March 27, 2006 (Computerworld) If you want to keep yourself and your company competitive in an economy that's getting more global with every sunrise in the East, to what should you devote your energy? What causes or initiatives should you champion?
For far too long, far too many in the U.S. IT community have taken an approach that's disturbingly '90s-Microsoftesque: Rather than going head-to-head with your competitors with strength and confidence in the value of what you have to offer, you focus on peripheral measures aimed at eliminating your competitors so you don't have to deal with them.
For years that mind-set has pervaded our response to the competitive threat posed by foreign IT workers: We don't like having to compete with these people, so let's devote ourselves to making them just go away.
What a waste. What if all the energy that has been expended on restricting H-1B visas had instead been directed toward raising the value of what it is we have to contribute? Do we even know how to go about accomplishing the latter?
IT executives with successful global operations do. They know it's all about innovation.
I recently spoke with Larry Buettner, CIO at automotive fleet management services provider Wheels Inc., about the challenges he's confronting in synthesizing IT operations in 10 countries in Europe. Buettner, a 2006 Computerworld Premier 100 honoree, was reflecting on what it takes to be competitive in that kind of environment. Top of mind, he said, is this: "How do you continue to innovate in dealing with so many of the complexities of these different countries?" He's not worried about how to deprive anyone else of the opportunity to compete. He's focused on how to continue to innovate.
As cool as that is, it's one thing when one CIO and one company gets it. It's something else altogether when a large, high-profile organization of technology professionals gets it.
In case you missed it, Computerworld's Patrick Thibodeau reported last week that IEEE-USA has announced plans to create what it's calling an "Innovation Institute" as part of an ongoing program to provide advanced training to U.S. workers (see IEEE-USA plans 'Innovation Institute' to help keep jobs in U.S.). With a mission to keep U.S. employees competitive in the global technology job market, the institute is being aimed at high-potential students who can learn from one another, according to IEEE-USA President Ralph Wyndrum.
IEEE-USA, a longtime foe of H-1B visas, remains staunchly opposed to raising the current cap of 65,000. A bill being debated by the Senate Judiciary Committee that would raise the cap to 115,000 would only make "a bad situation worse," Wyndrum says.
Whether you agree with that assessment or not, you have to give Wyndrum and his organization credit for at least making some positive proposals beyond the knee-jerk rants that we typically hear from H-1B opponents when an increase to the cap is proposed.
Aside from creating the Innovation Institute, IEEE-USA has demonstrated that its opposition to H-1B visas is not driven by a strategy to deprive foreign workers of the opportunity to compete for technology jobs in the U.S. The organization's position is that a preferable course of action would be to make it easier for foreign workers to gain permanent residency in the U.S.
It's difficult not to respect that position. It's one that was eloquently articulated in a column written for Computerworld in November by Gerard A. Alphonse, the 2005 president of IEEE-USA and a fellow of the IEEE. Alphonse should know what he's talking about.
He emigrated here from Haiti.
Don Tennant is editor in chief of Computerworld. Contact him at don_tennant@computerworld.com.