#leadership

SB wants everyone to pitch in but his “team” is abandoning ship.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQwLzm7CDbU/?igsh=c3NpdWg3dHdxbW9i

In the email about lp they also talked about this new director role. Is ej finally gonna stop pretending gp is about anything other than how much you kiss up? Some of the partner jobs are less scope than some of the dl's so guess if you have a big job but you aren't on the favorite kiss up list you get to be a "executive level" director now? nowhere near the money but all the work while they hire a gp over you who you have to tell how to do his job.6 years this place keeps going down

does anyone remember the epayments cto who was completely unhinged and not exactly competent. he was truly the beginning of the end

Someone who actually knows how to build products. Also replace engineering leaders. But it’s too late now. stock below $20.

Moving teams to outsourcing companies like NTT, Infinite has completely misfired. Instead of improving efficiency, it crippled operations, destroyed accountability, and ki-led ownership. Rebadged staff don’t respond, don’t resolve issues, and have no stake in outcomes. Management must stop making these reckless decisions — you cut inefficiency, not entire teams. What was meant to streamline costs has backfired, creating chaos and eroding trust. Leadership should focus on empowering in-house talent, enforcing accountability, and rebuilding culture. Stop outsourcing responsibility — it’s not cost-saving, it’s self-sabotage. Learn to lead, not to offload. Fix the structure before the foundation collapses entirely.

This week my new boss brought me behind the current to help untangle reorg chaos. He is new in role, so totally lost, and wanted my help on work flows, etc. Long story short, they eliminated multiple jobs with zero plan/guidance as how those responsibilities should be done. When I asked “what’s leaderships guidance?” The response was hand waving about centralization. When I ask what the skills/capacity are of the centralized team, more hand waving. It was then suggested, as a high performer, they’d like me to take on responsibilities of one or more of these roles. Here i pushed back, noting: 1) this was not what I applied for; 2) they dropped my role a psg, 1 below my current psg, and the new role would be a psg above the old role - so unless they adjust the psg, im not doing anything more (because what’s my incentive). I also suggested we needed better guidance from whomever established the new org design to understand what’s intended, and it was made clear to me there was no intentional design here, just a concept they want to make so. The lack of leadership from LT is appalling. And, I don’t see a way out.

But it got me thinking if it’s this much a cluster fu-k in my little corner, the rest of the biz must be as bad or worse. So let’s hear it! What’a broken in your corner of this clusterfu-k?

this isn't a complicated story

leadership pumps up the numbers with ethically challenged accounting

eventually there are no more tricks left in the bag

leadership parachutes out with inflated equity

new leadership "comes clean" and gets a ton of equity at deflated prices

everyone wins, except the dedicated employees

Just the usual garbage from AK to justify current layoffs for future AI growth. If you believe that, you'll believe anything.

Link --> https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/ibm-ceo-fears-about-ai-bubble-are-overblown/vi-AA1Q10z2?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W099&cvid=690f13a0d8fb4402a6385eb77a6e774c&ei=14

so it’s almost 1year for D Amman now as the Upstream President; how has he done so far? Nailing it and ready for the CEO or all talk and no trousers

I have no sales experience past little baby deals, can I be a CRO of a billion dollar company too?

Still can't believe how useless 60% of the LL5, LL6, Supervisors are at Ford.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did Dan just add another C level position and fill it with a former colleague from paypal? Leadership at its BEST!

paraphrasing Tywin Lannister, Pulte (Joffrey) is a fool. He is cruel, but he is a fool.
We have had cruel kings, and we have had weak kings, and we have had mad kings… but I do not know if we have ever been cursed with a king who was all three.

If the growth projections were unrealistic, how did Frank beat them every quarter he was CEO? Is some of this you couldn't match up?

The first value listed on the vaunted Solventum mission slide is Put People First. I don't get it. How can senior leadership say with a straight face that they "put people first" when they so obviously do not? They could change it to "Put People at the VP Level or Above First and Everyone Else Second" and that would more accurately capture it. But why lie about it? Why not be honest and say, "Put Stock Price First"? (Bryan Hanson couldn't figure out stock price gains at Zimmer, but we'll set that aside for a second.) Why say you're "transparent" when you're not? Why send a company-wide email announcing a 4-year "Transform for the Future Initiative" six minutes before announcing that initiative on a quarterly earnings call? So many questions. Here's an idea, which I know no CEO will ever implement. What if, instead of creating Transform for the Future Initiatives, hiring more SVPs, and laying off more peons to cut costs and "reallocate resources," what if a CEO did something real and radical? What if a CEO said something like this: "I was going to lay off 2,000 more employees this year, but then I said no. We put people first here, so I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I'm cutting my salary, bonus, and stock incentive compensation package this year down to the average Solventum employee levels, and all my direct reports will do the same. Any new hires at the VP level or above in the next two years will NOT get signing bonuses. For example, we won't give singing bonuses like the one we gave to Tammy Gomez that is approximately equivalent to 30 years of the average worker's salary. Also, no more guaranteed severance packages that exceed one year of salary. In other words, we will actually implement the value we hold most dear, and we will PUT PEOPLE FIRST!" Okay, I know this will never happen. I live on the planet earth. But imagine if it did. Imagine how loyal of a following a CEO would get from his or her tens of thousands of employees. Imagine how little it would matter financially to that CEO and his direct reports, all of whom are already rich. He could even ratchet their salaries right back up again after "the year of impoverishment" and no one would care. And in the meantime, he would have gained a cultlike following of people ready to take a bullet for him. I'd argue he would get even richer over time. And most importantly, for one tiny flash of an instant of his career, he would be putting people first. I dare you, Bryan.

Rumors are swirling about the pending layoffs in store. I'm hoping that the cuts will not involve the customer service areas of our organization. If anything, we should be cutting the fat at the top. How many Market Presidents are there in the retail channel and what exact value do they bring? Our guy comes to Wisconsin, makes a big deal of his dinner plans and that's about all. As I said before - too much fat at the top.

https://investors.solventum.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/135/solventum-reports-third-quarter-2025-financial-results

Reeks of Inge's $500M/year claimed savings which never manifested. SAP started circulation at 3M in something like 2010, with the fever dream reaching maximum levels in perhaps 2014-2018. They had mandatory "Here, you matter" meetings and plastered the walls of the Quad with SAP propaganda (graphics of people holding a red ball and "You play a part" or whatever nonsense).

https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/3/NYSE_MMM_2016.pdf

My gut is that Transform for the Future is attempting to juice the stock based on returns that will never manifest. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a rebrand of 3M's SAP promises, as the whole "Transform for the Future" verbiage is so vague. What are they spending $500M on, and where will the $500M/year come from? Could they really mean "We're going to spend $500M to complete 3M's partial SAP roll-out" and re-promising the same savings as 3M did in 2015?

I noted that "innovation" is put last, while redundant terms (cost structure and operational efficiency) are up front. Only savings are cited, not increased sales or new products (who are our "customers," again?). Doesn't inspire confidence that we'll be, you know, actually improving patients' lives. Feels like monkeying with financial levers to "create value" (C-suite money bags) where there is none.

Curious what others think.

Received a farewell email from a band 6 employee this morning. She is with corporate finance - enterprise risk management based in Lake Mary, Florida.

Thanks Bill Pulte for making it so easy to get rid of the few remaining whites DEI couldn't help. The kickbacks occur in India, Freddie cannot see them.

Brace for the impact :(
Big news next week. Chris you are not doing good job. You should leave with Venkat sinking entire company...
1st announcement shocked all employees on Nov-14-2023. Second one on March-2024 , repeating same window. you couldnt recover company even after 10% layoffs in last 2 rounds and silent layoffs from past 2 years. Dump your OneTru OneDev; At the end only you both will remain as ChrisTru and ChrisDev
Now you are ready to dump your stocks with the result of layoffs

Sure is fun to see all these pics on LinkedIn of Partner Summit. Our fearless leader and the executive minions living their best life while sinking this ship and ruining peoples lives. I hope the steaks at the Golden Steer were amazing.

No official communication or org announcement sent out about RTO. This policy needs to be explicitly stated. Managers relaying it down the line by word of mouth is toxic. List the policy out in an official notice to not leave your employees anxious and uncertain, shame on leadership once again.

It’s not entirely surprising to see these results when a company that’s neither growing nor shrinking decides to place relatively inexperienced people into senior roles across different parts of the organization, all at once. From one group to another. The decline in EBITDA and EPS speaks to something deeper — a lack of true leadership, professionalism, and understanding of how to steer a business forward.

What’s more concerning is the culture that seems to celebrate losses — where layoffs are treated as a sign of “efficiency,” masking deeper issues and compensating for poor financial performance. It’s an organization that appears more focused on politics than outcomes.

At this point, the “P” might as well stand for Party — because for some at the top, the rewards keep flowing regardless of results. The irony is that leadership likely recognizes these systemic flaws but continues to indulge in a system that benefits them. In the end, it’s the long-term everything is eroded including their own proposed values.

At least he has some ethics and the guts to tell the truth.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7389701612849774592?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A7389701612849774592%2C7391498545918406656%29&dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A%287391498545918406656%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7389701612849774592%29

C suites across the globe have shown their ignorance and that they are simply easily led automatons, just a bunch of flashy salesmans cucks more than anything.

Visier's previous report, Embracing the AI-Driven Workforce, focused more on the human element than you might expect. Credit: Visier

The problem, Derler said, is that most of the management don't actually understand the benefits of AI and how they can be applied. They haven't seriously considered the implications and are merely carried along by the hype.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/companies-are-quietly-rehiring-the-workers-they-replaced-with-ai/ar-AA1PZZIE?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=690dfac1e8bf4af181e1fe44bfa4019e&ei=11

While the new leadership is focused on cutting, Customer service needs to be addressed as the top priority:

https://www.reddit.com/r/verizon/comments/1oqujew/in_case_anyone_dealing_with_verizon_support_right/

This is just one example. I had a family member have the same issues this week, and cancel Verizon service.

A few things the leadership has to get right:

• Customer Service #1
• Ease of doing business with VZ, including intra-VZ customers/services
• Ki-l money losing businesses
• Collapse the org chart, and maximize resources in the process.
• Give employees a reason to be proud and generally happy. I dont think one discount perk will fix that. But, employees have to feel valued!
• Performance Culture, we expect excellence from employees

Layoffs will happen, but it can't be the headline of the business. or the #1 priority.

The CA has long been a joke as almost every project that won the award eventually turned out to be a terrible investment or otherwise bad decision. CA seems to be the kiss of death. A lot of people have old CA plaques hiding in their desk drawers. Can anyone think of a CA effort that was well deserved and added value?

Inherited environment, culture of stress, anxiety, uncertainty from Roger, added his own flavor of further uncertainty among associates.

When BME was announced, Rich was dead clear in sharing "everyone's going to be part of this model"

Since he didn't see eye to eye with Bob, he's on his way out the door now.

With the retiring of "squads, scrum masters, chapters", we will definitely see some BS made up titles with same responsibilities.

Why does Fido want to ruin the holiday season for all?

So really, the best option we had for a CFO was someone from Renault-Nissan's Excom during the time of a massive financial corporate fraud committed by Carlos Ghosn, and involved in a $12B loss to Renault from their essentially failed joint venture with Nissan?

That's the best we've got? What is it with Geoff wanting to bring on either his cronies, people bound to fail (e.g. Amazon, Walmart, GE) or c-suite colleagues from failed experiments?

https://www.moodyonthemarket.com/whirlpool-corp-announces-senior-leadership-changes-effective-january-2026/

Why is the Medicare Advantage leadership still with the company after tanking the MA business? Fire them all.

Was reading about VZ's new CEO and his outlook for the company... what are the thoughts on where we will land?

This company has become disgusting — the blatantly corrupt rating systems and hiring/firing practices are not only unethical, they’re borderline illegal. It’s only a matter of time before lawsuits force accountability. The so‑called leadership team has destroyed what was once a company I loved, and they made my final years here miserable.

I survived over a year of my toxic, cowardly boss trying to push me out. I battled him every step of the way and never backed down. Eventually, he dropped the hammer — but I’m proud I stood my ground. Now I can’t wait to join a better firm and work hard to bring business away from this pathetic leadership team.

I truly hope none of you experience the same fate. I never thought it could happen to me, after putting in so much blood, sweat, and tears and being respected by so many colleagues. But the reality is clear: if an insecure, jealous, and cowardly manager wants you gone, they will find a way.

For me, it’s time to move forward — stronger, wiser, and determined to make sure this toxic culture doesn’t win.

What is going with this team? So many leaders have departed and they are unable to retain talent. Place is a mess and it’s enough time to leave.

Why is every leader managing a team they have no experience in? Lots of fail-up leaders, PH being led by a president with a BA in Journalism, KW, the list goes on. Feels like we’re all on a sinking ship.

It appears that top leadership has been making frequent visits to this site. While their presence may be intended to demonstrate oversight or support, it has raised concerns among employees about the underlying agenda. Many perceive this level of involvement as a form of micromanagement, which can be demoralizing for the broader team.

These visits are often conducted with significant comfort and catered hospitality, perhaps to maintain favorable impressions. However, this creates a contrast with how resource allocation is handled for employees at operational levels. When project teams need to travel overseas, cost-cutting measures are strictly enforced, with limitations on the number of travelers and budget constraints. This imbalance can lead to frustration and a sense of inequity.

To rebuild trust and morale, leadership could focus on transparency in their purpose for site visits, demonstrate genuine engagement with employees at all levels, and ensure that organizational policies reflect fairness and shared responsibility.

Unlike many now jobless, I’m close enough to retirement that this isn’t as bad. I do feel for everyone else and hope the bad times won’t last long, and that more jobs will soon be out there. We all knew IBM was doomed to fail sooner or later, and that they’d be coming for us in large numbers. I wish there had been more strategic thinking and stronger leadership, but it is what it is. To those who remain - stay alert and work on your future outside IBM.

Best senior leader you have encountered and why?

When new leaders join a company, the first question they should ask is simple:

“What was already known, and what was already attempted?”

Without that context, accountability turns into retroactive blame, punishing people for outcomes they never had the authority to change.

Too often, long-standing structural issues are well known internally. They’ve been raised repeatedly by those closest to the work, but when prior leadership failed to act, the problems compounded. Calling that “lack of ownership” misses the reality, it’s an organizational stall point, not individual failure.

Strong leaders know the difference. They can tell who’s been quietly pushing to fix systemic issues versus who’s been coasting. They take the time to distinguish contribution from compliance, ensuring that institutional knowledge isn’t discarded in the name of “fresh perspective.”

I’ve spent years trying to drive meaningful change, often against inertia. But it’s difficult to stay motivated when leadership seems more focused on appeasing the next layer up than on fixing the foundation. If decisions continue to be made in haste, without understanding how we got here, the risk is simple: we’ll lose the ability to sell the products that actually work while chasing “new initiatives” that generate noise but not revenue.

Sometimes the problem isn’t that people don’t care, it’s that those who do care stop believing anyone above them is truly listening. Learn to identify them. Empower them. Protect them. Do that, and you might just build a team capable of winning again.
If not: good luck, and adios.