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IBM Now Has More Employees In India Than In the US (newsindiatimes.com)
New submitter Zorro shares a report from The New York Times (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source): Over the last decade, IBM has shifted its center of gravity halfway around the world to India, making it a high-tech example of the globalization trends that the Trump administration has railed against. Today, the company employs 130,000 people in India -- about one-third of its total work force, and more than in any other country. Their work spans the entire gamut of IBM's businesses, from managing the computing needs of global giants like AT&T and Shell to performing cutting-edge research in fields like visual search, artificial intelligence and computer vision for self-driving cars. One team is even working with the producers of Sesame Street to teach vocabulary to kindergartners in Atlanta.
The work in India has been vital to keeping down costs at IBM, which has posted 21 consecutive quarters of revenue declines as it has struggled to refashion its main business of supplying tech services to corporations and governments. The company's employment in India has nearly doubled since 2007, even as its work force in the United States has shrunk through waves of layoffs and buyouts. Although IBM refuses to disclose exact numbers, outsiders estimate that it employs well under 100,000 people at its American offices now, down from 130,000 in 2007. Depending on the job, the salaries paid to Indian workers are one-half to one-fifth those paid to Americans, according to data posted by the research firm Glassdoor.
The work in India has been vital to keeping down costs at IBM, which has posted 21 consecutive quarters of revenue declines as it has struggled to refashion its main business of supplying tech services to corporations and governments. The company's employment in India has nearly doubled since 2007, even as its work force in the United States has shrunk through waves of layoffs and buyouts. Although IBM refuses to disclose exact numbers, outsiders estimate that it employs well under 100,000 people at its American offices now, down from 130,000 in 2007. Depending on the job, the salaries paid to Indian workers are one-half to one-fifth those paid to Americans, according to data posted by the research firm Glassdoor.
.... got fed up being put through to some idiot in Bangalore who couldn't solve his own shoelaces whenever there was an issue who then had to escalate it 3 levels up before there was even a satisfactory response, never mind a solution. Of course IBM arn't the only ones guilty of this. You'd think companies would have started to realise now that outsourcing isn't always the solution to their problems, sometimes it IS the problem.
Isnâ(TM)t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?
This issue is nothing particular to IBM. It is simply the way of Globalization.
It is a predictable and repeating pattern.
A company leaves an area with high standards of living for a 2nd or 3rd world country in order to save money and increase their profit margins.
Other companies do the same.
2nd world economy grows, wages increase, standard of living increases.
Company moves to the next 2nd or 3rd world country since the current one is too expensive.
After a few cycles, the wages and standard of living in the original country should have reduced enough due to goods no longer being produced there that the company can relocate back to country 1 and start the whole thing over again.
They are basically locusts. Moving from place to place until they have taken every ounce of profit they can.
Maybe revenues are down *because* the work is being done in India and the overall IBM value prop is no longer there. Did that ever occur to the bean counters?
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