We’ve mastered them, without seeing anything good come out of them. Bad, yes. Let’s hope this one, happening in a different context, actually brings some improvements. A real change this time, one with actual substance. And brains.
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Seems this reorg is sending jobs overseas.
Rank who is next to go:
HS
GS
RR
CHRO
KK
Can’t imagine the conversations w/ the new ceo and this group.
Regarding Robin’s comments, how did she think PS did that board reporting? Excellent staff work by many, many people. PS was just the news reader. Certain of the Chiefs of Staff have been excellent - KB, JM and perhaps others. Others were just privileged.
This view is spot on, except for the fact that it isn’t PS’s fault. It is his fault. If he had more confidence, he would not have pushed out those who were more competent than him. The board should have made its decision a year ago, but better late than never. The problem for the board is that the Chair and the longest-standing member (Princeton/Harvard, would be seriously injured if he fell from his ego to his IQ) and several others will be voted out when the board is declassified in December. Finally, FDS’s culture CANNOT go back - it must go forward and get competitive and performance-based. This transition is not going to thrill some employees and will discourage others. Not everyone is going to make the transition.
I was hoping they would bring back some of the former leaders. Goran can’t do it alone.
The last 10 years is a case study for boards in failing in their responsibilities. It’s not Snow’s fault. The board put in an introverted analyst with no charisma, vision, leadership, or empathy as ceo to learn on the job. He removed anyone who challenged him and maintained only yes people who only managed up. In fact, the chairperson has said that snow’s greatest strength was board reporting. He had no vision which led to the constant reorgs to find the perfect formula and the board played along. Growth has been cut by more than 1/2 and the stock has performed far worse than its peers.
It’s a shame that Frankenfield wasn’t made ceo when they had a chance.
We are excited to have the new CEO. He will do the right things by the employees. First thing to do will be replacing CFO as she demolished everything FDS built in years.
Well said @az - many tried to please current CFO saying YES to keep her happy. She destroyed the sales team and our culture but again she is still here.
Hiring ELT talent has been our Achilles heel, no question about that.
I think for years the plan for succession for CEO was always the current CFO. But her poor performance as CRO proved that she was/is incapable of such responsibility.
I think current CRO could do the job but there has been so much entropy at the ELT level I think it further adds to the chaos when he is just getting started in that role. And honestly, if Goran can't right the sales ship, then I think that is probably it for the company as a whole.
I support the decision to bring in someone external but his lack of experience leading public companies is a concern and the culture of FDS compared to JPM is going to be a wakeup call for new CEO. Something we are going to have to watch closely.
Sanoke, if you are reading these (and I truly hope you are) You are walking into a broken environment in the Sales and Product organizations and the silo's our constant re-orgs have created run incredibly deep. Please take caution in org changes and don't fall into the same trap and cycle we have been stuck in for the last decade. Your team (L2s and L3s) have largely been groomed to be 'yes' people by current leadership outside of a few exceptions. If you are as smart as you seem to be (based on my own research on you) Please strive to create an environment that encourages questioning, push back and collaboration, not blind followership.
We need to do better about cutting products that don't work (Even the big flashy projects that we seem to be falling into the sunk-cost fallacy)
We need to do better about encouraging people to speak up rather than cower out of fear of loosing their jobs.
We need to do better about holding the entire leadership team (L1 -> L4) accountable for their decisions and actions.
We need to do better about getting our product teams to actually communicate to each other and have a cohesive plan (Granted creating and destroying centralized product organizations multiple times will do that to any group)
Please please please don't let your ego or the ego of anyone that is going to be posturing for position when you start get in the way of what could be amazing change for the company. High ranking members of FDS rarely, if ever admit when something does not, or is not working. Many of them, will be masking the truth to you.
Listen, ask critical questions and be objective.
Track record of bod executive hires over last 10 years awful. Not sure I’d be positive about this one. The current CFO and CHRO are last 2 remaining …. I’m not optimistic this new CEO pick will be better. Shocking that nobody internally was groomed to take on the CEO role and no succession plan was in place.