Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Lots of noise that Invensys are considering / are shutting down some of their UK offices and relocating the work back to Paris - is anybody able to confirm this and if so which offices?

Sunday, March 14, 2010 - To the person asking for specifics:

There are lots of specifics, and gross violations of ethics, though this anonymous weblog is not the place to expose them. Those silly online ethics courses talked about how the appearance of an ethical violation is just as bad, but it is all do-what-I-say and not do-what-I-do here.

If any of this is true and a director has been covering for illegal acts, then it all becomes a federal felony and the SEC moves in. If someone reports it to the IRS for the hefty rewards they give for reporting tax cheats, there can be an IRS investigation, too. They can even gather the information without a warrant as part of an ongoing tax investigation and then turn over evidence of crimes to the SEC.

There is much could be done better here. Still, I like working here because of the products and many of the great people. I would like it better if the company ran cleaner and did all the ethical things they should. This is one of the typical problems with how things are run badly here.

Saturday, March 13, 2010 - RE: You should be WORKING, not whining on this Weblog:

The comment was "We all in Invensys ODC can access this site." and this does not mean that "We all in Invensys ODC do access this site." Nor does it mean "We all in Invensys ODC always access this site." Nor does it mean that "We all in Invensys ODC access this site from office network."

The person asking us to be "WORKING" assumed all the above illogical conditions. The worst thing is that he may be from ODC or Cognizant management, and this really worries us because in this case we are forced to ask ourselves that why are we working for such fools?

On the Other hand this guy can be one of the Invensys US guys preaching to us. In this case we wonder what happened to US intelligentsia? Have they all left Invensys already? Or are they so pissed that they don't want to represent their organization on this blog and so let the underprivileged talk instead!

Saturday, March 13, 2010 - Re: "We all in Invensys ODC can access this site.":

There is part of the root of the problem. You should be WORKING, not whining on this Weblog.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Complain, Complain: Why not actual information? What are the leaders doing wrong? What policies, actions, decisions do you disagree with? What should change? Name names, speak the truth, but please stop whining. Most of these posta look like they are from low-level people with no real clue to what is going on in the buisness, but are pissed off that they don't get more for themselves.

Friday, March 12, 2010 - Re: Wobbly heads and brown noses:

For my Indian colleague, the term "brown nose" has got nothing to do with the brown color of the skin. It has a very different connotation than you think, with NO cultural, regional, or racial significance. It is offensive only to the individual who places his nose in such a way as to potential get something brown upon it.

Here's the Answers.com definition of "brownnose":

To support slavishly every opinion or suggestion of a superior: bootlick, cringe, fawn, grovel, kowtow, slaver. Informal apple-polish, cotton. Slang suck up. Idioms: curry favor, dance attendance, kiss someone's feet, lick someone's boots.

Thursday, March 11, 2010 - Re: Wobbly heads and brown noses:

Please don't use remarks that hurt sentiments of a community/gender/race etc. If some one, or a group of people are incompetent, say it loud. People who fall under same group support your argument professionally. For example, Sudipta being Indian-born doesn't automatically get support from all Indian-born in Invensys. In fact >90% may not like him, as like in any other groups. I request you to criticize people based on thier actions, not on any other criteria.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Invensys has got all its prioities mixed up and messed up. You look at any of the geographical regions and you have individuals ruining the organization with their own notions of how to run a company.

And there are a whole bunch of freeloaders with wobbly heads which go up and down in agreement whenever the boss says something, and they get promoted. Needless to say these freeloaders would not know the difference between Foxboro and Triconex and Wonderware, but would still decide how these should be sold and serviced.

Man, it's a crazy orzanization, with brown nosers getting promoted and good guys being thrown out. You can even go so far as to say that all the guys at the top now are pretty much there because they have wobbly heads and brown noses. I know of one brown noser who has hardly ever seen the inside of any customer's office and has seen business deteriorate under his stewardship; but his wobbly head keeps him afloat and even gives him promotions.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

I am interested to know how the Middle East operation can be streamlined. There's a whole bunch of major projects happening out there and we seem to lag way behind the competition.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The CEO of IOM communicated that the global sales operations leadership function would be disbursed among a variety of other VP’s within the organization, Finance and Portfolio taking on most of the functionality. I addition,Sudipta communicated that he would be going outside of the company to hire a leader that understood “Value Selling”. Apparently he doesn’t think any of the sales leadership in this company understands Value-Selling and hence he needs to go outside and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire someone that can teach the sales organization how to sell.

Sort of reminds me of the last Global VP of Sales at IPS, when he told the global sales organization they were all incompetent. This is coming from a guy that has been in supply-chain his entire career. I’d like to know what Sudipta agreed to buy from any partner in his career that was based on “Value Selling”. In typical fashion we will have to wait another 18 months for Sudipta to get his package and depart the organization, only to have another leader come in to the business to tell everyone they have no clue what they are doing. At some point we need to wake up and see, it isn’t that the employees do not what they are doing. It is the leader that doesn’t know.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

We all in Invensys ODC can access this site.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Hey, does anyone else have trouble accessing this Invensys weblog site from within the company network? Hmm.....

Friday, February 26, 2010

Yes, Pankaj's impact on Wonderware and its brand goes back many, many years, but realize that he has had joint development responsibility for the former Simsci and Foxboro now for a couple of years as well. His biggest failings were in expending massive amounts of money and resource on that white elephant known as Archestra, which was obsolete and underdesigned almost from its inception. A reasonable ROI on those investments will never be realized. It is not possible. He also failed to recognize the importance of adjacent areas beyond HMI and control and did everything he could to suppress progress - and people - in those areas. It pains me to think what he has done to us on the MES team.

He does not deal well with those who do not agree with his world view. The net result is that the combined IOM remains mostly the same company with the same solution set it had 10 or 15 years ago, with only a few small exceptions. Quite depressing, actually, since we seemt to have no shortage of ideas and talent.

Sudipta has some good plans and understands what customers need now and moving ahead. He has shown a willingness to listen and to refine his views based on our input. Now he only needs to jettison one of the key weights holding him back. If he does this, we all need to get behind him 110% to show our support.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Most of the people who blame Pankaj are Wonderware folks. SimSci and Foxboro had gone through the pains of re-organization well before Pankaj and Sudipta were in charge of the place. Pankaj hadn't allowed it to happen as non-executive manager. He is no longer able to that anymore. Funniest thing is, those who protected them all these years are getting blamed for actions (retrenchments in Wonderware) he isn't taking. Cognizant is handpicked by Ulf and the Board; blaming Sudipta or Pankaj will not help.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

I would also be glad to see Sudipta succeed. I have many doubts that he can do it if he cannot see the continuing damage that Pankaj and his pets have done to the people and products here at Wonderware.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

What exactly has Pankaj done? Who has he driven out? Greater details will help us assess the value of these comments. It sounds like a bit of whining. But maybe there is truth as well.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

+1 on giving Sudipta a chance if he can show leadership by making a change in development. I hope and pray every day that I see that e-mail announcement come through in my inbox. There will be dancing in the hall ways! Followed by new found energy, excitement and hard work.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Regarding executive changes, personally, I would like to give Sudipta a chance. At least he has some modern ideas and seems passionate about growing IOM. As for Pankaj, I have no such patience. His time has come and gone, and he forced out some people who could have really made things better. The real test for Sudipta is whether he has the leadership to make this change and if he can do it before irreparable damage is done. If he doesn't act soon, he will lose support from many of us.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - RE: Most of the Project Managers at IDC/ODC are good in people management only.

Small corrections needed:

1. They are neither good at people management nor at project management. We (Invensys) realized this at last, and started doing project management from the US.
2. They (Project Managers) cannot clear even a single simple technical doubt: Nay, project managers need not but Dev. managers and leads should be able to. We have now realized that some of the Dev. managers and leads at ODC cannot do this even. Consequently, it is best to do the dev. management from Invensys

Monday, February 22, 2010

I don't know any of the names being mentioned/blamed in recent posts. I left Foxboro almost ten years ago. The death spiral started then or even before then. They had a world beater product... the 200 Series I/A DIN rail mounted I/O. It had everyone else beat by years. Engineering did its job, but someone in the upper echelon took a dislike to the head honcho involved in its creation and drove him out of the company and sabatoged the product launch. I didn't like him too much myself, but he delivered what should have put Delta V out of business.

Monday, February 22, 2010 - RE: "The Invensys board and senior executives, acting in the best interests of shareholders, should do what is right":

Does any one believe that Invensys senior executives have the vision to do what is right? From couple of years this big question is lingering in the brains of every employee of Invensys.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Most of the Project Managers at IDC/ODC are good in people management only. They cannot clear even a single simple technical doubt. They come to office to enjoy tea with puff and then start ICICI direct at 10:00AM. According to them a project manager should be able to handle the project, technical skill are not necessary. IDC/ODC needs technical managers, not project managers. They neither manage a project nor help people technically. Most of them are ethernet cards without MAC address.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Stan, while I respect your attempt to find something positive, the reality is that perhaps the only way to get rid of the aptly described "toxic management" is to see a downturn in business as customers question the viability and direction. There sure doesn't seem to be any other way. We are collectively powerless, as this is no democracy, nor should it be. What should happen, however, is that the Invensys board and senior executives, acting in the best interests of shareholders, should do what is right and make the necessary changes.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Stan, I also couldn't agree more. Having left Invensys several years ago, the only reason I read this weblog is to reassure myself that I made the right decision. Invensys had the opportunity of becoming the Global Automation leader with Brands such as Foxboro I/A or M&I, Triconex, Wonderware & others. Instead, I don't think they even rank in the top 5 anymore. It is really a shame that the senior managers could not have this vision and put good people in place that understood what needed to be done to achieve this.

Look at the top management at Yokogawa, Honeywell, Emerson, Rockwell etc. etc. and you will find excellent people who left in disgust, or were driven out by incompetence. I myself would consider returning and have been approached on numerous occasions to do so. Unfortunately, Invensys is not a healthy company, nor do they supply a healthy environment to work in. The passion that we all had for the products and services produced by Invensys has left. This weblog enables those who really care to vent. I truly hope that management does read these posts and figures out that their most valuable resource is the passion that their people have for this company. If they don't, Invensys will surely cease to exist.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

When I first discovered this blog, it made me feel a lot better because I realized I was not the only person seeing these things. It has also been good for comparing notes. The halls are not a good place to start a conversation like "Do you think Pankaj is a complete idiot or has he shown signs of consciousness?" for anyone who doesn't want to be unemployed soon.

I hope that news of the low esteem Pankaj is held in will filter up to someone who cares and also has a spine and that he will be put under close examination. I don't think it's likely, but I am hopeful that there is still someone competent in management who recognizes a true pointy-haired boss when he sees one.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Stan, this is a very good post. Too much negativity only breeds more negativity, it is true. But it is also true that there is no fixing most of these people. They have no reason to change. When you have incompetent directors covering up for their favorite managers and incompetent VPs covering up for their favorite directors, it only makes for a toxic work place. Having an art show is a fine idea which is worth trying, but it is also only rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

What keeps me here is that it is better than being unemployed while I look for another job elsewhere. I keep my head down and avoid the worst of them, but it is hard to be motivated when the beatings keep coming and people who have been there longer but aren't doing a good job get rewards and recognition.

Saturday, February 20, 2010 - Stan Abbot [sjabbot@juno.com]:

I'm a former long-term Invensys employee and had my own set of problems with the way things were done ... but ... is the stuff in this blog really helping anyone or making a difference? Do you folks really feel better after reading it?

• The management probably no longer looks at it (if they ever did).
• If customers look at it, they probably seriously consider no longer being customers.
• Having a place to air/discuss issues and pass information is a good thing ... but this blog contains pretty much only griping and grumbling and gloom.

How about looking to make a change in the areas that YOU can affect, as in "Think globally; act locally." Why not get together informally over coffee (or chai), agree on some basic issue statements (an important concept), and brainstorm some new and creative ideas for effecting change? The issues can be related to business but don't have to be e.g. "How can we put together an employee art show?" The feeling of having an effect, allbeit locally, will be uplifting.

And try to find some things that the company did RIGHT so you can pass along a word of encouragement.

Friday, February 19, 2010

People also throw stones at hornet's nests, stray dogs that look like they might bite without provocation, and bullies. Use enought stones and you can knock down the hornet's nest, chase the stray dog away, and convince the bully that there are painful consequences to bullying. IOM management is all three of these, but not a tree with fruit.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Now the Middle East region is running wihtout TSC nor MD - An organization of Delivery and 7 CSE's!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

There is an exodus from Invensys Middle East. The new President who comes from a consumer electronics background is firing people left, right and centre i.e. anybody who disagrees with him. Of the ones that are left there is a steady stream of resignations. The installed base will pull along the organization for a while but the future is absolutely bleak.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

No one throws stones at trees which have no fruits. Everyone throw stones at trees with fruits.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I do not know why people are writing such nonsense in these blogs. Such situations are happening everyday, everywhere and in every company in the world. Please stop such announcements. It is a fact that that any company does not see people productive, efficient and then definietly it has to rotate responsibilities. People migh see it as bad, but others would see it good for the company.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - Re: Any American drop out can ...

That's an honest confession. If college drop out can do, and if it costs more in America, why in America? Are we going towards socialism, protectionism blah blah. We Americans are the ones who wanted the free market world, which is helping our companies selling goods all over the world, bringing money into our economy.

Truthfully if we get right full share proportion to the market we have in America, that's good demand. What I mean is, if Invensys does 30% of it's total business out of America we should have 30% of the jobs. I think we do. If we want greater than our market share, then we are demanding jobs from other geographies. Will you support if a UK national rises to say that Invensys a British company should hire more of them than any one else?

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

So if we all generally seem to agree that Pankaj is the bottleneck for progress, why does not Sudipta agree? At some point, the buddy-factor needs to be overridden by personal survival, which we hope is soon. Sudipta probably thinks he gets honest feedback from low level employees, when in fact everyone is scared to death of telling the truth for fear of dismissal.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The work which gets from Invensys to either IDC/ODC is just manual work. Even any American college dropout can perform this type of work without any problem. But in America they are paid $ 5000 a month; in India it is peanuts. Much of the development work and important CR/CAR's are fixed at Invensys; only junk CR's are sent to ODC. Any new product to be released first time in the market, is tested at America only. Testing in India will be carried out with subsequent release only.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

It seems silly that Sudipta would have to protect his 'vision' against an Indian mafia. He is the head of the Indian mafia and all his little favorite people are Indian too. And if the best he can do is someone like Pankaj, then it is hardly a vision worth supporting.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

News is that potential candidates (internal and external) to succeed Ulf are currently being vetted, with the heads of IOM and IRL under serious consideration.

Saturday, February 13, 2010 - Re: Americans developed process automation software....

No one is contradicting the fact that America had produced lot of innovation in 20th century. What we are talking is current scenario, not past glory. Arabs can also say when world was still battling for food they invented the number system which is foundation of modern day science (number system which we use today), Advancement of humanity happened in Africa, University system first developed in India. In fact Columbus discovered America while trying to get to India (that time, entire Europe wanted to trade with India).

Leave about the past glory; India is a third world developing country in reality, and that's the fact. However it nutures ambitions to prove itself, and having met great success in areas like IT, Steel etc. No one contradicts 19th century was Europe's, 20th century was America's, 21st century is definitely for Asia... and continues... Who knows 22nd century could be Africa/Latin America's.

Let us discuss current issues, or else let us go to the days of evolution where Africa is the place where first steps of human advancement happened which is basis for every thing we enjoy today.

Saturday, February 13, 2010 - RE: when they were kids in the school, Americans have developed Process Automation software and hardware.

Hey, my American friend, don't teach (talk) history. Be reasonable by speaking about the present and future. We (Americans) have our own (few hundred years old) and they have their own (few thousand years old) histories. Trust, it is our corporates greediness which is driving the jobs way from US.

Saturday, February 13, 2010 - RE: People at IDC, all biz-units, must realize...

My friend, IDC is past, ODC is present. Correct yourself first. Then don't brood over the past and be sensible in understanding the current scenario. If you have the guts, go and convince Invensys management that you don't need ODCs. We welcome and wish you "All the best"

Saturday, February 13, 2010 - RE: It is close to $3M.

Shame on IOM management to waste company's money like this. Invensys can post their own people at ODC DLF Hyderabad,who can definitely do a better job than the worthless onsite coordinators of Cognizant. Sure, this can cost us (Invensys) much less, ~$1M.

Saturday, February 13, 2010 - Re: Why are MBAs without any domain and product knowledge working as Onsite coordinators?

You should ask IOM development head why he needed MBAs/non-domains in development organization. During IDC days same management was very strict on domain experience. May be these management people are bought by Cognizant

Saturday, February 13, 2010

People at IDC, all biz-units, must realize that when they were kids in the school, Americans have developed Process Automation software and hardware. They should should know this, and then they should talk about theselves. They are dependant on Invensys not vice versa.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The role of the "onsite coordinator" would be a living hell. Imagine being ten thousand miles from home, teaching someone else everything you know, so that they can steal your job and that of your neighbors. No thanks.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Why are MBAs without any domain and product knowledge working as Onsite coordinators? They are both ineffective and way too goofy. I wonder if we can pick some experienced guys from India ODC or Invensys USA for this job. If we cannot, it would be better to drop these positions, as we can easily do better without them.

Friday, February 12, 2010 - Re: Sorry to say, but Sudipta does not have the backbone:

It isn't about backbone; it is about protecting the individuals that support his vision. He needs all the friends he can find at IOM. The India mafia has taken over IOM; you don't have to be talented, you just need to be from the right part of the world.

Friday, February 12, 2010 - RE: It is a well known fact that Invensys management is wasting our hard earned money by keeping the useless onsite coordinators of Cognizant:

This is true to a large extent; guess what could be the order of our hard earned dollars getting wasted on these coordinators? It is close to $3M. What a shameless management we have at Invensys

Thursday, February 11, 2010 - RE: In fact we need to post some good people of Invensys at ODC DLF Hyderabad:

Yes, most of us at ODC fully agree with this suggestion. Invensys representatives who can guide us from requirements perspective and willing to be located at ODC are most wanted and welcomed than these useless onsite coordinators of Cognizant. In fact this was the original proposal per Invensys management at the time of transition. God knows what transpired afterwards, we got these onsite coordinators.

Thursday, February 11, 2010 - RE: Sorry to say, but Sudipta does not have the backbone:

Do not expect anything like this, both of them are holding their hands together. Moreover, Invensys can not expect the talent better than this at this juncture. Bear the burden or part away, at least others can enjoy

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - RE: O(I)DC managers to look for new jobs:

Yes bosses from Cognizant and/or Invensys, we are ready for the show, be prepared to face the challenge after our exit. Most of us are ready to get out of this sickening place and management attitude.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Sorry to say, but Sudipta does not have the backbone to fire the head of development, even though he knows it is the right thing to do. It will be more of the same for years to come until Ulf or someone else sees the light and forces his hand.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - RE: VP of Development to be released from his role:

Why just VP of Development? Our organization has many more heads like this. Do not expect any help from Sudipta either, he is busy in planning for another mess. Only right minded people, if any remain in Invensys, need to get-together quickly and throw these useless people and their strategies out of the company before it sinks in total.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - RE: ex-IDC managers:

Yes, it is a known secrete that few of the managers are like this, from IDC days. When this was pointed out even by Invensys US management, no action was taken against them. Not confident that either Cognizant will correct this type of issues as their on-site coordinators are much worse than these managers. It is a well known fact that Invensys management is wasting our hard earned money by keeping them onsite.

In fact we need to post some good people of Invensys at ODC DLF Hyderabad who can help the teams there on a regular basis and eliminate these worthless onsite coordinators of Cognizant. This would be a win-win strategy for both Cognizant and Invensys. Sudipta/Pankaj takeup this matter on war-footing and atleast this could help you to succeed in this endeavor.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Now I think it is right time for ex-IDC managers to look for new jobs. Most of the managers are not even aware of the product for which their group members sent abroad for training. It is very easy for team members to fool their managers and still it is very easy for managers to fool their group directors. Because managers/directors are not fully conversant with knowledge.

Monday, February 8, 2010

If the IOM development group is a "mockery and a fraud", then it is a direct reflection of its leadership. It is (long past) time for the VP of Development to be released from his role, and the company can move on in a positive direction. Sudipta, please help us.

Sunday, February 7, 2010 - RE: "Was shocked and surprised at a couple of the so-called "executives" Bhattacharya has brought in."

Sudipta offered the APAC chief position to this person in recognition to his services for Invensys-Cognizant deal (this person is consultant to Cognizant for the project EDGE) and to execute next one (moving the Invensys engineering groups to another OSP/Cognizant)

Friday, February 5, 2010

Few days back, the only managing director who achieved his target in IOM Middle East was fired, without mentionning a single reason. I hope the top management is still enjoying the Middle East collapse. Congratulations to all competitors.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

The IOM development group in Invensys is a big mockery and fraud now. Rather than giving correct inputs to the teams at ODC, their focus has shifted to finding faults, to cover-up their owns. Just remember, whether you fail or make ODC fail, the loser is always going to be INVENSYS

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - Re: "In reality, more resignations were expected from GSD based":

So you DO believe that domain knowledge is not necessary, and that developers for our systems can be picked up off the street. Good of you to clarify this for us all......

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - Re: 'Now ODC resignations started like bombs in GSD':

In reality, more resignations were expected from GSD based on the initial reactions from these employees when this engagement was announced. But not so. These numbers can be easily dealt with.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - RE: Domestic vehicle quality has definitely reached parity with Japanese manufacturers.

I don't want to take sides in the fight between the American Invensys team and Indian CTS team, but then I cannot resist commenting on CARS and cannot ignore such distortion of reality.

To be honest, I don't read the news to figure out what is the quality of a car. With my experience on multiple car models from different manufacturers, both in India and US, I'll rank them as follows:

2009 Customer Satisfaction Survey by the most acknowledged business magazine: Toyota comes first and not only in cars (First globally in any manufactured product), then we have Honda, then FAW (China), then Maruti (India), then BMW, and I don't remember where the GREAT American Belly-ups are in this list.

Mileage for same engine Capacity: Toyota scores best, then Honda, then Koreans and probably then the GREAT American Belly-ups.

Reliability: Any one who studied engineering will know that the less efficient an engine, the more heat it produces and so the more is the wear and tear. So I'll leave it to you to guess the rankings.

Engine refinement, Transmission smoothness, Consistency of Pick ups and ease of handling w.r.t revving/breaking: Toyota comes first, then the Honda. GM cars (Pontiac, Malibu) have inconsistent pickups. E.g You have to really slow a Malibu down before entering a parking lot, else you will hit something. You can drive a Toyota @ 30 miles into a crowded parking lot and park just right i.e. the place you want and the way u want. This is because a Toyota behaves exactly the same every time, even during sharp turns.

Usable interior Space divided by Car Size: Honda First, then Toyota, then Koreans and then probably every one else who can make a car and then finally the great american Belly ups.

Car Companies for Share holders in Last 2 years: Maruti (India) shares multiplied 4 times, FAW shares multiplied 3 times, Toyota doubled and GM and Chrysler Shares hit Absolute Zero (a decrease by infinite times).

Regarding the news about Pedal Sticking: Do we know 1 Toyota car that had this problem?? Also a problem in 1 Toyota car doesn't make all American cars better. When the Americans come back with cars that are more efficient, reliable and refined than the Japanese, their car companies will no longer be run by the govt and the unions but by investors and capitalists.

It will take America more than Obama's charming words or a Nobel prize to get out of this mess. So lets stop meaningless blogging and start working, because the world is catch up with us and not only in cars!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Full disclosure: I currently work for an IOM competitor. Recently I took a look at the new IOM website and happened upon the executive team listing. Was shocked and surprised at a couple of the so-called "executives" Bhattacharya has brought in. His buddy from Geometric is hardly prepared to run an operation like IOM's APAC organization, and the guy he brought in from ABB was the one responsible for its Skyva debacle. Who's minding the store there? Keep hiring these kind of "leaders"! We love it!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Now ODC resignations started like bombs in GSD, which was exactly forecasted when edge got operated. Senior person in PRO/II resigned. Can anybody dare to think to replace or recruit such a talent? Even a lot of others are just waiting their turn to leave GSD. One side it is enjoyment for the US staff because their jobs are secure; on other side their work load will be tremendously increasing soon because the best talent is leaving very soon, from especially GSD.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

My Reply to the blog stating Cognizant is paying up to 1 Lakh (100,000 Indian rupees) monthly salary for engineers with ONLY 1 year experience:

The information you got is totally wrong. A person with 1 year experience in Cognizant is getting paid around 3.2 - 3.4 Lakhs per Annum. which is equialent to 7200 USD per year, and 590$ per month. Even in India, where living costs are less (Not really), it is enough only to fill the stomach of the employee. Nothing more.

Friday, January 29, 2010

The last blogger is clearly stuck in the 1990's. Domestic vehicle quality has definitely reached parity with Japanese manufacturers. Or don't you read the news?

Thursday, January 28, 2010

FYI. I moved to one of the developing countries and do not work for Invensys anymore. I agree with reasoning of the post - why GE? Always my argument is that there is no dearth of human intellect anywhere. I respect US as a country where lot of great innovators are available. Having said that, there are enough people capable of doing same tasks in India and elsewhere. One should understand why they are cheap: they are cheap not because of low quality, but due to the low cost of living. I have seen many instances where people moved from US work for quarter the salary that they used to command in the US. These are people who had US education and had been sucessfull for years in US industry.

Also my other argument was, why not Invensys? If the entire competetion is doing that, and if Invensys don't do, that they may not survive.

Another reason I truly believe - why there is so much backlash in IT related stuff was the reason of unmatured outsourcing in US terms. Usually US companies innovate run through it for few decades, then outsource to elsewhere. A good example was ship-building, which peaked in US later in the 80's, moved Japan and currently happens in Korea. However, as IT related stuff doesn't require much infrastructure, it moved on quickly.

Regarding Cognizant hiring at very high salaries - that could not be true. The Indian market pays around US$ 10-15k per yr for one year experience, and Cognizant is not an exception.

Boeing and GM life cycles are longer; they started their R&D 4-5 yrs back, and have yet to see the results. Every one knows why Boeing got delayed, and the delay was much before the outsourcing boom. It's because of poor PM in that org. I am wise enough not to say that the US doesn't have a good PM. GM's failure is not doing manufacturing outsourcing. While rivals like Ford source components mostly from India, and Toyata gets from Japan, GM hadn't been able to move quickly, and so they paid the price.

Someone was debating about IP. Yes that's a debatable question when you are outsourcing to a third party.

I truly believe that the success of any entity depends on how it was built and managed. How well you attracted the best talent. The same is true with IDC.

My final words - let me end by saying that people had a perception that Japanesse cars were inferior to American ones in 80's, and now the most diehard American fans cannot say that. Japanese cars are better than American cars. I understand the pain it causes while technology moves away, impacting lives. But one cannot do anything except to be sympathetic. That's the charm, or the brutality, of global free markets.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

What a terribly uninformed comment regarding Boeing. There is no better example of why NOT to outsource than the Boeing 787 example!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Quoting names of companies doing R&D in India... Aren't Boeing years late with there 787...and haven't GM gone bankrupt?!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - To the person who blogged "Sunday, January 24, 2010" regarding all the "successful" companies doing R&D in India:

I'd like to Point Out that Honeywell and ABB may be currently enjoying success, but their reputations is getting as bad as their products. Microsoft is "Hit and Miss". I can't really speak of the other companies.

I'd also like to point out that the USA. was the first country to put a man on the moon, and lead the world in technology, medical research, automotive, computers, etc., long before India, China, Brazil, and other counties even had electricity, let alone modern capabilities. There are a few reasons for the decline, but without a doubt, the biggest is the offshoring of jobs. It's impossible to innovate and improve things when you no longer make things.

Lastly if you are so fond of other counties, perhaps you should go live in those countries. The USA (and for that matter Canada, UK, Australia and Japan) could do with one less person with such a defeatist attitude.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Heard from one of my off-shore India collegue that Cognizant in India is doing a "mass" hiring in major Indian "Tech" cities like Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc. It was alleged that Cognizant is paying up to 1 Laksh (100,000 Indian rupees) monthly salary, which today is equivalent to about US$ 2,150 for engineers with ONLY 1 year experience. It is quite a fair bit of money, to have with India's low cost of living.

If this is true, then I have doubts about the recruitment process of Cognizant in such mass recruitment scale. Going by such a recruitment method, I wonder how this will affect the quality of Cognizant work for Invensys in the long run?

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

To answer "why GE?" "why XXX?", one must first analyze the behavior of corporate leadership and what drives them.

Fundamentally, many US-based and global multinationals take a quarter-to-quarter, near term view of their strategic and operational planning. This is driven by their own compensation schemes, pressures from the capital markets, and by fundamental inabilities to think on a longer-term scale. Corporations in many of the emerging markets, notably those in the Far East, operate amidst different pressures and motivations and are able to think of much longer planning horizons, even multi-generationally at times.

The outsourcing/offshoring trend was and is driven largely by this short term operational mentality. Most of these corporations are mortgaging their futures to meet near term financial targets. They are losing critical intellectual property (you don't believe for a minute that Indian outsourcers don't indirectly sell what they learn at ABB to Honeywell, do you?), operational flexibility, and are taking the easy way out, but one that fattens the bonuses of the top executives.

There are a number of fantastic oppportunities and reasons to establish a multi-dimensional presence in emerging economies. However, short term cost management is the very worst reason of all, for all participants.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

I do not comment on the efficiency of IDC. Everyone has different perceptions based on which BU you worked for. I would wish that there was no dearth of talent in India; the results depends on how you build and manage. As said, one should not bother about the comments of people getting impacted and the same holds good for IDC folks reaction few months back. It should be the business interests, not any percieved opinions.

My only question is that if the entire bashing of high value creation at low cost is true, then how come most innovations are appearing with companies that are applying the above business model. To name a few: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Oracle, IBM etc. FYI Boeing, LHK, GM, GE are doing most of R&D in India. Don't tell me automation software is more complicated than Aeronautics, Operating systems. Even if you convince, then the next point is how come Honeywell and ABB, who operate in this space, are sucessfull with above model?

It is interesting to see comments coming from Wonderware guys, not from Foxboro or SimSci, where domain is nothing more than software engineering.

Saturday, January 23, 2010 - To the person who made the comment on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 about exploiting the cheap overseas labor as other so called successful companies:

I just got a job offer from a friend of mine to work with him at an OEM, as he is now the lead of the Automation group there. The company is now re-building its automation group after a failed attempt to offshore the automation and controls to India.

In this case it came down to logistics. Yes India has very bright and hard working people, and technologies have improved world wide communications. But it is still another country on a different time zone. Most clients want and appreciate face to face meeting and clear understanding of project scope, schedule, and challenges. You'll never get that when dealing with someone on the other side of the planet.

Now if your creating a product that requires little or no customization, you might get away with that doing it in another country (look at many of the bug free products from Microsoft). Otherwise you need local people that understand local requirements.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Folks, the problems with Invensys are a shortage of real strategic direction, and an utter and complete lack of execution. Ulf, Sudipta and crew simply haven't a clue. A Power point deck does not a strategy make.

It has been mentioned many times, but Sudipta's decision to bring along his band of merry men (mostly from Wonderware, and certainly short on cultural diversity) will be the death of the company. These guys are almost all lightweights and amateurs who haven't spent much time actually earning a living in 20 years, as they've been busy nursing off the teat of the cow in the Wonderware lobby. Most of them haven't the foggiest idea about the world outside. The inevitable outcome will be sad, yes, but predictable.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - Re: "exploiting what is called value-creation at lower cost"

Utter BS. We have seen "value-creation at lower cost" - it was called IDC. They weren't very good, but they were a lot cheaper on paper than the US developers. Invensys don't think about domain knowledge and they may never have. These products are hard to write and cannot be done by any old developer pulled in off the streets of Lake Forest, Foxboro or Hyderabad. The people who know how these systems work and can develop them are rare and expensive.

Management is trying to sell the company to whatever fool will buy it. At that time, the SOBs at the top will cash out with a happy smile and "I'm all right, Jack!" to the rest of us poor sods. There is no other explanation for such utter stupidity.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

I feel why Invensys isn't sucessfull is because they shy away from exploiting what is called value-creation at lower cost. Invensys is still trying to do more with region based, rather than exploiting the low cost engineering/ development. Meanwhile, competetion like HONEYWELL, ABB, Siemens, Emerson have tens of thousands working in low cost countries (India), but Invensys hardly have one eighth of them. Invensys should shed inhibitions and go ahead with what the market is doing, or the competetion is doing. They shouldn't be bothered about people that get impacted writing blogs about or preaching about 'their own percieved value' which isn't anymore than emotional comments. They should invest where business is growing (APAC).

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The current state of the business is best described with this quote: "The anguish of low quality lingers long after the sweetness of low cost is forgotten." This is true for all business units throughout Invensys.

All this cost saving plans (while demanding double digit growth) are done at the expense of the working base, who are still trying to serve the customers while working in survival mode. This will first come to an end, when the Top Level Management has sucked the very last penny out of the once successful companies.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Investors are more than likely factoring in rumours regarding the disposal of the rail group, and the resultant cash such a transaction would generate, rather than the upside potential of the company. This is a "book value" play, not a growth investment. The markets that Invensys serves may be expanding in the years ahead, but as the #7 or #8 player globally, they will be an afterthought, not a first choice as a supplier when compared to much larger, more well respected brands.

Were Invensys to have some unique product offerings, the situation might be different, but this is clearly not the case. The R&D pipeline is not primed with anything particularly interesting, either. The head of development has successfully killed off most of the high potential initiatives as they were not in alignment with his views or goals. Sad state of affairs, indeed.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The real effects of the IOM change won't come through the balance sheet for another year. What comes through immediately is the reduced head-count and contracting off the cost overheads (Development) so things look rosy. Watch in a year when there are no new products, no support for the existing products and no sales force able to sell the old products!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

On paper, the company looks strong at first glance. No debts, oceans of pounds in bank, and in an industry that has strong growth potential. What is not visible to casual investores is that morale is low, we are looking for other work, and the domain knowledge is streaming out the door to the competition. Most investors are fools and do not look further than the current balance sheet. The company has no good future but it's present is very bright. This won't last but it will last long enough to fool people who are easily fooled.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

When I read this blog and look at Invensys' stock performance, there isn't any correlation. The stock perfomance has been quite strong. So what is the flaw? There must be some good news to offset the facts described on this blog or folks are quite negative. Where is the truth? Are the Investors blind? Isn't Sir Nigel Rudd smart?

Saturday, January 16, 2010 - Regarding the last post:

I am an employee of Invensys Middle East and I agree completely. Everyone is taking it one day at a time and there is no motivation or any long term plan. Everybody is just thinking about the next commission or incentive he can make on orders / projects and looking at job opportunities with the competition.

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Invensys Middle East operations are in shambles. Morale is below zero and the management is a joke. Invensys is no longer even considered serious competition by Yokogawa, Honeywell, Emerson and ABB in the Middle East. Worse even the customers think that the Invensys Middle East team is a bunch of jokers floundering from one mismanaged disaster to another.

There are some proprietary jobs that are falling in their laps and these are highlighted as major achievements and crowed about to the powers that be who are absolutely cut off from reality. What else can you expect from a technical organization where the Finance Manager and the Supply Chain Manager call the shots?

Monday, January 11, 2010

I heard that ABB is doing well and have moved most of their America- Europe activities to India / China as well. Even during the most difficult times last year they have managed to do well. I am not sure whether they also have plans to hire people.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Most of the remaining people have seen the examples of their braver or incautious or naive friends who tried speaking up and are now gone. We're all just waiting for our job offers to come in and we'll leave. There isn't a good reason to speak up. No one in authority cares and the people sucking up to them at the next level are spineless sellouts.

What makes me sad is that after all these years of working here, this company is falling apart. We'll never get our company back from these jerks. Beatings will continue until morale improves.

Monday, January 11, 2010 - RE:On Mr. Bhattacharya's watch:

This is true to a large extent. Invensys, as a company, has ceased to exist in true spirit from a year or so. Just a few individuals are managing and manipulating the entire company and driving the company to crazy ends. Who is going to bell the cat?!

Monday, January 11, 2010

On Mr. Bhattacharya's watch, whilst the order book was slightly up, revenues fell and profits dropped nearly in half. Product innovation has also come to a virtual standstill, employee morale is near an all time low, buddy politics have returned to high levels, and customers have significant concern over the long term viability of their existing IOM solutions. Mr. Bhattacharya's response? To dust off the same tired ideas he espoused at SAP.

It is becoming more and more clear that shareholder value would be optimised by the near term disposal/sale of the remaining components of Invensys. If a reasonable offer for the rail group can be obtained from Alstom or others, it should be accepted. Similarly, the IOM group would fetch more value today than it will a year from now. There are a number of diversified companies in Europe, India, and China who would be able to leverage IOM's assets.

Mr. Henrikkson has overstayed his period of utility to the organisation, and rather than riding the curve back to the bottom again, he should, if for no other reason than personal gain, dispose of the assets of the company whilst they still have value.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

I see the shares have shot up, probably in response to Alstom declaring they want to buy Rail. No doubt this would be welcomed from Invensys corporate level. Better start learning French, guys!

Thursday, January 7, 2010 - RE: Once the job market revives, ODC Managers will have a hard time retaining the product knowledge.

Do not exclude managers - they are also eager to leave Cognizant and in-fact would like to be the first ones (but would be interesting to watch whether their wish can succeed). Their technical and managerial inabilities to lead teams has become an open secret in Cognizant and they are finding very hard to meet the SLAs and schedules. Added to their woes, their counterparts in Invensys are busy in making their ends meet by troubling the ODC employees. Which makes it obvious that it is not a partnership deal (as announced by Cognizant and Invensys) and but appears to be parting-away deal. ODC employees beware of the danger and be prepared.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

The dilution of domain knowledge isn't unique to ODC. It happened at Wonderware many years ago, mostly due to growth, not attrition. It was just difficult to find solid developers who also had domain knowledge. Only a handful remain.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The management does not understand that domain knowledge is what made this company so good, and why the company is failing now. We are all expected to know everything about a product or project after working with the code for a few weeks. Domain knowledge takes much more than that; but telling this to your team lead or project manager shows up on your performance review as having a poor work ethic and a negative attitude.

Honeywell knows the value of domain knowledge. It's why they have so many of our CVs now.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The funny part with ODC is that Cognizant is stressing on replacing domain guys that are leaving with computer science engineers, as they are cheaply available to this services company. We see ODC and Cognizant senior management downplaying the need for domain engineers. With management asking questions if we really need domain engineers and can other software engineers be trained to do our job, we wonder if the new business objectives of ODC will hold a promising future for us domain engineers.

This apprehension is fueling resignations, and while our cunning management is trying to do damage control by emphasizing the importance of domain experience, we see that they are in fact acting in opposite direction and most new hirings are not of domain engineers.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

It's now evident that Cognizant is finding it too difficult to retain the ODC employees. In Jan 2010, there have been 3 resignations in GSD, 4 in Wonderware and 3 in Foxboro. As per reports Honeywell(India) is sitting with 160 resumes from 0DC, but they are waiting for better market forces. Once the job market revives, ODC Managers will have a hard time retaining the product knowledge.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

I have heard from another exec that our leader in development has been given specific objectives that he must achieve in order to preserve his job. I hope they are measures like innovation, customer satisfaction, on time delivery and quality - not just cost.

Sunday, January 3, 2010 - Re "15 Signs your workplace is dysfunctional":

I think those of you who commentred on the comparison between their Invensys workplace and the 15 points of a dysfunctional workplace in this article got it WRONG. One person counted 12, and another counted 14. But I did it and got all 15. My surprise is that some parts of the group only rate 12 matches out of a possible 15.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

The current executive team thinks that "long term" means two quarters ahead. I'm sure no one has considered actually MEASURING the results of these initiatives, perhaps with the exception of Mr. Freburger. As stated other times on this blog, Mr. Mody could care less whether it works or doesn't work. If it works, he'll take credit; and if it doesn't, he'll blame it on being "told" to do it.

Sunday, January 3, 2010 - Regarding the outsourcing:

Excellent observation. There were plenty of "slides" pointing out the benefits (cost mostly) but no looking back to measure. I guess the inititaives were not very S.M.A.R.T..... This question should be answered.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Can anyone give me an update (factual vs original business case) of the following outsourcing initiatives:

1. R&D - Led by Mr. Mody;
2. Finance - Led by Mr. Alison;
3. HR - Led by Ms Larson;
4. Manufacturing - Led by Mr. Freburger.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

How can Matamoros be called a "Center of Excellence". They had no SMT and very little electronic manufacturing when the consolodation was announced. Their only qualifications for being the recieving plant for the consolidation was cheap labor and available floor space. All technical expertise had to be hired.

Saturday, January 2, 2010 - Re"15 Signs" article:

I looked it up and counted 14 out of 15 at IOM. I did not think of when it was a bad idea to put things in writing. I thought of examples of the other 14 though, so pretty bad.

Here is the link:

15 Signs Your Workplace is Dysfunctional

Friday, January 1, 2010

The description of the "untouchables" not being fired, even though they are the "responsibles", is no more obvious than at the top of development. What kind of voodoo does he have to keep Ulf and Sudipta convinced to keep him on?