To: Christopher J. Harper who wrote (1641 ) 12/17/1997 7:30:00 PM From: tbevan Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1985
Someone named info_7 on the yahoo! jts thread made this interesting post. I have no idea how much accuracy there is to what he says, but it sounds very informed. 1. The Indian factory has an excellent cost structure - 40 % of the cost of a similar factory in Malaysia or Thailand. But remember material cost is 70 - 75 % of the whole.Factory has (had!) some excellent/dedicated technical & operations people 2. JTS has very severe financial problems - can't pay for their materials or equipment. 3. Not very many vendors are willing to supply them key components - like heads, media, PCBs. 4. There is too much ego amongst the top brass - this is one singular reason that the company has been brought to this stage. There are 3 known groups inside )probably more & several sub-groups within these: Jugi Tandon & his cronies-->>Too much nepotism & unethical things Tom Mitchell & Ken Wing-->> have lost their edge The old Atari (Tramiel &)gang-->> Sleeping ?? Jugi Tandon & his family --- >>> They have a string of failed companies, " Unprofessional Family run businesses ". One good example: An incompetent son-in-law of the family running a key Engineering position in the factory. Singularly he has been responsible for the defection of a ton of good engineering talent from the factory. Most of these good engineers & other staff are with drive/component companies in the far east - like MKE/Quantum, Integral, Magnecomp, WISRS etc., ( Totals well in excess of 25 + people who quit in the last 4 - 6 months). Summary: Unless jokers like these are fired, the work of 5000 + people in the factory will of no relevance as the orchestration is not right. The San Jose facility is so top heavy - everybody other than the Receptionist & the Janitor is a V.P. - too top heavy & really have to question what the hell they are doing for their money. Of late, there has been a mass exodus of good talent (leaves behind the dregs ??) from San Jose. Bottom Line on what the Shareholders can do: Kick the Senior Management including Mitchell, Tandon & wake them up from their wayward ways. Demand more open communication & ask them point blank if they can do anything about this sinking ship. Mitchell seems to be a man who does not have the fire in the belly of the good old Seagate days when he was really effective.