't have that diversity, which is necessary to attract good innovators and the top talent. The culture of east coast firms is also far more on productivity and working hard during the workday than on the playful workdays in places like Silicon Valley. I just don't see how Boston can have a thriving tech sector. They're just not able to compete with Silicon Valley, and GE's move there probably won't be a good decision.
to win the Internet of Things...
Yeah? Well they can win the IoT, because I ain't got time fo dat, foo.
Imma get me some gold plated routers, chromed CAT5e, and pimped out spinners on mah eight-oh-two.
Yeah, that's right, you know what time it is. Imma win the Internet of Bling.
I can't think of one good thing to have come out of Silicon Valley within the past decade.
Most of the "innovation" that happened there has revolved around advertising and making it more invasive.
Anything that might actually have some value (virtual reality, Internet of Things) ends up being hijacked to, you guessed it, subject people to advertising while invasively collecting data about them.
And then there are things like Android, which are basically just 1990s-era technology like Linux and Java.
We've also seen them destroy a lot of formerly-good technology. Look at how Firefox has been ruined, for example. Silicon Valley has also been the hub of shitty modern web design, where what should be simple web pages end up requiring extensive JavaScript frameworks and many MB of unnecessary images, videos, and other resources.
JavaScript, Go and Rust are good examples of how Silicon Valley hasn't improved programming languages at all. JavaScript is still awful, decades after it was first created. Go is, despite all of the hype, rather mediocre and primitive. Rust is a joke.
For all of the hype that Silicon Valley gets, and all of the funding that has poured into it, we've seen pretty much nothing of real value created by these folks!
I did some contracting work for them in the '90's but thought they'd all been devoured by rabid weasels after GE Finance went away. The fact that many of my old appliances has their logo on them is a complete coincidence. So, what's ol' Generous Electric been up to, lately?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Another 8,000 jobs in India
Screwing Boston taxpayers out of several million dollars, apparently. What the summary fails to mention is that the average Boston citizen wants GE to stay the fuck away, given the enormous tax breaks they're being given to build some monstrosity in Boston's Underwater District. (They're planning on building on reclaimed ground that conservative estimates give maybe 50 years to remain above water.)
Like taxes. Maybe they'll start paying them!
So, is there a good programming language aside Haskell?
You know the city of Boston threw so many tax breaks at GE, along with other "bait" to attract them. THAT was the reason they moved.
As someone with relatives 2 streets away from their old headquarters in Fairfield, CT, the move to Boston is predicated on two things:
1) the college labor pool in MA is more plentiful, the cost of living is lower, and thus it's a cheaper labor cost to GE for entry level college intern and recent grad talent
2) CT state government significantly raised corporate taxes last year, and GE said they would move if they did. This is just following through on that promise.
And surprisingly, Taxachusttes is actually 25/50 in income taxes, while CT is top 5/50 for income and top 2/50 for estate taxes.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-28/why-ge-spurned-connecticut-for-massachusetts
WebAssembly.
I work a few blocks from the proposed HQ site and there are construction cranes in all directions, & there is plenty of demand for office space in Fort Point and excellent freeway access due to Big Dig exit at convention center. We already have enough Internet of Things meetups believe it or not.
Muckrock and the Boston Institute of Nonprofit Journalism tried to raise $1700 demanded by the mayor's office for reproducing the GE emails. But who needs emails when the charm offensive has begun? BINJ did a five-part series on the scheme.
These crony style one-off deals are always terrible economics. The "free market" certainly will fill that space very soon. There is no lack of demand, instead tons of local money already develops this area. In Jan 2015 a parking ramp in Fort Point sold for $56 million or $106,500 per spot!
As noted above many in the population are furious #MakeGEpay protesting in the freeze of last weekend's clipper. (Mayor Walsh was elected with 52% on 38% turnout). The schools are facing a $50 million shortfall, students walked out just a few days ago partially protesting this.
In this deal they don't have to pay regular taxes, instead they get to muck around in the local school system with all the purse strings attached as the press release makes clear. Instead of letting the city get normal tax revenue and the School Board allocate money for programs GE gets to basically do what it likes, as the press release clearly specifies.
Sen. Sanders said they are "destroying the moral fabric" of the USA. Boston Magazine reported in January:
Do you really think that some of these Beacon Hill luminaries haven't been looking forward to a taste of that offshore $119,000,000,000?? The centralization of decisionmaking in the schools, by withholding program revenue, is unfolding in parallel to this incredible offshore tax scam. Maybe they want Ft Point Channel access to float in barges of cash, why not? I am disappointed none of this important info is in the story summary.
--hongpong.com
I personally stay away from companies who practice the GE way. Jack Welch left a terrible legacy as an enemy of innovation...
I wonder what source or experience you're citing when you say that. Here's mine, take it for what you will.
My dad worked at the GE Global Research headquarters in Niskayuna for most of my childhood. He was in a couple of different research departments, and eventually became a Program Manager. He met Jack Welch on a few occasions, and has a lot of admiration for him. I have never heard him say anything that indicates he was an "enemy of innovation". Apparently I even met him once, my dad says I "cost him a ride on Jack's helicopter, because I was too afraid".
Jack removed a lot of bureaucracy, fostered an informal environment, and stripped out tons of middle-management. My dad often speaks highly of the "rank and yank" policy, where the bottom 10% of employees were let go on a yearly basis and new hires took their place. There was constant turnover, influxes of new people, new ideas, etc. Even if you were performing well, you would never stay in the same position for more than 6 years. If you weren't promoted within that time (often to other projects or departments), you received what was called a "sideways promotion"; you were shifted somewhere else, maybe at the same level, maybe at a lower level. The idea was to constantly have fresh eyes on everything, to prevent people from stagnating in one position. Jack also broadened stock option availability to a lot of employees based on their performance. He was cutthroat, for sure, but if you were damn good at your job, you thrived at GE.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
You have to admit, Silicon Valley's got the Buzz though.
Oops, maybe not..
c
I wonder what they're going to do with all the IoTs crap no one really wants...
A whole economic sector based upon corporate spying, in your home, with government spying sneaking in on top....
Every word you say.. every private moment recorded... well, just more of cell phones I guess.
I love you
As someone who worked at GRC for 13 years, I definelty had a different perception of the 10% policy - usually about 3 months before performance reviews the knives would come out, everybody would be searching for someone to throw under the bus, the only people who were safe were people who sucked up to their manager - if fact, perversely, the policy had the opposite effect as was intendend, the system preserved incompetent sociopaths who were execellent in sucking up and blaming others for thier own failures and GE often would kick out technically capable people who were not into the survivor game GE turned into every year. I sleep much better after leaving that place.I am now management at another company and from my GE expericence I make it a point to sniff out and fire - suck ups, narcissists and sociopaths who blame others for their own incompetence who ruin the organization like they did at GRC..
Baawston. Baawston.
I like saying "Baawston".
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
IoT, is going to foster disruptive startups. GE hasn't got what it takes to play in that sandbox.
Newsflash, it's already doing about half of those things.
Just another day in Paradise