I am reluctant to share my thoughts on the recently announced merger of AB and IB (hey, that makes "ABIB"...but they'll always be "IBAB" to me) as I am all too aware, despite them not being exactly craft brewers, that there are careers and family livelihoods on the line and a lot of hardworking people who don't know where they might be next year. So, I would like to think that whatever all the discussion about beer around here we don't forget that now or in the future, whatever your favorite beer is, its beery goodness is all due to folks doing their jobs - regardless of what we think about this beer or that brewery.
That being said, I was a bit surprised to see that the changes to the IT department have already started at Anheuser-Busch according to this article in Computerworld:
Although the St. Louis location will remain open, the IT operations may end up being run from an outsourcer's data center or even managed from Europe. Those are the kinds of steps that firms sometimes take in mergers, said Cohen. Two consultants who previously worked at Anheuser-Busch IT said the company was considered a highly desirable employer -- if you told someone that you worked for the company, "they were very impressed," said one consultant, who didn't want his name used. Another noted that the free cases of beer also meant that Anheuser-Busch employees were often invited to parties.
So that is what it all comes down to: an independent Anheuser-Busch made the IT guys if not hotter to the ladies then at least worth a party invite as the guy with the free beer. What isn't clear is whether the two cases a month given out as an employment benefit snagged the average IT guy one party invite or more.
Comments
Jim Rizzo - July 28, 2008 9:03 PM
As an IT guy (and clearly someone who prefers craft beer), the benefit of free cases would totally not be worth it to me except to bring to parties or give to friends.
I do feel for those IT guys. The market is tough enough for IT with outsourcing... the last thing these guys need is to be outsourced.
Paul Garrard - July 29, 2008 9:01 AM
I'm in the Uk but I work for a US company. IT is run from the States in a very incomprehensible way, and with very little thought about international needs. Whilst it's never good to see people lose their jobs, it is good to see the tables turned. In my experience a large number of American have very little understanding of what lies beyond their borders.
Randy Ford - July 29, 2008 11:32 AM
The consolidation of companies will get much worse. There is little doubt in my mind the free beer benefit will be revoked. InBev is legendary for its no frills approach to business. I am currently completing a research paper which analyzes the previous 10 years or so of the two companies and why InBev was able to grow from a non-player into the largest brewer in the world and why Anheuser-Busch, who could have easily done the same did not. It's not a flattering analysis of AB, that's for sure.
I have many years of experience in IT and it should be almost a given that the United States based IT will be absorbed as the systems they use are combined or retired. If InBev, a truly international company, can operate from a central data center then there is no reason they cannot absorb AB this way as well.
Finally, in response to Paul, please. Why is it okay for you to paint American as uninformed based on your own narrowly informed opinion and it's not okay for Americans who might be uninformed to be narrow minded on international matters? Both views are ridiculous. I could just as easily state there are a large number of UK folks who have no clue about German politics or truly understand what happens within the United States. Attack facts with reason, don't make broad generalizations based on limited and unreliable information.
Alan - July 29, 2008 12:33 PM
Randy, every one of your statements in the last paragraph leaps away from the previous one. He did not make a broad generalization. Nor, differently, did he make a narrowly informed decision. Your two different reproaches do not reflect his statement that he works for a US company and that his statements were based on personal experience. You have expressed a crescendo of unhappiness which is not well founded.
That being said, I quite disagree with Paul and find, like wise personally, that Canadians and (yes) Englishmen that I have met equally informed and ill-informed on a wide range of subjects. People universally - including myself - are quite remarkable in their ability to be wrong and yet act upon that state of affairs with great confidence.
Mitch - July 29, 2008 1:23 PM
Paul seems like an... [Ed.: ...don't care...point already made...]