#strategy

So Mike commented today that core consolidation has stopped? What’s this fuss all about. Why did they say core consolidation in the first place? Are they out of their mind?? Said such things such so Jack Henry and FIS can poach our clients?… just so weird. Can he shoot straight with the swaggering compensation package he currently gets?

I'm new to this site. I feel like i havent seen many comments from people in PVS under Tom Ap Simon. He was 100% in charge when I came on in 2020. In 2022, they hired a lady to take over PVS so Tom could focus on higher education. This lady was way more personable and professional than Tom in my opinion. She obviously had a vision, and part of that was to create a new department. She hired a black woman for that department who was very qualified based on previous work experience. Not even 2ish years into the role, this competent PVS leader departed. They did not replace her. They said Tommy boy would absorb and handle both Higher Ed and PVS. A few months after our original PVS VP left, our smaller dept head left abruptly. They did not replace her either and instead shoved our department into another that make 0 sense for half of the employees there.

PVS has a goal to increase enrollment by almost 50%. That is an insane metric and didn't even happen during Covid. On top of that, they so far have hired literally no one on the school facing side of things to support these schools/students. I thing they are eventually going to just sell PVS because it's obvious the powers that be don't understand the actual work that's needed to make this business line successful.

It will pause but not stop. Tweaks will continue as orgs/teams align to the new landscape. Larger ones pick up again next year as the Digital strategy and AI rollout continue to expand in these areas:

• customer service automation
• network optimization
• fraud detection
• sales personalization

Look for these types of roles to increase / hire in the coming year:

• AI network engineers
• data scientists
• cybersecurity specialists
• automation architects

Putting this up so it’s not lost in replies. OP: @e2+1kk9gpsf9

Smoke and mirrors to implement the old wing it by Windstream way is back. Uniti either loves losing customers or we are prepping to sell the whole company

From my perspective, there is little evidence of meaningful leadership within the organization. The senior management team appears largely aligned around maintaining the status quo rather than addressing the significant challenges the company is facing (all 'Yes' men in key roles).

There seems to be little willingness to communicate candidly with JG about the realities in the marketplace. In many cases, customers have lost confidence in SAS, and a growing number are actively exploring or implementing plans to replace our solutions. This trend is likely to accelerate in the near future.

At the same time, the company lacks a clearly defined competitive strategy and the VIYA platform has not resonated with many customers in the way it was intended. Unless these issues are acknowledged and addressed directly, the gap between leadership’s perception and the market’s reality will continue to widen. Just look at the SAS revenues at being flat or declining and one of our biggest competitors, Databricks, has 60-70% revenue growth and over 100% market valuation Y/Y growth. Not once during the company kick-off meetings did our senior management team even acknowledge the competitive battle we are facing in the marketplace nor was any type of competitive strategy discussed/presented. How is that possible? How can management present a revenue growth plan for SAS when we are clearly losing market share rapidly and there is no competitive strategy to address it?

If SAS were a publicly traded company, the current trajectory would likely invite significant scrutiny from the market and there would be rampant short selling. It's a very sad story playing out in front of so many great employees. I wish I could do more but, unfortunately, no one in power cares to listen.

@ka+1kk76xn44 said it perfectly.

"Most Android phones run on chips from Qualcomm or MediaTek. Xiaomi wants to change that, at least for its own devices."

"The XRing O1... built on TSMC’s 3nm process and holds its own against Snapdragon ... ".

https://phandroid.com/2026/03/05/xiaomis-xring-chip-is-about-to-get-a-whole-lot-more-ambitious/

Increasing bill didn't work
Matching paper bill didn't work
Delaying port outs didn't work and Dan had to back out

That organization cannot solve churn, they need expertise ASAP!!!

I’ve been here long enough to see the pattern clearly, where we start projects with great enthusiasm, teams form, plans get made, and work begins with real momentum. Then a few months in someone in leadership reads an article or hears a new buzzword and everything changes, new priorities appear, old projects suddenly get labeled as not aligned, and the goal posts move so far you can barely see them anymore.

We end up abandoning half finished work and starting fresh on whatever the new thing is supposed to be, and the amount of wasted effort that piles up from that cycle is staggering because hours, weeks, and months of people’s time just get discarded when leadership cannot stick with a direction.

Then leadership turns around and wonders why execution is a problem, even though you cannot execute anything when the target keeps moving before the work ever has a chance to finish.

We've been losing so many people for so long, especially the talented ones. If leadership came up with the perfect plan right now, we couldn't implement it. We're past the threshold. We've lost the capacity and the institutional knowledge to pull it off. That last big push was our final shot, in my opinion. And we blew it.

Now Ed Garden, one of Fortune Brands largest shareholders, disagrees with the new pick of CEO Amit Banati and has a list of his potential candidates that will allegedly be presented at the next shareholder meeting.

While shareholders are critical, tunnel vision focus on share price alone allows for short term goals and does not set up a company for long term success. Share price is the reward of doing everything else correct including, but not limited to, having the right people, the right plan, and executing the plan.

Heard that Pharm Systems is at it again. Another wave of VPs and executives leaving. Others (barely any) updating their LinkedIn profiles to "Open to Work" and probably asking competitors for job openings. Europe, US - they're flying out faster than Tom&Jerry in their private jet to Jackson Hole. The sales organization is wiped out - a printed picture memory at this point. The people who actually knew the clients, knew the product, and knew how to close - gone. Last I heard, they now have project managers hunting for device business. Let that sink in. Somewhere along the way, politics ate strategy alive. Then came the massive bonus and commission cuts - looks good on the quarterly report. The PnL is probably on life support by another travel ban. Then Services? Handed to people with 0 experience whose previous team was actually taken apart and promptly set on fire. Those of us who got out are just sitting here with popcorn, watching, and waiting for the "Pharm Systems Acquired By..." press release to drop.

We need real growth, not by pulling ahead to make quarterly figures. Financial Hocus Pocus always ends in tears.

The asset management industry is changing rapidly, and staying ahead requires more than incremental adjustments.

One area that deserves close attention is the layer of middle management. Many of the managers responsible for executing strategy appear increasingly detached from the company’s long-term mission. When leadership positions become primarily about protecting paychecks rather than building lasting value, organizations inevitably lose talented people who want to contribute meaningfully.

Over the past years, a number of highly capable individuals have left because they wanted to deliver impact and build something meaningful. When those voices disappear, it is often a signal that something deeper in the culture needs attention.

The competitive landscape is also evolving. Firms like BlackRock have significantly expanded their position in areas such as ETFs and are investing heavily in AI and data-driven investment capabilities. Competing in this environment requires not only technology and capital, but authentic leadership and a culture that empowers people to act with conviction.

Strengthening leadership culture should start with divisions such as Strategic Advisers (SAI), where the connection between research, portfolio management, and long-term client outcomes is critical. This kind of review requires diligence and honesty, not narratives that avoid uncomfortable realities.

Organizations that are willing to examine themselves critically tend to emerge stronger. Those that ignore early signals often find themselves losing relevance over time.

The opportunity to reinforce a culture of accountability, integrity, and genuine leadership is still there—but it requires deliberate action.

Sure would like to know why xerox spent millions to buy GIS(a growing/profitable Co.) Only to gut it and turn it into an expense .

Seems like a total waste/bad business decision...
No wonder stock is hovering $1.70

Lexmark next?

Nobody talks about AT&T anymore because the story's already been told. It's a long, slow decline. Smart people are leaving in droves, employees and customers alike. We've sold off everything valuable, cut every corner, and brought in expensive consultants to try to fix it. New menu, new decor, new theme, and none of it worked. This place is done.

Our highly paid creatives couldn’t anticipate the 80’s and 90’s teen loyalists would soon be middle aged and market a dad shoe to them before new balance did? For Christ’s sake, get a clue.

My director spilled to me that the IBP is likely over 140 this year.

Wul talking more b4ll today. Says Employees are great but doesn't says he doesn't pay them. Says his going to turn around the share price or break the company up.

Next is investor day in June, buys him a qtr. Betting all his hopes on Hogan and AI generating loads of SAAS revenue.

Hopefully, we can deliver the quantification of the message and sell the message and get the message received and people buy the stock and the stock goes up. If that doesn't happen, I know there's breakup value here that's above and beyond where we have today. And it's been public. We've had different suitors and they've leaked stuff.

The breakup value is there today. I'd like to get it to a different level. I'm not saying never, but I am saying today, I've got great assets, great footprint, great people, great trajectory, great direction, and I want to give our people a chance, and we're generating cash. we're going to stabilize the revenue profile. And I think Investor Day will be a great day to show how that picture really frames out. But I'm also a realist. If the play doesn't work, we're going to change the play and how to get value for all of us as investors if we have to change the play

interested to see reactions from some of these points, Dell is doing great these last few days in terms of stock, but is it short lived? I keep thinking about SMCi and they just seem to have the right blueprint.

consider my thought process:

​SMCI is strategically absorbing short-term gross margin compression (6.4%) to aggressively secure physical data center footprints. Once the bare-metal hardware is deployed, this establishes a captive base to upsell high-margin, proprietary Data Center Building Block Solutions and cooling maintenance. SMCi is leading Dell in this technology.

​AI-Driven Service Transformation: The traditional, human-intensive IT service model is being commoditized. AI automation is reducing the need for massive, global break-fix support teams, neutralizing the historical scale advantage of legacy hardware providers. Dell has not shown an interest to unleash their sw devs with Ai. they buy vs invent, well, overnight the world can invent more quickly and Dell isn't investing right

​Expansion into AI-RAN and Edge Telecom: By writing lean, specialized software stacks for distributed environments, SMCI is capturing the emerging Artificial Intelligence Radio Access Network, and Sovereign AI edge markets before slower legacy systems like Dell can adapt. this is far bigger than most know.

​Zero-Touch, Self-Healing Infrastructure: Integrating agentic AI into Baseboard Management Controllers and orchestration software enables autonomous power routing, predictive failure analysis, and real-time cooling adjustments, drastically cutting the operational overhead of rack maintenance. think, more self healing, less armies of physical technical support staff needed

​Direct Liquid Cooling & Next-Gen Silicon: The thermal physics of upcoming architectures—specifically the NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 and HGX Rubin NVL8—mandate advanced liquid cooling. SMCI's in-house DLC engineering and rapid time-to-market provide a structural lead in deploying these dense, 100kW+ AI racks.

​Financial Disconnect & Valuation Asymmetry: Despite exceptional top-line revenue growth (recent quarters posting >120% YoY growth to over $12.6B), SMCI trades at highly compressed multiples (trailing P/E ~24x, P/S ~0.4x). The stock is structurally mispriced relative to its market share expansion in AI hardware volume. dell is now in hold territory, smci might be a huge opportunity.

​Legacy Over-Reliance on Bloated Ecosystems: Incumbent behemoths are institutionally bound to massive enterprise sales forces and heavy management software suites. These legacy structures create internal friction and require high-margin subsidization, making them vulnerable to agile, pure-play engineering firms. Dell is competing against the true lean mavericks (see what I did there). many sales folks on this, you're the champions keeping Dell going, kudos, but... change happens

​Rapid Obsolescence of Traditional Software: The democratization of code via AI is collapsing the moat of legacy IT management software, this is the real place Dell is able to macgyver the numbers. Historically a competitive advantage for Dell, but now Leaner competitors utilizing AI-assisted development can now quickly replicate and streamline orchestration layers, bypassing the traditional software lock-in of these legacy giants.

interesting time to watch... I'm long on both, but I feel smci is better suited for the long haul, I'll be getting out from Dell, selling, later this year, but not just yet.

oh and I think more layoffs are coming, so it's not too off topic

The new course on SAP Strategy is really inspiring. I love the presentation given by SS.

And there are no layoffs mentioned. Looks like we can all breathe freely this year.

Remind me, how much did we pay for it and how much did we sell it for? Just another proof Stankey is an id--t with no business sense.

With 5G and 6G coming on tower to the home internet service, how will conventional fiber to the home survive? This company is wasting money on an outdated technology. The money to be made is in backbone fiber and fiber to the tower it seems. It's id--tic to spend $ on customer fiber drops anymore..

1. Voyix Software is terrible and might work in 5 years (20 more quarters or what you already know…RIF cycles.) AI driven software coding from actual BigTech software companies will beat anything Voyix attempts in 5 years. Software is the only strategy Jim Kelly and Board have for Voyix…that should should concern you.
2. Voyix has given up on hardware w/the ODM move. The company leadership and strategy is toward cr-ppy software (see above). No one is is focused on selling hardware and hence sales/revenue will continue to decline while competitors like Toast and Toshiba who really want to and are committed to be in the hardware business take market share.
3. Hardware and Desk Services - the actual heart of Voyix revenue and earnings is going to continue to decline as it did throughout all 2024 & 2025. No focus, priority, or investment is given to it in Voyix. Voyix hasn’t trained a service technician in its training centers in an entire year to save $.

Was informed by a Us bank home mortgage Supervisor that by the end of year all of our jobs will be offshored including her role.

Per google--As of early 2026, U.S. Bank has continued to focus on operational efficiency within its mortgage division, with employee reports indicating a strong push to move staff into specific hub locations rather than maintaining fully remote positions to include U.S. Bank is actively implementing layoffs in early 2026, including in February, that specifically target remote workers who do not live near designated "hub" locations, according to employee reports.

These cuts are part of a broader, ongoing strategy to centralize operations, with reports indicating further layoffs intended for March 2026.

Its the worst. They have nothing to show and all they do is take years for decisions.
Thought Katie would be better but no progress. We are so behind on data tooling and no strategy to move forward. The move to Dennis wont help as he is out of depth.

Do we still have a strategy function? What do they do? Just making decks again, or driving value? If the latter, when does the value part happen?

If no value… why… you know… do we have them? Overpriced MBA’s gotta go somewhere. Why here?

It seems the back and forth changes on trade are negatively impacting the market and consumer sentiment. This will likely make the turnaround of this place all the harder for Dan to achieve.

They should make sure that a 14 gear engine is created. The market is asking for it.

That's the only strategy we need. And yes, fire everyone at the top, replace them with a bot that will help people build better and sell more laptops.

That's it, a McKinsey masterpiece in two sentences.

You can thank me later.

What are your thoughts on our partnership with NVDIA? does this have a potential to put is in a position where we finally get some growth. Honestly , I think the most of our problems stem from the fact that our growth is su-ky and maybe we can catch some of this ai pixie dust to help with that...

thoughts?????

Repsol has determined that an APA reverse merger would be disadvantageous to the company’s shareholders as the risk and liability far outweigh the benefits. Repsol management’s attention is now on Venezuela oil production and refining operations. The linkages that maybe realized in Alaska are very short term. An example is ENI developed several fields with higher potential than Pikka to eventually divest to Hilcorp at a loss.

Worked here a while and still really don’t understand what Lead to One is. Is it the the rolling up of all the cignahealthcare lines of business up into the Evernorth brand? None of the corporate buzzwords have really described it

Why doesn’t Cigna just close some of the offices instead of doing these massive layoffs? Does anyone know if they plan to do this as part of their strategy after February?

The misguided leadership of OBD model is dead. No more time wasted on this terd

Why in this day and age are we still pushing direct tv stream so hard. Especially in certain markets. Make it make sense to push such a dying technology when it only is worth 5% on the dashboard!

I wonder how it may have turned out for Crown if Mr Paul Elliott Singer had not reared his head.

IBM bucks AI-fueled layoff trend, triples entry-level hiring for 2026. How long until the CEO FOMO has Wells (and the rest of Wall St.) start hiring again?