As we hit our half-year mark, there have been some surprising movements in the regional IT industry: Adrian Jones, Ivo Totev, Michael Warren, Ivan Wen, just to name a few.
Reality is that tech MNCs in this region often have higher than realistic sales targets and market share expectations, that can occasionally wear the good man down (or force him out – whichever the earlier).
Having been an IT industry professional for a good many years, I know all too well about the unforgiving local IT landscape, and a dreaded quarterly phenomenon I have come to dub as “Heads on the Chopping Block.” And yes, the pun for Heads is so intended as top executives are sometimes made the scapegoat for poorer than expected performance.
Tech MNCs with tight quarterly budget controls, need a scapegoat whenever sales quotas aren’t met and literally, the regional heads are always in the firing line whenever sales comes up short.
This is different from “streamlining” efforts that an MNC sometimes undergoes – those kinds of firings can involve employees numbering hundreds to thousands, and that are usually undertaken at a global-wide level. Ultimately, the decision to fire thousands of workers, plays into some huge overall business strategy that is supposed to lead to business growth.
Quarterly “Heads on the Chopping Block” on the other hand, is a twisted version of musical chairs – qualified, experienced persons may be at one tech MNC one day, and then gone by the next quarter, to another tech MNC, all due to poor sales performance.
IT BYTES BACK! Says: Everything is about meeting budgets and sales quotas in APAC for tech MNCs. After a while, one can only look back at all the seemingly senseless, mindless ‘chop chops’ and wonder where this all is heading towards.
