IT Trends: "Intelligent Computing" is Greater Threat than Outsourcing
"'The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms.' That's really what outsourcing is," said Intel's CEO Craig Barrett recently in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. He was quoting a fortune cookie slogan which he feels sums up the whole issue very neatly.
Globalization has played its part. "The world's economy in the last 10 years has opened up," said Barrett, "and you've had a seminal event, of half the world's population joining the world's free economic system almost overnight, in the 1990s."
Like Intel, Barrett explains, "many companies are finding the bulk of their revenue comes outside the U.S., and you have to have resources outside the U.S. to support that." He adds that Intel, for about the last two decades, has had about 40 percent of its employees outside the United States.
Asked what the US can do to counter the consquences of globalization in terms of job losses to overseas, Barrett listed four calls to action. The education system is first and foremost, he said: "we need to fix the K-12 education system and have a higher influx of kids into college in the technical areas."
The second one is research and development, "because R&D is the seed corn for products and services of the future," said Barrett.
Spending on infrastructure is crucial too, he said - meaning not bridges or roads but communications infrastructure, information technology infrastructure:
"You know that the United States is a laggard in broadband. We're kind of a third-world country from a wireless standpoint."
The last thing is what Barrett called "the Hippocratic oath of 'Do no harm,' but not applying to doctors, applying to governments."
California, he said, is "a wonderful example of where government rules, regulations and policies are not only restrictive, but detrimental, in driving business away. Other countries are aggressively pursuing investment, much more than the United States."
Asked what advice he would give to his successor as CEO of Intel, Barrett, who is due to retire next year, said:
"I will tell my successor: 'Make sure you have a passion for the technology and the business, and make sure you try to translate that passion to your employees and the company as a whole.'
People do a good job when they love what they do. They do a good job when they really enjoy and believe in what they do. So, I would make sure that my successor has those characteristics. I would also tell my successor that you make sure that you work hard and play hard. Balance your personal life with your professional life, but do both at 200 miles an hour."
Barrett became Intel's fourth president in 1997 and CEO in 1998. He is set to retire in May.
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