I have no idea whether IBM senior vice-president Bob Moffat is guilty of insider trading or not, though that’s what he was arrested for yesterday. What I do know is that Moffat’s job since 2005 has been as the architect of IBM’s project called LEAN, which is intended to adjust Big Blue’s global labor force to maximize profitability. I’ve written quite a bit about LEAN, much to the consternation of IBM, characterizing it in large part as a way to replace expensive older American workers with younger and cheaper workers in India and Argentina while cleverly dodging U.S. age discrimination and possibly other civil rights laws. Whatever the legality of LEAN it is downright mean and shows little respect for the people who made IBM what it is today.
What does it say, then, when the architect of LEAN is arrested for alleged insider trading?
The good news, I guess, is that he was caught. The rest of the news is bad. If Moffat is guilty as charged then it shows serious ethical and moral lapses at the very top of IBM (Moffat has been mentioned as a possible successor to IBM CEO Sam Palmisano). Even if he is proved innocent Moffat is still guilty of poor judgment in his choice of friends and of being a blabbermouth. Since Moffat is being charged, in part, with insider trading of IBM’s own shares, then LEAN itself should probably come under some scrutiny as a possible tool for generating insider profits.
Worst of all, this might well turn out to be yet another example of parasitic management using the power of the corporation entirely for self-enrichment. There is no insider tide that raises all boats. There is no insider trickling down, except perhaps in the manner of honor among thieves. Moffat and his gardener may have benefitted, the latter by getting to mow twice per week instead of once, but the rest of us — and certainly the 398,000 other people who work at IBM — are no better off for his alleged actions.
So Moffat is guilty or he’s stupid, neither of which says much for IBM.
It’s not a surprise to find executive pay rise as average employees’ pay falls. That’s how Wall Street defines profitability, and shareholders don’t care.
Ain’t that the truth
any updates? – what happened to Moffat AND why is his mentor and friend Palmisano getting ready to leave IBM with a platinum parachute?
Kudos, Cringe! That’s why I’ve been an adamant reader of your column for over 5 years. The “outsourcing” ideology that has crept into the very soul of companies in the name of short term profitability is soon to be proven dead wrong. You can only outsource so much – then you lose control of your company because those you outsourced to now own your technolgy, and you have no one to blame but yourselves.
It’s not “flag-waving” – it’s long-term thinking. If everything and everybody in a company were outsourced, the CEO alone would be staring at an empty office and building. That’s not what makes a company, let alone a company culture. If I worked for IBM, I’ll bail out right now – don’t walk, RUN.
IBM deserves every vulture that will pick its stoic, corporate bones clean, period. They have it coming and have no one to blame but themselves.
Rock on, Cringe!
Can’t walk away. Have you seen the economy lately? I won’t leave until 1) I have a job offer from another company or 2) IBM lets me go. It’s painful right now, but leaving without a solid job offer or some severance pay is just not practical. Frankly, I’m expecting the axe to fall — I just don’t know when. I know I have dodged a few bullets in the last 2 years, but I’m running out of options…
LEAN as a methodology is probably good, but it has to be implemented in a sane fashion. Letting go the people with the KNOWLEDGE to help you achieve the goals of LEAN, BEFORE you reach those goals, sets you back horribly.
I used to put the blame on the ‘bean counters’ for the many resource actions — but you put a name and face on it, Bob.
You got it, CHris. Big Blue has us over a barrel because of this economy. If it ever improves, the exodus will be massive.
If the goal is to replace expensive American workers, why not replace the board and 1000 of IBM’s highest paid VPs? Certainly there must be a cheaper Indian management team willing to run IBM. Could they do any worse than the current IBM management?
nice 😉
I think you meant that as a joke, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Indians are going to figure out that they can do this better and cheaper than Americans, and they’re going to start their own companies to compete with IBM and other American tech giants.
If they were capable of that, they would have already. You see, they have this 1.3 billion person market. Much larger than the US. They *could* have built their systems companies to serve their own market. But they didn’t. The reason: what they offer is cheap, not better.
India has 1.3 billion people however 1.15 of them live in total poverty by world standards. Not a good client base for life sustaining products – forget technical products. They also suffer from a segregation Americans would find appalling if we bothered to look. Instead we look at the caste system as something “quaint” almost romantic. Imagine you were destined to poverty because you were born in it and it is god’s will.
I do not know of any American that looks at India’s cast system as “cute” or any fashion of a positive light. Regardless, your straw man response serves little, if anything, to the actual conversation at hand.
The poster you responded to is exactly right. If these countries were capable of producing what we currently can, then they would have and surpassed us. Look at Walmart to realise that Americans do not care about quality, all they want is cheap junk. These countries are chosen for outsourcing, because they’re the cheapest in the industry for providing comparable products. Comparable in the sense that a horse and carriage provides the same function as a car, but for various reasons, most would agree its inferior to a car.
Either two things will occur in this country: either we’ll remain stagnant until such time we become replaced by the likes of India and China or our current big corporations will crumble, making way for American corporations that take advantage of the knowledgeable, hard working people of this country.
Oh, but they have. Tata Consultancy, for instance, has taken over entire corporate IT departments. The firm I work for has had the last three CIOs, curiously, from former VPs at Tata. Guess who does the support with H1Bs and offshores? Last year, the 2009 goal of IT was to be the cheapest provider of IT services in the country, and that was a bragging point to the rest of the brass.
IBM has the server farms. I suppose the vaunted inviolate family time of offshore workers doesn’t allow for all those overnight callouts.
“Proved innocent”? Last I checked, the American justice system still worked on a presumption of someone being innocent until the are “proved guilty”….
Bob. Please let the jury establish this fellow’s guilt. Don’t regress to
France’s legal system.
IBM? What’s an IBM?
Weren’t they relevant, like, 20 years ago? Everyone remember the “IBM PC”? Bwaahh hah hah hah…
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Normally I don’t resort to ad hominem, but this guy (in the picture) even looks like a jerk.
> Normally I don’t resort to ad hominem
Your normal practice is a good one; you should have kept to it.
Depends upon how you count relevance, they were a $103bn company last year, by far the largest in the IT sector.
Just to play devil’s advocate here, the directors of a company have a duty to look out for the interests of the company’s shareholders. Companies are in business for their shareholders. If outsourcing increases shareholder value, then would it not be unethical not to do it? Who owns the company anyway, the workers or the shareholders (these categories are not mutually exclusive)? But insider trading, the other point in this post, would be breaching that duty to shareholders, so yeah, throw the book at him if he’s guilty.
“Companies are in business for their shareholders.” What an old fashioned, out of date view!
Neither companies nor shareholders have a god given right to make money in a civilised society. They do it on sufferance. In order to be allowed this privilege they have to do a few more important things first. These include producing a useful product, supporting the workforce which creates it and showing respect to their customers. Any company which does not adhere to the highest ethical standards deserves to loose the privilege of being allowed to make money in the first place.
“Neither companies nor shareholders have a god given right to make money in a civilised society.”
While I don’t believe every company will make money in an open economy, I believe every company has the right to possibly make money. I also do believe that companies have a responsibility to make money for their shareholders. There are many other responsibilities companies have but to deny the responsibility of companies to report to their shareholders would go against every business principal I’ve ever heard/read.
If the shareholders in a company do not make a profit there will soon be no shareholders which results in no company.
Wrong. The shareholders are just third party gamblers. Shareholders, save those who bought a public offering, have put *nothing* of value into the company. Bondholders are different.
Thanks for contributing the voice of common sense. Too bad you felt you had to preface your remarks with the “devil’s advocate” apology. This discussion reminds me of my mid-1960’s Economics 101 course.
uh, you only took the required MBA classes, then, right? they HAVE to be teaching a hidden curriculum, there are so many incompetent board members who are barely even head-nodding yes men. fly in for the meeting, pocket the check, and maybe wander back in the room after the first break if there’s any goodies left. what a country! in Russia, the board votes you. here, it appears, you can vote the board and they don’t care.
If there were a lot of evidence that outsourcing actually increases long-term shareholder value, maybe you’d have a point. However, a lot of it seems to provide short-term improvements on the cost side of things, while destroying long-term capacity.
A lot of executives are fine with that, because their compensation incentives are relatively short term, and they’re not going to be at the company forever anyhow.
This is a point Bob has made previously with the MBA-driven destruction of corporate R&D departments. But you can see similar problems with quick wins causing sustained losses in many sectors. The NYT article on Sealy is a great example. So too with our multiple economic problems in real estate lending, personal lending, financial trading, and ratings agencies.
Words cannot possibly express how thrilled I am to see Bob Moffat get his sorry backside in the Federal court ringer. He has been personally responsible for most of the cutting of US jobs, the anorexic cost cutting and the policy of disrespect of enmployees. A ruthless, arrogant and self-serving jerk.
There were at least two sites where employees cheered the news. Hey Bob Moffat – to use one of your own quotes – “if you want loyalty, get a dog”.
The question is how many more IBM senior execs do the same as Mr. Moffat.
I agree someone has to stop the greed and the moving of jobs to cheaper destinations. It is a sad world we live in. I hope he is fired and not allowed to retire with benefits ….
It’s our own fault. First we trained them with advanced degrees from our universities.
Then we gave them the f-in internet.
They’re Walmart, we’re the overpriced mom and pop store in the middle of downtown. We are NEVER going to be able to compete on price. If you’re a programming god, you can compete on quality. Or if you’re a mere mortal and you know something really esoteric (like COBOL?), you’ll probably stay employed. But if you’re a Java, C++ or web programmer, you’d better hope the IT market grows fast enough to only deflate your wages at 5% a year.
Folks who pooh-pooh the growth and success of India and China by showing that 80-90% of their population is uneducated are ignoring one crucial fact: 10% of the population of India and Chine is greater than the population of the US. And I haven’t heard anyone come out and say that even 50% of the US workforce is highly qualified. Folks here better hope that India and China grow so fast they have fewer warm bodies to export to take our jobs. And kids in college, be prepared to move to Asia at least until the boomers can afford to retire.
Incidentally, how many of you folks complaining about IBM’s offshoring policies have bought a Chinese or Indian product in the past year?
First they came for the textile workers, and I didn’t speak because I was a COBOL programmer.
Then they came for the TV manufacturers, and I didn’t speak because I was a C programmer.
Then they came for the computer manufacturers and I didn’t speak because I was a Java programmer…Even if I have the timeline wrong, you see the point.
We didn’t buy American and defend our auto and steel workers starting back in the 1960’s.
We have reaped what we have sowed. Compete on quality and unique attributes. Don’t try to compete on price.
It seems the anti-terrorism fraud and money laundering investigations are working to snare more than just directly involved terrorists/criminals but also their support system of financial cash inflow.
Those who are just allegedly greedy also get snared.
According to ABC news Raj Rajaratnam is suspected to have given “$3.5 million to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), whose assets were frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department in Nov. 2007 because of its alleged ties to the Tamil Tigers.”
While the two investigation/cases are not directly related it would be interesting to see if one enlightens the other in terms of the contents of wiretaps etc. if this is possible and admissible in court.
I suspect that the others like Moffat simply got caught by following the money and listening to the wire-taps, supposedly a first time for a hedge fund case according to ABCnews.
I really hate to think about how the leads developed for the 262nd richest man in the USA, 2008, and to other sources the 559th richest man in the world to be caught up in this way.
Mr. Moffat in monetary terms is worth less, but has executive duties & control inside a huge company which has been vital to US national security and US banking over the years in terms of R&D, products and services. He is alleged to have traded on knowledge gained during the SUN negotiations.
Now given this is what an executive can do what are the professional moles, corporate/national spies stealing/trading today. Stupid or greedy executives have always been around eventually they screw up. It’s when the deeper mafias and spies strike deep the real hurt comes. They wipe out massive R&D investment instantly and destroy trust in companies.
And why no speculation that his was a political arrest by the Obama thugs? They’re the most ruthless bunch of NAZI’s going.
This one went completely over my head. How, exactly, would this be a political arrest? What would it accomplish?
Bob
Tax Evasion is a possible political motivation – its good to squash the Al Capones to restore public trust in the Gov.
Reining in corporate sharp business practices considered too sharp could be a political motivation. It keeps the lobbyists employed to make the laws more pro-business.
However if it is the Obama Administration or hold overs from prior ones are behind any motivation it is yet to be determined if at all.
The strangest part is that every time I run a google search for Moffat or his alleged co-conspirators the number of malware flagged sites that index them is increasing.
I wonder how many corporate exec types are going to get browsers hijacked and machines rooted when they are looking for information on this alleged crime.
Bob, you are right, this doesn’t make any sense. According to Wikipedia, Raj Rajaratnam gave $87,000 to the Obama campaign. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Rajaratnam#Contributions_to_Charitable_and_Political_Organizations
I also noticed that the date mentioned on one of the wiretaps intercepts is Aug. 22, 2008, which means the investigation started during the Bush administration. https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a01GJ_ryEtms
The American corporate model says that people are fungible. The Japanese and Korean models give workers tenure.
For decades the managerial class (for want of a better term) and it’s confederates in academia and the punditry have said that the Japanese model can’t endure. Sooner or later it will fail.
I know the topic is complicated and that there are a lot of externalities, but it appears to me that the American model is the one that more often fails.
I’d rather be a long term holder of Toyota or Honda stock than GM’s. Perhaps that’s a bad example, because of the autocracy in those industries between Labor and Management, except that all cars imported into the United States from overseas were made by a Union hand.
The Japanese model is not any better than the Western or specifically the American.
In fact, nearly 90% of workers say they don’t even know what “work-life balance” means, a government survey has found. And 4 out of 5 say they would cancel a date if asked by a superior to work overtime.
I’d rather not die of “karoshi” – death by work
As for tenure that is not something every Japanese worker gets I think that’s reserved for corporate white collar type work. Not everyone does that type of work.
I’d agree if you’d say American employees are dispensible. I think fungible is not the correct adjective. Americans still see individual value if they know their co-workers.
Owners/Managers certainly are not fungible as they trade on their unique ability/vision to guide a company or manage its affairs.
My local food store now has 4-6 lanes of automated checkout – the automation made the checkout clerk dispensable. If he was replaced by another human he would be just fungible.
IBM once had a strong union presence when it manufactured things – often with nasty chemicals and compounds – that needed a union to enforce good safe working conditions.
Now IBM doesn’t do so much directly anymore and if anything it is the professional associations that ought to have defended Programmers and Consultants from management’s poor practices.
Its really a shame the ACM and the PMI, the SANS security bodies, etc haven’t spoken out against IBM’s policies of internal resource actions aimed at hiring younger less experienced professionals and selling them to customers at the same rate as the experienced ones.
IBM services divisions tend to pack up and move the pro’s after the 1st year of a contract, then replace the with semi-pros in the 2nd and by the 3rd year utilize contractors in all possible ways, by the 4th+ your in a matrix of support which means the guy who’s caring for your system is working more than several accounts that day you just get this particular guy cause you were next in the global queue. I think IBM has shortened this cycle as well.
IBM was regarded in my generation as a top choice job for R&D. Today it is hoped IBM will just buy our company that I and others fast started with our new technology. We cache out and reform a new company with persons we know and trust. Then IBM system will gut our former tech and water it down and that tech will decay due to no one “owning” the ideas behind the tech in the Global company.
The open secret is that IBM now considers R&D purchasable, technology fungible and its workers dispensable. It has to — else no company will keep buying IBM. It is not so much a question if tech is dispensable nor indispensable. No one argues a business can deal without email. It is. “what is an email system of tomorrow,” that will aid my company produce/sell more things. If my IT vendor’s worker’s can’t, or aren’t allowed the time to learn the new system in order to support it they are dispensed with.
The dangerous idea is that many US tech companies are envious of IBM’s ability to reach fiscal targets and adopt the same means. This is very dangerous to both the US & Global economies.
I think that 4/5 applies in the US as well as Japan. I don’t know any co-workers that would the boss “no way I’m staying late – I’m off to dinner and a movie”.
I don’t mention this very often in my writing but I have worked as a consultant to Japanese companies since 1991 and before I had children I was in Tokyo at least once a month. Japan is a fascinating place and Japanese industry is amazing in its own right, but very little is as it seems to us in the west. This whole business of Japanese salarymen working themselves to death, for example, brings to mind two important points: 1) while salarymen spend a lot of time at work not all of that is labor and a fair amount involves drinking with the boss, and; 2) while the U.S. has 9 days of national holidays per year Japan has 23 — 23 days when nearly all businesses are CLOSED and nobody works, even those guys supposedly working themselves to death. Japanese workers take more paid days off than do American workers EVEN IF THE JAPANESE DON’T USE ANY OF THEIR VACATION TIME.
This guy, not to mention the entire senior executive lot, has been gutting the rank and file of IBM for years to pad the stock price. Now we see the rest of the story which just shows how far and illegally it has progressed. And Bob, you are right, the whole senior leadership is just plain ‘mean.’
This guy is gutless and will squeal on every other executive within two throws of himself, including Sam, to save his own arse. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of folks!
A rumor has been circulating for years about the deal Sam made with Moffat the Friday before Moffat was due to turn himself to federal court the next week. Sam allowed Moffat to retire immediately that day so Moffat was eligible to walk away with his executive retirement package,his stock options,executive retirement health benefits. If Moffat did not get this deal he stood to lose millions from IBM as a convicted criminal.
I have heard about this deal from several execs. In exchange for this benevolent gesture by Sam , the consensus was Moffat would take one for the team and not disclose other unethical behavior going on involving other top IBM execs at the same time. Again could still be a rumor just strange why Sam would approve the
retirement so quickly and right before Moffat was due to appear in Federal court.
Has anyone else heard this rumor
They know it won’t be too many years until the initials “IBM” won’t carry any clout. They’ll be acting on the short-term from here on out to slow the free-fall. IBM will keep a core of alpha-geniuses to guide the technology and use an army of foreign labor as a commodity.
It’s funny how they want to exploit the labor in countries where U.S. patents mean nothing.
When Moffat took over Global Services the hope was he would unlock the business. It had suffered from years of apathetic and dysfunctional leadership. Big investments were made for stupid things while important projects were not funded. Global Services never did the things needed to be more efficient. Mr. Moffat was a believed to be a good BUSINESS manager and he’d start running things like a good business. Or so we hoped. Instead as reported he led the effort to replace 10,000’s, perhaps a 100,000 or two of US workers with overseas workers.
For those left behind we’ve been left with a division that is even more dysfunctional than before. We hare having big time problems with many of our contracts, maybe more than half of them, maybe even more. It is not that our friends overseas can do the job or not. It is often not their fault. The problem is we’ve dumbed down the business. We have people doing deals who are making multi-million dollar technical decisions, who have no clue what they are doing. They sign the deal, collect their commission, move on to the next deal. Then people like me are brought in to clean up the mess.
IBM has this mindset that anyone should be able to do anything. This governs how Global Services is being managed. I don’t know if Moffat brought this to us, or if he turned it up 10 notches.
Thanks Bob.
Ha, you are spot on!!!! I get called in to sort out the mess too. The problem is it is getting to the point of being unrecoverable. We have dumbed down so far I am amazed companies outsource with us.
I second this. The sales team and sales architect will promise and sell the customer the moon, then out the door they go to the next fraudulent sale, and here we come to “deliver” it. It’s ridiculous the promises made that we have to keep, not to mention working with the folks overseas, who are knowledgeable in their little realm of expertise, but never seem to get the big picture. It tends to prolong efforts about 4X.
The problem with IBMs offshoring strategy is that IBM is not hiring quality people in those low-cost countries nor paying for top talent. Turnover is high, skills are low to non-existent, and experience is nil. All of which adversely and greatly effect the quality, timeliness and productivity of these global resources.
Poor quality, poor productivity and poor timeliness, combined with inmaturity and lack of discipline, mean delivery failures and not just a few. After many resource actions the remaining experienced professionals in high cost countries are subjected to near sweatshop conditions.
Like several other posters, I’m one of people that come in to pick up the pieces after global resources’ incompetence causes mishaps, crashes of other such failures.
The scary thing is that the global resources aren’t getting better – their skills aren’t improving, they still show poor ownership of issues, they make no effort to teach themselves skills and the maturity issues aren’t improving. They still can’t handle even the most routine and simple tasks without help. Meanwhile IBM continues to resource action the experts that keep the joint running.
The sad thing is that the global resources aren’t being held accountable for their failures, failures are always blame on their US counterparts. Who is Sam going to blame when there aren’t any US professionals left.
The question is how long will it be until the global resources teams can do an acceptable job of service delivery and product development. The follow-up question is whether IBM can survive long enough for the global resource teams to become effective.
IBM needs to consider that the bitterness of poor quality will linger in our clients’ shops long after the sweetness of meeting the quarter’s financial targets.
I’m not suprised to this at all. I left a year and a half ago after almost 6 years of no raises. I saw more and more people from India coming over and replacing people who had served our country, it was very dishearting to say the least. I was once proud to be part of this company, but the incompetant management, and the low morale from the treatment of some horrible managers to long time hard working employee’s was just unbelievable. So why is the Government giving IBM bailout money for outsourcing? No one understands that. Not long after I left, many had their pay cut, and to think I was just tired of no raises. Can you imagine hanging in there that long, no raises, and then have your pay cut? Many years ago, I had wonderful managers at IBM, but my last years, it was apparent that had other things in mind, they quit managing. There is so much to tell, but one thing for sure, the head, Sam P. only cares about the stocks, NOT EMPLOYEEs, please someone help the people that are left there.
I think its good decision that IBM is replacing expensive older American workers with younger and cheaper workers in India. It shows that IT is not just way of sharing information in world but it’s also the effective way of sharing wealth equally across the globe. The only problem I can see is work cultural aspect of USA (which is far better than India) & Brain drain problem which is making India less productive day by day.
Isn’t the plan to make all the money you can here for 15 years, then go back to Chennai and build an apartment building? What about the financial drain of the US? Oh yeah, I forgot, spread the wealth.
Its funny, I know several that had that plan, but 15 years later their kids are in school and they have grown accustomed to living in the US. And they are now worried about their jobs.
Bingo! That’s the truth! Imagine how it feels seeing what you (an early pioneer from India) helped build, get shifted to India. The ones saying “I’m an American” are really saying: I’ve been away so long and I’m too old to restart in India (and here). My children don’t even know Tamil/Telugu/Murati/etc. They may feel even more isolated than a 3rd generation Italian/German/Irish/etc.
The young hotshots in India/China/Brazil/etc. could care less. It’s their turn.
BTW The main point of Bob’s article is: Moffat === LEAN and the handwriting has been on the wall for YEARS! So if the charges prove true, then it follows the old rule of tyrannies: give the hatchet man a free hand…and then ditch him. So Sam P. wins after all!
I admire you, Bob, though sometimes I think some of what you write stinks (a little).
or maybe, bobby 🙂
having literate employees was a poor strategy
or strategery
or whatever you want to call it, in your country
[…] this perspective, I rather enjoyed this piece in I, Cringely about Senior IMB VP Bob Moffat’s recent arrest for insider trading. Cringely is guilty of […]
“So Moffat is guilty or he’s stupid, neither of which says much for IBM.”
If he’s anything like my former IBM manager and team lead, probably just not all that bright.
I joined IBM with such a high opinion of the company. I still think parts of IBM, such as developerWorks, are great. But I’ve never been so disappointed, overall, with an institution. Such insular, arrogant management with so little to be arrogant about.
“….it shows serious ethical and moral lapses at the very top of IBM”
Morals in the leadership of IBM?
You don’t need Bob Moffat as a poster child to make a case for immorality in the executive ranks of IBM.
How moral was it to strip away the promises of the pension plan and health care in retirement?
How moral was it to fire thousands of north americans an replace their jobs with “global resources”?
There is no morality, there is no soul, there is no heart in the leadership of IBM.
There is only the cold, dark eyes and deadly precision of the instincts of a Tiger Shark.
It’s just business.
I’m having trouble understanding why so many people think it’s morally wrong not to pay twice as much for IT work so that you can get it from Americans. What’s your problem with Indians? Why don’t you want the poorest people in the world to have an opportunity to improve their lives? Is it because you dread the thought of finding a new job if you get laid off? How many former IBM employees are unwillingly unemployed today? 5%? Less?
The fact of the matter is that American free enterprise has done more to improve the lives of people in foreign countries than any other force in history. It’s the same exact force that created all the wealth here, to which you feel so entitled.
LOL thats funny Mark.
Free enterprise! Hahahahahahaha.
I don’t have a problem with what they’re doing, it’s how they’re doing it. In principle, off-shoring the work that they can isn’t wrong. The wholesale shafting of their American and European employees is what I have a problem with. Rather than massive layoffs, they could be doing this by attrition, or looking to repurpose/retrain existing employees. I recognize they have an obligation to their shareholders. But they have some choices about how they fulfill them. And they way they’re doing it now shows a callous disregard for not only their employees, but their customers as well.
Gee, didn’t know that insider trading is considered part of ‘free enterprise.’ What’s going on today in IBM and much of corporate America isn’t free enterprise, it’s thieves looting the companies at the expense of the customers, employees and ultimately the stockholders when the hollowed out companies fail in the future after the rats desert with their huge pensions and bonuses.
And if American ‘free enterprise’ is so freaking wonderful why would you want to undermine it by shipping it all overseas? Or is it only suppose to benefit the American elite like this Moffat rat? The people who actually create the wealth are the people who actually work, not the scumbags like Moffat who only create wealth for themselves by legally and illegally stealing it from others.
I don’t think it is “morally” wrong for the execs to actively try to (legally!) screw over every client, vendor and employee they can. They get fired if they don’t. I could have worded that differently, but I’m a programmer, not a PR flack, however, I think that sums up the job duties of that class.
The problem really lies with Americans allowing this whole scam to go on. What difference does it make if a new TV is 25% less at Mal-Wart if you only make $7/hr instead of $20/hr, if you in fact have a job at all (fortunately, for me at least, I make a bit more than that, but I wonder sometimes “for how long?”). *We* need to demand that our elected reps serve *us* and tax the hell out of all this offshore / outsource / import garbage, so that it is a money losing proposition. Problem solved.
I don’t want to learn Chinese, and I don’t think they will sell us ammo should they need to “actively” take us over once the multi-national traitors, er, traders, are done “leading” this country down the tubes. This country used to make things, well, and be capable of defending itself.
Hi Mark, u r so smrt. u must hv a gud job wich cant be muved 2 a nother plac. good 4 yu. Walmart exec?
If you don’t get it, all of the errors in this post are intentional. Got that? I do know how to spell. Do your preferred service providers also know how to do so?
Gud luk.
it does not surprise me that he was caught as his image bled arrogance. What surprises me is that if he did it, he was so stupid.
I think it’s time to be clear about what it means to be an “American” company and enjoy the benefits of such. Tax breaks, military, governmental, and other support mechanisms all accrue to a select few while the great body of workers (Americans) get the shaft.
Not much different from HP, then
What about IBM’s vaulted Business Conduct Guidelines?
A few years ago I attended a charity event. At the event was a VP from IBM and a VP from one of IBM’s “partners.” The two VP’s had a good thing going. They would take turns taking the other on very posh junkets. The “partner” took the IBM VP to the Superbowl, the IBM’er took the “partner” to the US Open. I had just finished my annual signing of my Business Conduct Guidelines. It was clear IBM met “do what I say, not what I do.”
Did Mr. Moffat make business decisions to the detriment of the company for his own personal benefit? I have a very bad feeling about this.
Cringely, you sexy thang you. I love a good looking boy with brains.
I would hope that the SEC looks into the needless 2009 Resource Actions (at least at the level of 4,800 in Jan and another 4,300 in Feb). These people were FRONT OFFICE (many were pulled off of client accounts on which they were billing), SKILLED (highly skilled, as in consultants, engineers, project managers), and STRONG PERFORMERS (many were rated as 2’s and 2+’s… some of those rated as 3’s were arguably unjustly rated as such). The work was simply offshored for a temporary but significant stock price increase. What the SEC has to look at is the money, friend, and family trail back to those who knew how significant and pervasive the cuts would be in Q1.
The EEOC should investigate the documentation that IBM has provided on those Q1 9,000 cuts… the official documents show an overwhelming, and I mean OVERWHELMING, discrimination against workers aged 40 and above. I don’t care what explanation IBM has for the process – the end result is discriminatory.
[…] and life expectations as companies die, layoff, retreat, and outsource. Bob Cringely’s No Joy in Mudville exposes the seamier side of US corporati0ns and supposedly “good” companies like […]
Wait, Stop……… I must have missed it somewhere in the article or the comments………..
What’s missing here???? Oh yeah, Did no one notice that one of the McKinsey VIPs was pegged too? And for whispering the secrets from within AMD………….
Hmmmm, Moffat LEAN Moffat brought LEAN to IBM.. Hmmm Moffat LEAN LEAN is McKinsey. Hmmm that company had a VIP just arrested with Moffat……. Coindence?
Well, now that the caught a fish, let’s see if the feds can go back and get the rest of them. Here’s hoping Bob’s mentor and all their little minions are caught and gone. Lord knows, they’ve not had much of a public drubbing over their systematic raiding of the company over the past 5 or 6 years.
Didn’t the State of Indiana just kick IBM out last week? IBM has a huge, and well deserved customer drain at the moment. There is absolutely NO quality being delivered out of their outsourced support area, and there is every likelihood a great deal of their customer’s confidential data is leaking through the cracks. How these guys manage to stay in business with most of the world’s governments is a constant puzzle to me.
What? You haven’t heard of bribery?
If you don’t understand, ask a magician, they could explain the process ibm uses.
[…] No Joy in Mudville | I, Cringely 〈インサイダー取引摘発が IBM に与える影響〉 […]
[…] Arrested IBM exec Moffat was also responsible for outsourcing jobs to wherever was the cheapest, no matter who got fired or hurt. What a guy… […]
Dear IBM Mgmt — The following is why most of us chose to come to work for IBM. Today it is questionable if the company is living up to any of its principles. If these are no longer the principles of the company, please up date them.
1. Respect for the Individual
Our basic belief is respect for the individual, for each person’s rights and dignity. It follows from this principle that IBM should:
a. Help employees develop their potential and make the best use of their abilities.
b. Pay and promote on merit.
c. Maintain two-way communications between manager and employee, with opportunity for a fair hearing and equitable settlement of disagreements.
2. Service to the Customer
We are dedicated to giving our customers the best possible service. Our products and services bring profits only to the degree that they serve the customer and satisfy customer needs. This demands that we:
a. Know our customers’ needs, and help them anticipate future needs.
b. Help customers use our products and services in the best possible way.
c. Provide superior equipment maintenance and supporting services.
3. Excellence Must Be a Way of Life
We want IBM to be known for its excellence. Therefore, we believe that ever task, in every part of the business, should be performed in a superior manner and to the best of our ability. Nothing should be left to chance in our pursuit of excellence. For example, we must:
a. Lead in new developments.
b. Be aware of advances made by others, better them where we can, or be willing to adopt them whenever they fit our needs.
c. Produce quality products of the most advanced design and at the lowest possible cost.
4. Managers Must Lead Effectively
Our success depends on intelligent and aggressive management which is sensitive to the need for making, an enthusiastic partner of every individual in the organization. This requires that managers:
a. Provide the kind of leadership that will motivate employees to do their jobs in a superior way.
b. Meet frequently with all their people.
c. Have the courage to question decisions and policies; have the vision to see the needs of the Company as well as the operating unit and department.
d. Plan for the future by keeping an open mind to new ideas, whatever the source.
5. Obligations to Stockholders
IBM has obligations to its stockholders whose capital has created our jobs. These require us to:
a. Take care of the property our stockholders have entrusted to us.
b. Provide an attractive return on invested capital.
c. Exploit opportunities for continuing profitable growth.
6. Fair Deal for the Business Associate
We want to deal fairly and impartially with associates we do business with. Historically, this has meant our suppliers of goods and services. In the current environment, in addition to suppliers, we have a variety of joint ventures, research partners, and third-party channels of distribution, including independent dealers, VAD’S, VAR’S, and OEM contractors. Each of these is a “supplier” of resources, expertise, or technology that we need to move our business forward. And all of these relationships must be managed with the same care and the same ethical concern that we have traditionally pledged our suppliers. Specifically, we should:
a. Select business associates according to the quality of their products, services, or expertise, their general reliability, and competitiveness.
b. Recognize the legitimate interests of both the business associate and IBM when negotiating a contract; administer such contracts in good faith.
c. Avoid having business associates become unduly dependent on IBM.
7. IBM Should Be a Good Corporate Citizen
We accept our responsibilities as a corporate citizen in community, national and world affairs; we serve our interests best when we serve the public interest. We believe that the immediate and long-term public interest is best served by a system of competing enterprises. Therefore, we believe we should compete vigorously, but in a spirit of fair play, with respect for our competitors, and with respect for the law. In communities where IBM facilities are located, we do our utmost to help create an environment in which people want to work and live. We acknowledge our obligation as a business institution to help improve the quality of the society we are part of. In the conduct of all our business activities, IBM takes positive actions to insure equal opportunity to all, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age or sex-. It is also our policy to provide employment opportunities to qualified handicapped individuals, disabled veterans and veterans of the Vietnam-era. We want to be in the forefront of those companies which are working to make our world a better place.
You suggest that Managers Must Lead Effectively
Oh really? when did that suggestion take effect? Sometime between 1900 and 1978, I guess.
And, when did it become obsolete?
Notice that I do know the difference between effect and affect. Not that this matters.
Too bad IBM doesn’t “get it” any more. It used to be about acquiring the best talent and empowering them to do great things. Now it’s about creative accounting and the occasional buyout of a key competing technology. Best thing to do is track down the brilliant former IBM’ers and start buying from them…. They are the ones with the knowledge, and no longer under the master’s whip. Try https://www.ecomstation.com/ if you want some serious post-Microsoft technology.
IBM is mean. IBM wasn’t nice to me. Blah, Blah Blah.
IBM is a global company with global operations. It puts the work where it best suited. Fat, dumb, low-skilled, overpaid Americans with a massive sense of entitlement don’t rank well in the global marketplace. It’s just another sign of the end of the American empire.
And spare us the “IBM is about to collapse as layoffs will wreck contract performance!” junk that has been recycled regularly here since about 2003. Aside from whinging aforementioned fat, entitled Americans, there is no evidence. Anecdotes are not evidence, corporate results are, and IBM’s have been good for at least the last 5 years.
I don’t work for IBM, but the pathetic bleating from the ex-IBM worker bees is tiresome. There’s 400,000 IBM employees so it can’t be hard to find complainers. If you are so terrific, take your payout, and go get another job.
Wait until your employer kicks you in the head and endangers the financial well being of your home and family. Maybe you’ll feel differently.
IBM was different. While most companies treat its workers like mindless pawns, IBM chose to respect and value its workforce.
Forget the workers for a minute, there is a bigger issue. A company is as good as its word. If you agree to buy a product or service from a company, you expect to get what you bought. You expect to be treated fairly and honestly.
In most aspects of IBM’s business it is cutting its customers short. IBM is promising the world and delivering a lot less. They are not keeping their word, their commitment to their customers. IBM is not treating ANYONE fairly or honesty — its employees, its partners, its customers, …. THIS IS THE CORE OF THE PROBLEM.
I have watched scores of friends at IBM get laid off. I can deal with an economic downsizing of the company, making the necessary adjustments in response to business changes. I support 22 customers who believe they are getting 24×7 support with 30 minute response times. The truth is there is no one on staff providing this service. We miss over half of the problems and find out about them when the customer calls. It takes about an hour to get someone, usually overseas assigned to work the problem. They have never worked with the customer before, they know nothing about the customers applications, and they have never touched the customers systems before. When a customer pays for 24×7, 30 minute service it is usually because their applications are pretty important to their business and outages can be very expensive. When it takes us 2-4 hours, instead of 30 minutes to fix a problem; that is not good.
IBM made commitments to its customers. IBM is reneging on those commitments. IBM expects me to withhold the truth and give the customer the impression we are doing what we promised. IBM expects me to deliver service without the staff or tools, and to lie to my customers. If the customer discovers the truth I am the person IBM will sacrifice. I am the one who will suffer the consequences. I could lose my job and my livelihood while those who made the decision to cheat my customers are not held accountable.
The fact jobs are being off shored, and pay and benefits are being cut is just one SYMPTOM of a much bigger problem. If these things were being done to adjust to a changing business that would be understandable. What is really happening is a vast culture of deception by the senior management of one of the worlds largest companies.
Another worker drone claiming that a couple of SLA’s are the key to IBM’s business survival. It’s like the guy who attaches the 3rd nut on one of the rear door handles on the assembly line at Ford saying he “builds the cars”.
If IBM is such a bad place to work, you don’t have the tools and they are forcing you to lie, why are you still there? Stop the whinging, take your fabulous skills (that cannot be replaced by o/s workers…) and get another job.
Creative destruction has been going for centuries. It’s the foundation of USA success. But new businesses and new business models typically impacted poorer people. Now it’s impacting US white collar professonals, and apparently it’s the downfall of Western civilization.
Welcome to the global economy, and it’s downsides, where the rest of us have always been.
What is “whinging?”
Bob
It’s a tip-off the two of you didn’t study English on the same sign of the pond.
https://www.google.com/search?q=whinging
er, “side” of the pond. Oh crumbs, as they say.
Possibly what happens when you cop one in the nads…?
Come on Bob, use a dictionary or try that thing all the kids are on these days – the Interneat or whatever they call it.
‘Anecdotes are not evidence, corporate results are, and IBM’s have been good for at least the last 5 years.’
Yup, lower revenues are absolutely good evidence of strong performance. Because why would you want to grow revenues when you have a $90B opportunity to cut costs? Cutting costs is great; growing revenues would be really bad business. Right?
Revenue is lower (and profits are higher) because they sold off the PC business. Duh. That was a big revenue, low profit, commodity business. The price they got from Lenovo wasn’t great, but there is no way that that PC’s fit with the rest of the IBM business.
IBM HAS has grown revenues for the stuff that remains in it’s portfolio. That’s the point. Services, sw and hw have grown to easily fill the gap left by PC’s, at a much higher profit.
US citizens on IBM’s US payroll are about as valuable as New England textile mill workers in the 1970s. Their skills are irrelevant or less profitable or both. Back then, management moved the work down South to right-to-work states, later moving across the border to maquiladoras. Nowadays management moves the work directly overseas to Third World kleptocracies.
Whoever woulda thunk IBM’s technocrats were replaceable? Boomer management, that’s who: IBM’s technocrats are 2009’s equivalent to those under-skilled textile mill workers. Those underskilled or overpaid technocrats will get as much sympathy and solidarity for their plight as they showed decades earlier for the plight of … textile mill workers!
[…] I, Cringely: “I have no idea whether IBM senior vice-president Bob Moffat is guilty of insider trading or not, though that’s what he was arrested for yesterday. What I do know is that Moffat’s job since 2005 has been as the architect of IBM’s project called LEAN, which is intended to adjust Big Blue’s global labor force to maximize profitability. I’ve written quite a bit about LEAN, much to the consternation of IBM, characterizing it in large part as a way to replace expensive older American workers with younger and cheaper workers in India and Argentina while cleverly dodging U.S. age discrimination and possibly other civil rights laws. Whatever the legality of LEAN it is downright mean and shows little respect for the people who made IBM what it is today.” […]
Is it ironic that there is an IBM add over on the right?
Wall Street plays up the myth that public companies are managed for the benefit of their shareholders. The truth is each shareholder has such a small piece of ownership that management has all the power. They essentially run the business for their own enrichment. They set the compensation rules for themselves. They manage the books so their bonus targets are met. They use corporate money to elect politicians that enact laws favorable to them — and often harmful to the rest of us.
This cycle will never end until corporations lose the right to influence elections and legislation IN ANY WAY. The heart of this is supreme court decisions that gave corporations the same constitutional rights as living human beings.
[…] Senior VP accused of insider trading with a hedge fund ( https://www.cringely.com/2009/10/no-joy-in-mudville/). What makes this news interesting is that the accused person was groomed to be the new CEO and he […]
Cringely….you THE man! So many tech writers are in IBM’s pockets, the truth has a hard time coming to light. Shine on dude.
Give me a break! IBM is a great company! It has more Cisco-certified engineers than any company but Cisco! By Cringely’s measuring stick that must make it a success.
[…] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » No Joy in Mudville – Cringely on technology on Moffat (tags: ibm finance) […]
Moffat is gone:
https://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091030/BIZ/910309980
Interesting note on the silence of IBM again pops up.
IBM doesn’t speak about ex-employees
This year – I think – IBM outsource its employment and salary verification to Theworknumber. The account number is 13274 IBM Corporation. I hope IBM execs get a taste of how horrible this service is and how ethically distasteful it is. It really is wrong for a company to do this to all the voluntary separations (quit before fired) and resourced actioned ex-employees needing a job in a tough job market.
When I joined IBM US in 1978, IBM directly and indirectly told me I would never get rich on the salary they paid, but I would have job security as long as I didn’t do something very stupid, fully paid health care during my working and retirement days, a traditional pension that combined with Social Security would cover most of my retirement needs, paid vacation and holiday time, and access to other benefits and perks. I worked my rear off for IBM, putting aside family obligations, working crazy hours, putting up with alot of crap because I knew in the end it would be worth the trouble. Then in the late 1980’s IBM started to pull the carpet out from underneath our feet, health insurance became more and more the employees expense. Vacation time was cut. Creative scheduling by management reduced overtime pay. Pensions were frozen. Recently IBM payments into 401K’s were reduced. Training went from multi-week go away schools to best effort attempts by peers over the telephone combined with blurry internet video feeds. Healthcare in retirement was changed to a pot of unsecured money that might cover a year or two of health insurance provided directly thru IBM. IBM decided that those who worked from an office in their home (another IBM cost cutting move, less office building expense) would no longer be reimbursed for required internet connectivity. And those same home workers are discouraged from using BOND to order paper, ink and other everyday items at IBM expense. We trusted IBM to do the right thing. Instead we got the shaft. That is why so many USA IBM workers are pissed.
So this IBM wanker outsourced his cheating to Raj and got caught.
Haw haw.
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“So Moffat is guilty or he’s stupid, neither of which says much for IBM.”
Guilty, but probably stupid as well: http://nyti.ms/bD8RId
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