July 10, 2010
I read a very interesting article titled "How to Make an American Job Before It's Too Late" and written by Andy Grove, Intel co-founder and CEO for many years.
I read and wanted to point you out a very interesting article titled "How to Make an American Job Before It's Too Late" and written by Andy Grove, Intel co-founder and CEO for many years.
The article is published on Bloomberg at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-01/how-to-make-an-american-job-before-it-s-too-late-andy-grove.html. It covers technical jobs in general, not only and specifically IT and computer programming, but it certainly applies. It is a long article, but well worth the read. Regardless what you think of his proposals to limit off-sourcing, the numbers he #34es are impressive (like the ratio of Apple employees and foreign workers making Apple computers).
In Italy the situation is not identical, but the trend is similar. There are big debates on the rules for applying a "Made in Italy" label on a product... that's designed in Italy but made in other countries... with the last few stitches (literally in case of fashion products) given in Italy after 99% of the work was done abroad. I don't think this is fare.
PS. I do have a few more Delphi / programming-oriented posts in line, this week has been quite messed up and I have limited connectivity and bandwidth during summer. But we'll get back to blogging some more...
posted by
marcocantu @ 6:32AM | 6 Comments
[0 Pending]
American Tech Jobs by Andy Grove
This trend is similar everywhere in Europe in
Software development. Europe is under mainenance and
not under rewrite. This is a little a result of
specialized jobs and the application of ideas forcing
efficency and forgetting effectiveness.
I have read a book in the mid 90s - the decline and
fall of the american programmer - think about it
whatever you think - without Y2K we would have
deserved exactly a similar situation in the US in the
90s and in Europe last decade.
Why are the eastern countries so effective. They
don't care about a specific niche to server the next
years. The approach is simpler - there is IT and
despite of hardware, software or whatever develop it.
The moment you do it the moment you win, because
opportunities arise this way.
This is just my opinion.
Comment by Michael Thuma on July 10, 16:28
American Tech Jobs by Andy Grove
One Point to add ... sucessfull application of Scrum
can lead to better result with less ressources (a
fraction) maybe with 20% overtime - which is imho no
disadvantage - just normal.
I mention here fraction - yes it is definitly a
fraction but no one can tell if it is half the
ressources planned or a fifth part or whatever.
However we see this, believe it or not, shows that
the best talent defined - most specialized person for
a job seems not the be the real McCoy in general.
Europse or the western world does not have less
developers - their potential is abused, wasted and
bound in the wrong jobs.
One thing my old prof at the university told me and
what he said I have observed very often - the moment
methodologists have no idea any more how to improve,
software development as well as maintenance processes
are defined as business processes and key figures
rule the decisions - does this remind us of
something? - yes we are at this point - there is a
simple rule - with this workflow (in this decade
starting with the last BPR is got reintroduced
following the same old ideas but sold as "SOA") have
their nth 1,5 year revival. This slows down
development.
One of the key factors is to seperate the work form
budgets. This definitly goes wrong. The moment an
organization has to care a lot how to invoice the
hours than how to improve the product and the value
generating processes the decline is on the way.
The bigger picture is not a lot better. To few
products and to many "machines" serving the
production processes are built especially in Mid-
Europe.
Comment by Michael Thuma on July 11, 08:51
American Tech Jobs by Andy Grove
Good article and I generally agree with Andy Grove.
As a founder of a successful software company, I set
a policy that we would not off-shore our employees.
This has worked well for us over the past 12 years.
All of our engineering is here in the United States.
I however, strongly disagree with Andy on the trade
war/protectionism strategy he suggests. It is the
responsibility of US companies to find ways to sell
to a global market economy so that those Chinese
workers want to purchase American made products.
This is how we create new American jobs. Most US
companies are clueless in selling to a global market
and thereby limit their chances of competing
overseas. My company sold product in 56 countries
last year, and this allowed us to add more jobs here
domestically. It is time American companies wake up
and realize that we are now in a global market
economy and we need to outsmart the competition, not
insultate from it.
Comment by Allen Drennan
[http://www.nefsis.com]
on July 11, 14:51
American Tech Jobs by Andy Grove
Hi Marco,
I read that article last week and agreed much of what
Andy Grove wrote. I live in the USA and I believe we
need to keep work here...along with stop paying
people to sit at home, not work, pop out babies, and
grow fat.
Comment by Shane McNulty on July 12, 03:56
American Tech Jobs by Andy Grove
I believe Andy was agitating for crypto-protectionism
however facile his handwaving to the contrary.
Nevertheless, he paints a startling picture of a
nearly inevitable decline in the importance of the
United States.
What he fails to point out is the "manifest destiny"
of the United States, the myth underlying all his
other myths, that continues to live on. This myth
lives on in most countries that dream of their prior
glory days; be it the US, or Germany, or South Korea,
or Japan, or England.
The US is positioned better than almost anybody to
enjoy greater economic prosperity than ever, if it is
willing to let go of its idea that America is a
special case, in its global politics, economics and
foreign military policies, it must become a citizen of
the world, and voluntarily relinquish its self-taught
lesson that it is in control of the world. Andy is a
king of industry, and he's doing what kings do; he's
marshaling his invisible captains for a trade war we
hope never happens anywhere outside the back of a
napkin in a Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley.
Warren
Comment by Warren P. on July 13, 14:46
American Tech Jobs by Andy Grove
We need to keep tech jobs here in the USA and stop
outsourcing overseas!
Comment by Frank Jovine
[http://www.techjaws.com]
on July 25, 18:34
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