It’s the leadership, the outdated, ineffective organization structure and that CSW has had no strategy for years that is at the root of the divisions failure. (Note: Letting your BD staff and business area VPs travel the world is not a strategy, that’s called a paid vacation). (more on strategy later)
Dear corporate management, please, please deal with CSWs incompetent leadership. The governance has been just plain hideous, you know that, you don’t like it, you don’t want to admit you’ve made mistakes, but you must take action. Put your big boy pants on and let’s get going.
Arrogant and incompetent leadership has proven to kill the business. Please learn a lesson here, really, PLEASE. Now is the time to Clean House! Boot the VPs who got their positions by being brother in laws, former executives sons, former military pilots, the good buddies of former executives, and those who got to their current positions by means other than earning them.
Why would you think a pilot could run a business area? That’s just weird. Hiring pilots to run business areas is so arbitrary, why not hire a botanist, a journalist or a nurse to do the job? They’re smart people and probably more caring, and at least most of them are from the commercial sector where they understand that a profit motive is a rational pursuit. Pilots know how to fly planes, but from what has been clearly demonstrated for the most part, they know nothing about engineering, manufacturing, leadership or finance. Letting them run programs is like giving the your car keys to a wild 12 year old. They may be able to reach the pedal, but my god, you know death and destruction is not far away. Furthermore, former executives sons and their entitled attitudes, strut around, travel needlessly and demoralize their staffs. Then there are the brother in laws. I thought the company had a policy against nepotism. It appears that policies are again, only for the little people. Policies and procedures are used as senior management tools to punish people with. It’s another awful, in your face reminder of how the elitist at the top could give a crap about rules and ethics. It is demoralizing to the employees and demonstrates how poorly the group is governed. Then there are the friends of former leaders. They were put in place to insulate and protect the ‘boss”. They are impostors, They can longer serve that purpose, so let them free to find new opportunities.
The “senior staff” are (for the most part) misfits and not only provide damaging leadership, they demoralize the entire working population at CSW with their very presence. Their high salaries, bonuses and perks deeply offend the dedicated workers who earn their wages and want to serve their employer and country and keep their futures and families secure; especially in light of the unending series of major management screw ups.
Sharpen the metaphorical guillotine and get to it, the sooner the better. Replace them with one of their staff to work as an “acting” VP. Pick someone who is nearing retirement, demonstrate reasonable competence and then, put on a serious search for someone who knows the intricacies of the business, the marketplace and knows how to collaborate with customers. Find people that are equipped with the education, experience, wisdom and respect to lead. The incompetence, the hubris, the lack of experience, the bullying of customers, the inability to listen, the arrogance, the poor, slow, error filled engineering practices, the inability to manufacture efficiently, the degradation of quality, the lack of wisdom, the misguided values, the SAP transition debacle, the ceaseless uncooperative infighting within the executive staff, the horrible decision making, the hatred, the venom, the thinking that CSW was so superior, the cronyism the nepotism, the passive aggressive behavior, the inability to collaborate, the inability to satisfy customers and the ever present bleakness and fear needs to end. Find a better group to run this business. Provide some leadership.