This has been done in other comparable companies. Time to do it 3M. We don't need a huge bloated structure of failed technical folks who join management ranks to get the quick and early promotions. Few hundreds of middle managers in St Paul alone....
Unilever to Cut 15% of Senior Managers as Peltz Adds Pressure
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-25/unilever-to-cut-1-500-jobs-after-activist-peltz-builds-stake
Here are the fun facts and statistics.
Let's say you are a fresh PhD , joined as a T3, and you joined 3M in the hopes of doing great science and technology. Let's say you stay in the technical track for your career in 3M. Let's do some projection for your career track.
Unless you make multiple million dollar products for the company, get credit for it and most importantly your boss and bosses boss likes you, you will end your career at the T4A level. Of course these days you are likely to get laid off after a certain age, let's say roughly 50 or so.
This is what happens to the majority of folks in the technical track. A grand total of 2 career promotions (T3 to T4 and then T4A) in a long 25 to 35 year career in 3M ( if you can still have a job that long in the first place).
Meanwhile let's see what happens if you decide to join the management track. Most people join management track after getting to a T4, after realizing that they are "management material" (i.e. not meant to work in the lab doing hands on work ) and are ready to kiss their bosses rear side at every opportunity.
Let's do a career projection here. In most cases going from a supervisor (equivalent to T4) to a Technical manager (equivalent to a T5) takes 5 to 8 years. Thus in 8 to 10 years, after PhD, you are very likely to assume a position that 80 percent of technical track employees can never make in their entire career. This is almost guaranteed to happen. There is something magical or divine thing that happens once you join management track. Immediately you become "high potential". Note that this Technical Manager position also allows you the coveted stock options and RSUs.
If one is good in keeping bosses happy, then typically you can end your career at the Director level ( equivalent to T6 level). This is something that maybe 4 or 5 percent technical folks can ever dream to achieve!
Still interested in a technical career in 3M ???? Join and have fun.
well, TTS took a big hit in the last reduction and the CIO created two SVP positions at the same time. How does that work?
JG16 are people making over 200k with bonus to make useless PowerPoint presentations. The guy going after Unilever (Nelson peltz) would force new management to slash that layer and above.
Most leaders in CRL have less than 5 direct reports. Tell them to get under the hoods and do research instead or PowerPoint
Some managers only manage 1-2 people and do nothing, literally nothing
With every 3M move trying to fix something, you see more managers/senior managers/directors/VPs. This is completely a joke. Cut 50% directors and VPs. 3M will save big time right away.
In my experience, 3M’s promotion strategy is based 50% favoritism / 50% nepotism. It’s almost cult like. Most of the “leaders” in corporate marketing couldn’t put together an actual business plan if their life depended on it. It’s more about protecting golf buddies vs driving value
Layers upon layers of managers almost everywhere. Getting promoted like clockwork; just stay in the same position for a couple of years and viola, here is the coveted promotion. Apparently vision and leadership is all we need, these days.
Meanwhile the worker bees in the lab face ridiculously high levels of scrutiny for each career step, which is decided by the same group of mid ranking managers. Promotions are either delayed or denied. Thus velocity of promotion is so much lower for the technical side compared to management ranks.
No wonder a company built of technology is going downhill so fast that is almost beyond comprehension.
In a few years when most technical people with valuable skills all leave , what will be left to "manage" ???
Paltz is an aggressive activist record with a good track record (at least for forcing big cuts in overhead).
When he went after Dupont they hard SARD costs of 30 percent of sales, vs competitors who were under 10. They have cut SARD by over 60%.
The bloodletting will be ugly but at least some of the higher LG will get canned. CRL is also looking at a 30 to 40 percent haircut in the higher waged people if Peltz comes after 3M next.