When Gov. John Bel Edwards announced in late September the state had renegotiated its incentive deal with IBM because the company failed to meet its employment quota of 800 jobs at Baton Rouge’s Client Innovation Center, he nonetheless had words of praise for Big Blue, noting “the presence of IBM in Louisiana has been a transformative boon for economic growth and investment in our state.”
The governor isn’t alone in his professed admiration for the company, as Business Report details in a feature from the current issue. IBM came to Baton Rouge in 2013 after receiving a generous incentive package from the state that included a new $55 million mixed-use building overlooking the Mississippi River downtown.
Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson also describes IBM’s presence in Louisiana over the past four years as “transformative,” and Baton Rouge Area Chamber President and CEO Adam Knapp says IBM has, indeed, proven itself to be the “game changer” everyone predicted it would be.
“Just because they didn’t hit the initial target doesn’t mean they are not continuing to have a tremendous impact on the economy and the software sector in Baton Rouge,” Knapp says. “I think transformative is the right word.”
Though elected officials and economic development leaders are still drinking the Big Blue Kool-Aid, few in the local tech sector are having any of it. Multiple software firm executives and employees tell Business Report they don’t see IBM having much of an impact on the local market, and certainly not one that is transformative. IBM did not respond to requests for comment.
While applauding the state’s investment in LSU’s computer science program—a component of the deal that has increased the number of badly needed graduates in the field—they say starting salaries offered by the local IBM facility are less than those offered by other IT firms, even in Baton Rouge. As a result, the facility hasn’t been able to attract or retain the hundreds of workers that were promised, and the tech ecosystem many were hoping would develop because of IBM’s presence in the market has yet to germinate.
“IBM is not really hiring and fostering the type of people that would go out and start their own companies,” says Dustin Puryear, owner of software firm Puryear IT. “So they are providing some jobs but they’re not providing a multiplier effect.”
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