Comments on: IBM to start-up: Industry vet responds to recession

LogLogic's Patricia Sueltz heard a clear message about the economy from investors. But she already knows a thing or two about navigating through tough times.

[inachu]

The beginning process of outsourcing is always good or great but when you start to farm out the entire oursourcing process and expand the main ideas to basically the entire job force of middle class america this will only bring about a new super elite and lower poorer class so that we in USA emulate that of other countries. Making the dollar hold less and less value to the value now of even less than that of junk bond status. The USA ecnomy will never ever recover from this and that is the goal of NAFTA and the formation of the NEW WORLD ORDER.

[Penguinisto]

OAMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! AIIIIIEEEEEEEE!

Whatever.

The PC market is saturated - it doesn't take a genius to figure out why they don't sell so hot when most First-Worlders own one these days.

The OS is a commodity. BFD.

Venture Capitalists are finally realizing that maybe they should get some value for their money. Kind of a shock, but a welcome one.

Lookit - this go 'round, someone who knows what they're doing in this biz can do well. Unlike the original dot-bust (where literally millions of new but wannabe IT workers were faced with a cold reality) there's no real shortage of open positions these days. I still find myself fending off headhunters... and I'm sure I'm not the only one. There's more than plenty of opportunity if you know where to look.

Sure - it sucks if you're wanting to make a million bucks off of a silly idea, but if you have something solid? You're still in luck. The cost-of-entry is still pretty damned low, and with a bit of ingenuity and a lot of work, you can get there from here.

@inachu: take the tinfoil hat off, please.

/P

[twitter_1963]

Personally, we should scrap NASDAQ as I believe all businesses are the same!

[Perk_Anonymous]

Whew! glad I didn't join LogLogic, I did apply (what was I thinking?).

Looks like I would soon unemployed (maybe not as I am a development system/test automator, I do the equivalent work of dozens of development and QA workers), if I had gone through an interview process and been an unfortunate hiree!

Fortunately the company I am at, and have been with for more than a decade, is going strong, with constant growth.

IBM did do a huge layoff in the 90's, and then when the economy picked up, IBM started clamoring to get those employees back (HA! HA!). IBM's growth lagged for quite a long time after the layoff, it wasn't the layoff that cured IBM, it was the acquisition of talent from other companies that has led IBM's surge, and the occasional economic boom.

Looks, Sueltz, have you ever head of the HP-WAY? That's exactly what my company did during the DotCom recession, and since then we have enjoyed 5 years of constant profit growth.

Your little 150 person company will only get smaller if:

* customers can't get any knowledgeable and fluent support.
* When you have dozens of other companies competing with you on features, you will lose every sales battle, if you can't match them.

My company competes head-to-head with IBM in our space, we are ahead of the IBM in the magic Quadrant, we have beat IBM in sales growth in our area, need I say more?

IBM has committed billions to compete with us, they have acquired our competitors (again for billions), sorry IBM (and Mrs. Sueltz) nothing works like a loyal workforce (Employees who know they will be around after the release to face the real customer problems, work harder to eliminate those problems before they reach the customer), committed to improving the product, and giving the customer the best product possible.

[BMG4ME]

Well that's an interesting way to say Thanks to Lou Gerstner for the great opportunity of being a TA (which is something I aspire too at IBM) - by going and leaving to join a competitor!