IBM

You can work on leading-edge semiconductor technology without moving to the Left Coast. They have world-class technology and resources. You can work with some incredibly talented engineers. The SRDC (Semiconductor Research and Development Center) has development partnerships that allow you to work with engineers from the likes of AMD, Samsung, Chartered, Sony, Toshiba...

Takeaways:

• Cut and freeze the pension plan.
• Increased cost for medical benefits.
• Hardly any salary plan for years.
• Stock options for non-executives are a thing of the past.

The semiconductor division is too small a scale to ever make money. They enable IBM to make money on mainframe computers, but Microelectronics will never have the scale necessary to really compete with Intel or TSMC.

Recognize the damage to morale across the entire org that one layoff creates.

Decide if you are going to keep Microelectronics small and use it to enable sales of Mainframes, OR if you are going to grow it to a scale necessary to compete on price.

You cannot keep it small and expect it to be profitable.

If you want to limit the investment and keep Micro small, then decide on the level of loss you will accept and manage to that level.