Fujitsu says sayonara to UK exec heavyweights

The exit of three senior executives at the top of Fujitsu's Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) management stack has unsettled the workforce who are braced for yet more restructuring. Back in 2015, Fujitsu carved up the business based on four divisions: products; managed infrastructure; application services; and …

[Pascal Monett]

I wonder why

Why all the talk about who is chief honcho and who isn't any more?

CEOs come and go, and very, very little changes.

So they put in a new suit. What of it ? Why does it matter since the new emperor will do exactly what the old one did : obey the Board ?

[tony2heads]

Re: I wonder why

to quote The Who:

Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss

[DuchessofDukeStreet]

Hokey Cokey

Put your left arm in,

Your left arm out:

In, out, in, out.

Shake it all about.

You do the hokey cokey,

And you turn around.

That's what it's all about!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing to see, here please move along

From our side of things the redundancies were a disaster

All the dead wood was left in place because they were too expensive to make redundant, but newer (and usually younger) employees who were still enthusiastic and interested were pushed out the door (with the aid of competence assessments which were at best works of fiction.

Also the redundancy was under agenda 2020 and has not been completed yet.

[AlJahom]

Re: Nothing to see, here please move along

It was worse than that, because talented people who weren't at risk saw the writing on the wall and left too, as they didn't want to be the last willing and capable guy standing, holding up the tower of babel that was built as part of Agenda 2020.

Who, after all, would want to be the guy that has to look the anxious (rising angry) UK customer in the eye while grappling to get a designer in Russia, an Incident Manager in Portugal, a systems engineer in India and a hardware engineer in Germany - none of whom have any skin in the game - to co-operate on resolving an urgent issue?

If it's true that they are now turning back to a country model, then things are going to get worse still, because the in-country talent in the UK is now a shadow of what it was 3 years ago - and all the same overpaid numpties are still there, hiding out in the crevices marking time.

Still.... it's all very benign at FJ compared to recent times at the likes of IBM.

[RGE_Master]

Ultimately, i'm just pleased I didn't go for a role there :D

Contractors would be the first to go, a lot of them wouldn't be extended or offered a really poor permanent pay.

I've spoken to a number of people who worked there, none of them said anything that great tbh. Shame since it could be an incredible company.

[Anonymous Coward]

No Complaints !

I have worked for FJ since 98 in vaious roles and can honestly say that they are a very good company too work for. Yes the pay and rewards could be better, but never had issues with needing time off for the family or daft iinquisitions when back to work after sickness or unrealistic goals set during appraisals. I find staff up to local manager level are opena and willing to help anybody, regardless of what team your working for. Switching back to being UK rather than EMIA will be a benefit in my opinion. Yes heads may role, but I can see that vast majority bing further up the food chain, as engineering is just about managing with its workload.

[Mage]

ICL?

Is my memory working? Did the UK Fujitsu originate from their purchase of the ailing ICL? Sorry too lazy to look up wiki.

If so, it's been a gradual demise?

[AlJahom]

Re: ICL?

Correct. It's a bit of a curse. The people on old ICL contracts are incredibly expensive employees & the public sector mindset still beloved by many of them is a great source of frustration.

OTOH there are a few superstars in that cohort that are great to work with.

[Killing Time]

Re: ICL?

ICL effectively disappeared in the early to mid nineties as I recall. I left them in 96 and the transfer was pretty much done. Fujitsu already had an existing UK operation but also owned a significant share in ICL.

With few original products being produced any more, this resulted in ICL buying, badging and selling on Fujitsu kit to the point where it made little sense in them surviving as a separate entity.

That was over twenty years ago, any issues associated with ICL would be long gone by now.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: ICL?

Nope, there's still a whole lump of those people around who still have the legacy contract terms and mindsets. I've a colleague who is openly killing time to his retirement date with as little effort as possible - his inherited contract provides for an eye-wateringly financially generous redundancy package. In addition, there's a clause that states that, if they don't secure a new job within 12 months, the employer will then resume paying his full salary until they do. NOt surprisingly, despite requests, they've never been selected for redundancy, whilst more talented and enthusiastic staff leave - willingly or otherwise.

[Killing Time]

Re: ICL?

Your colleague sounds like a fortunate guy but to my knowledge those contract conditions were not widespread. It sounds Scandinavian in its generosity and may have been legacy from Nokia Data, ICL was buying up multiple companies at the end of the eighties rather than developing anything themselves and in an attempt to gain market share. I myself arrived via a buyup and don't recall any contract renegotiation issues as a result.

It would be interesting to know what the percentage of the current 14000 employees still hold on to legacy contracts given the timescale and natural staff turnover.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: ICL?

All of them - would you trade down?

I wouldn't, having seen what happened to EDS when it transitioned to an EMEA model it was always predictable that the UK workforce would suffer, badly, when the German workforce would escape unscathed owing to the power of the Works Councils. So it has come to pass, some really great people, personal friends, have been pushed out.

That's what happens when any company is run by HR and Finance, not by engineers with a passion and a stake - still too many layers of overheads in management .

And yet quite a bit of 'dead wood', grimly clinging on to outdated 'more than my jobs worth' resistant to change is hanging on.

The idea that you can chop off an organisation at the ankles, putting the lower level jobs overseas, simply cuts off the supply of highly skilled, talented and motivated engineers that any organisation like Fujitsu needs - oh yeah just go hire them - but you pay market rate, plus recruitment costs - so its not the bargain it appears.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: ICL?

Fujitsu still make a heap of cash from VME which is being run by the last remnants of the old ICL. The parts that are run like a modern, agile, thrusting corporation return somewhat less of a return.

[keithpeter]

Re: ICL?

"Fujitsu still make a heap of cash from VME which is being run by the last remnants of the old ICL"

@anon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICL_VME

Interesting, thanks for reference.

[Forum McForumface]

I’m not surprised there’s another round of layoffs being rumoured. The last was counterproductive in various areas, with some selections seemingly driven by ideology more than practicality, and some decisions apparently cost far more than even long term savings could justify (as well as seeming to damage business long term).

[Anonymous Coward]

These guys actually left two months ago back in July, look at Keegan's LinkedIn account.

Contractors will continue at FJ. Quite a few have been there for over 10 years.

Anybody with any ambition has long gone. Graduates soon leave having gained experience and Fujitsu on their CV.

A lot of the current staff are happy to remain until they retire.

Innovation is non-existent and Agile is not working in a flexible manner has preached by management.