Friday, January 9. 2009

Signs of the Economy: A Barber Shop, A Shoe Store, and a Geospatial Company

This past week, I had my hand on the pulse of the economy...or so I think. I went to the barber shop, a running shoe store, and visited with a geospatial technology consulting company.

What are the signs of whatever this economy "is" or "will be" as we proceed into 2009?

First, I went to a local running shoe store to buy some new training shoes. The place was teeming. I don't know if it was the after Christmas sales or the fact that everyone wanted to drop a few pounds by buying some new running togs first. This is not a low-budget store. It's an upscale, major chain retailer that sells top of the line clothes. I walked out because every sales person was busy.

Next it was off the barber shop. Now, everyone needs a haircut but you could argue that you could get your spouse to do it, that is if you didn't care what it looks like. My barber is just that...a barber...not a high-priced "stylist." I get buzzed anyway but it still needs to look decent. Again, the place is hopping. I wait 45 minutes to get in with my favorite barber; fortunately I took my Blackberry to get some work done. More people stream into the shop and with three chairs busy at the same time, the wait is getting longer.

Lastly, I visit with a company that does geospatial software development and other IT consulting. [I'd prefer not to reveal the name of the company for privacy.] They tell me things are basically "OK" but they've had a few contracts fall through at the last minute. These were contracts close to being signed but late last year some were put on the shelf and the contracts never signed.

Knee jerk reaction or really bad sign? Take it for face value but I believe many companies are in this same situation. Companies may be pulling back just as a reaction to the plethora of negative news. Is it really that bad? How many layoffs have we seen at the major geospatial technology companies? During Jack Dangermond's keynote address at our Rocket City Geospatial Conference last November, he told the audience there were over 200 jobs to be filled at ESRI. However, Pitney Bowes MapInfo recently announced the layoff of 128 people. So, there are indications of problems in the geospatial technology sector.

But job loses are a trailing economic indicator. We will likely continue to see job losses for the next six months during which time you should see the rate of job losses decline. Though bad, December's job figures from the Department of Labor that were reported today, were less than anticipated.

I don't want to paint an overly rosey picture but not all the signs are doom and gloom. The best advice is no different than the old advice: work hard, work smart.

Posted by Joe Francica in Geospatial Business at 15:48 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) |

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Teeming, not teaming.

And it's not so bad here in Colorado either, but that's because some of the energy boom has left my town (booms aren't fun) and we're getting lots of snow.

#1 Jude on 2009-01-09 17:31 (Reply)

Yep..thanks, Jude, "teeming."

#1.1 Joe Francica (Link) on 2009-01-09 17:41 (Reply)

Well, its only two weeks after your article published... and three major geospatial companies - Autodesk, Intergraph, and Google - have already announced layoffs.

... not sure about the real picture at ESRI because they are a private company and do not have to really disclose anything.

Microsoft has looked relatively solid till now, but who knows?

I believe GIS still falls into the category of "pretty pictures" for many industry CIOs, and possibly rightly so. After the bubble-bust is over, and things have settled down in a couple of years (I hope), we will see who was really stuck with GIS and had truly gone beyond the pretty pictures in their adoption of geospatial technology.

- Barber

#2 Barber on 2009-01-22 20:55 (Reply)

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In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Jude on 2009-01-09 17:31   #1.1: Joe Francica on 2009-01-09 17:41 #2: Barber on 2009-01-22 20:55
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