> It’s a blow to Dubuque and Columbia, cities that spent a combined $84 million on tax breaks and other incentives to lure Big Blue in the hopes of attracting other technology firms and incubating a startup scene.<p>Anyone who would pursue IBM in hopes of 'incubating a startup scene' is, not to put too fine a point on it, grossly incompetent.<p>> Instead, Ross found herself toiling on what she described as a new-age assembly line — each employee solving a narrowly focused part of a corporate customer’s technical problem and then passing the baton to the next person. As a result, said some of IBM’s Dubuque workers, they became experts only in a narrow set of skills that weren’t easily transferable.<p>That's exactly IBM's MO: try to solve problems with a smart process executed by low-skilled people. Never mind that a process can never execute judgement, and that low-skilled people executing a process never get the experience needed to develop their own judgement. Never mind that deep knowledge is necessary to solve complex problems.<p>From IBM's perspective, it's good to have low-skilled people who can't easily find jobs elsewhere: it means lower wages and less turnover (and when there <i>is</i> turnover, imparting a few low skills to new hires is easy!). Never mind that if other places wouldn't want to hire them, then one probably doesn't have a reason to hire them either. Never mind that if one's company is composed of low-skilled employees, then customers don't have much reason to use one's services.
I can't believe no one mentioned this gem:<p>"Grassley, a Republican, wrote to Rometty on April 16 to express concern about “reports of mass layoffs” even as IBM requested H-1B work visas to allow 5,800 foreign employees to be authorized to work for the company in the U.S."
'Spent' is an interesting word here, given that this was entirely done in tax breaks. It's not as if the state's coffers have $50m less than if they hadn't done this deal at all - in fact it was still likely a net + for them.<p>If they hadn't given the tax breaks then IBM wouldn't have come at all - bringing zero dollars with them. At least this way there are hundreds of people employed, land being rented, utilities being used etc.<p>Oh, and according to the article the tax breaks were suspended when the number of employees dropped too low - perhaps that minimum number could have been set higher?<p>Obviously this didn't turn out as well as the state wanted it to, but it's not like it actually cost them any real dollars in the long run...
"Instead, Ross found herself toiling on what she described as a new-age assembly line -- each employee solving a narrowly focused part of a corporate customer’s technical problem and then passing the baton to the next person."<p>Can anyone decipher the above and explain what kind of work IBM employees in these kinds of offices perform?
I live in Dubuque Iowa, and I'll say this, everyone knew IBM was only coming for a short period of time. This was expected from everyone here.<p>Dubuque has a long history of trying to lure people here, and it's horrible. First it was luring blacks from Chicago with free housing and prepaid credit cards to up the minority count so the city could qualify for grants. Then it was IBM.<p>Not much smart people here.
"<i>cloud computing, which allows IBM’s corporate customers to fix problems online rather than deal with human beings</i>"<p>That's a new definition of "cloud computing". And you'd think that Bloomberg would have figured it out by now, since the term has been around for years.
If city officials bothered with a little research (assuming they don't already know), they'd find several examples of Big Co. entering and leaving small cities and towns without creating economic value equivalent to the huge incentives used to lure them in. Very similar to how officials chase Olympic hosting bids, even when history clearly shows that the legacy is additional debt and underutilized facilities (e.g. purpose-built stadiums/villages that only get used during the occasion).<p>Everytime I read of such schemes, I can't help but wonder how much lasting value could have been created by using just a minute fraction of the money wasted to foster the local startup/small business scene instead.
It was basically just a call center with sys admins that would remote into servers and give them a kick when needed. Oh an a handful of developers. It was clear as day they weren't going to stick around, since the more interesting positions were being held in other IBM offices. It's a bit of a shame really, there's plenty of smart/technical kids from Dubuque, they just go to Des Moines and Cedar rapids to work at places like John Deere and Rockwell Collins -- because even with IBM, there was no reason to stay.
Still waiting for a state's voters to pass a ballot measure that constitutionally prohibits the state or any municipality within it from establishing preferential/discriminatory tax regimes. If you want to put this pandering to bed, it's surprisingly easy to do. Just be sure you're prepared for the corporate money flooding in from all points of the compass to defeat you with scare ads. Megalocorp knows it can't afford to let even one state do this; then their game will be up.
> “Four years is light years in technology,” [the local official] said.<p>I wonder whether the journalist purposely used this as the article's final sentence to demonstrate that politicians don't "get" science/technology... or maybe relating a length of time to a distance slipped past the writer and editor(s) as well.
Motorola basically did the same thing in a Northern Illinois community. I think the massive site stayed open a little more than a year. It still today remains a huge empty space sitting in the prairie some fifteen year on.
It's the same for small suppliers as well, not just locations, depending on large companies for business.<p>If the large company takes their business away, trauma normally ensues for the small supplier/location.<p>I worked for an oil major who wouldn't do business with small suppliers for this reason.
<i>incentives to lure Big Blue in the hopes of attracting other technology firms and incubating a startup scene</i><p>Based on unsatisfied ex-IBM employees? :-) they surely have the numbers.