Thread regarding Dell Inc. layoffs

28 year EMC'er...golden years were 1995 -2000 ....shop floor workers who had stock were making 40k ish a month on options from the early 90's

So EMC was transactional....waited until December to drop price, all customers knew this. EMC spent triple the OPEX to get 15% more margin than other, so NET Loss. Very good selling team and selling training. NOT SOLUTION sellers but product maintainers. EMC post 2010 not growing net new customers (Didn't even understand market share by customer). EMC great company and support and made good margins recycling gear. Solid biz model, but not innovative. Dell great margins v OPEX and very operational solid...not very innovative. Put them together, huge market share and own the leader in virtualization. Plain and simple EMC bought business by A) Buying rep who owned storage biz B)overpaying reps dinner bills. Dell bought biz by giving product and keeping OPEX low.

Dell ruined EMC. Customers say I was hoping to get the best of both companies but I got the worst. I am getting EMC prices and Dell service.

The reason customers would pay those high margins in because EMC service was top notch. Now it’s laughable.

Dell ruined the EMC culture. It’s a sad thing but honestly EMC would probably have been bankrupt by now without the merger. But Dell s—s.

I was there for over 20 years. My golden age was 1994 until 2001. When Mike and D–k were out there telling everyone that EMC was recession proof, I should have cashed all my stock and options that day. I know people that didn’t and lost millions. Don’t cry though, as some have said we used to work like our hair was on fire in CS and to ask any colleague to pitch in, the only questions were, What do you need and When do you need it. I’m still in IT with a Fortune 500 company that was all EMC when I got here. Sadly, the floor is slowly being swept because the code doesn’t work anymore and no one cares to fix it. Those were the days. When people ask about EMC issues, I tell them to call it Dell because EMC no longer exists.

I remember in the olden days (like 15 years ago) I had older colleagues at EMC who complained the Joe Tucci (who came from Wang Technologies) had ruined Wang Technologies before he came to EMC. They did not like Joe Tucci and did not trust him. But look at him what beautiful deal he made with Michael Dell - I would say Joe redeemed himself with this deal. I am not working for EMC since 2015 and I am doing quite well in my current company

Joe Tucci was horrible CEO and lead to dismiss of EMC. The CEO who made EMC was Michael C. Ruettgers in 1990’s. He had wits to hire Moshe Yania for Symmetrix arrays development and release. Btw IBM turned down Moshe’s Symmetrix array vision and IBM realized painfully later that was major mistake. EMC in 90’s was fasting number 1 growing company on NYSE. It made me and many more former employees millionaires.

I tried to resist commenting but as a recruiter I need to say that I still prioritize resumes with EMC tenure over any other in the market. Doesn’t matter what role at EMC that brand still commands respect and gets placed first every time. The last 2 posts looked a bit envious and didn’t seem like persons of good counsel on a lay-off blog.
If you are Ex-EMC you’ll do well. Don’t fret this small stuff.

I'd have to agree with that last post. It's well known that even most customers hate their EMC reps. It's an industry reputation which cannot be disputed. There are a few other companies with similar raps and you know who they are. Most EMC reps are full of themselves, which is even on display within this little chat. I believe the best word for this is, arrogance. Most likely this is groomed and encourage from within. Not surprisingly, most have their tail tuck between their legs these days

EMC has always been full of sht. I remember back in the late 90's . EMC came saying how great their storage was compared to other especially HDS. And told me I'll come back and buy their storage, I told then to get F out of my office and dont look back. The next day, EMC started marketing the HDS storage and said it was the best thing since sliced bread. You all are so full of sht

EMC can't make a backup or storage product, just buy others and don't do much with it

snore..snore..

The person who watches way too much media- compared reality to TV- grandpa Simpson. You missed the point completely.
The persons who posted about Olden days aren’t necessarily “old”. I was with EMC more than 20 years and I’m under 45! Happily at a very strategic company selling services.

Changing technology is expected and demanded.
The difference between EMC of “old” and the new sellers (pick a brand) is that EMC understood how to turn tech into business value vs transaction based selling.

Transactional selling did exist in the “Olden days”. EMC just didn’t sell that way. EMC had high price tag because customers made because EMC sold more than a box. EMC enabled speed of business and drove profits.
The move from this old strategic approach to a current transaction selling is what is driving tech companies to become a commodity. Like myself, most folks from EMC wouldn’t live in a commodity world and moved on to better places
My advice. Beware, margins cannot be sustained in a world of commoditization.
The company that captures the EMC culture will win every single time.

These "remember the old times" posts always remind me of Grandpa Simpson and his onion belt quote. I also worked in IT companies in the early 2000s when IT was taking off and Storage wasn't a commodity product. Guess what. Times change. Much like a girlfriend only be as loyal to an employer as they will be to you. In 2021 that is, not at all. You are working for a large company that has to meet Wallstreet expectations every quarter. That makes you a number. If they need to adjust the equation to look good for Wallstreet they will. This same scenario exists at IBM, NetApp, HPE, or ANY OTHER large cap corporation. If you want a family, go start a small business and hire your cousin. Otherwise, do your best work, ensure you are fairly compensated based on your work, and ensure you have backup paths for other jobs should Dell adjust their equations.

Let's face it - Dell culture in the past has been high transaction, low margin deals. EMC culture was to really solution (not just sling hardware as many have suggested). Yes, I have been at EMC now Dell for 25 years so I have seen so much. However, we all need to try to respect the differences because both are still needed at Dell today. I do have to say that I see different levels of drive and motivation from long time EMC versus long time Dell. However, I do see the less motivated folks starting to retire (which is needed). Let's all just please stop throwing arrows and try to understand that we need both solution selling and high volume transaction selling given our current biz model. However, more compensation plans in sales are changing and product margin is going to be rewarded more and more......so this plays better for the legacy EMC prods which are obviously much higher margin. Now let's all go be successful together.

Full Disclosure- ExEMC now customer and Dell Shareholder
I agree with Change Culture.
Dell teams should give up the bitterness and learn from their colleagues.
Customers still buy from EMC, even though brand is changed. The company is merged but the divide is still really obvious. There's a HUGE difference between an EMC trained team and a Dell trained team. We still see this in new teams that we come across. The EMC team still drives business outcome conversations and the Dell team still speaks to shortened supply chain and speed of transactions.

LOL!!! I was on a call with a Dell person who wanted to speak to a C-level about the supply chain delay due to glass constraints. The customer hung up the phone- not even a goodbye. Good luck to the EMC'er who has to clean that up!

Ha! Really? Look at that!
A post from a person who posts as "Blah" then proceeds to disparage their colleagues?
Well that probably says it all. Nothing to see there folks- keep driving.

oh please don't start with EMC nostalgia here.. yes, you are overpaid, pompous, useless and pretentions people who like to play politics and do very little sitting comfortably on the huge salaries. Those days are long gone. I really hope Mikey makes the right things and gets rid of most EMC managers/politicians ASAP.

Well lets put it this way, the Golden years are long gone, and they will NEVER return. History is littered with dead HW companies. IBM and HP can't get out of their own way and it's just a matter of time for DellEMC. How long can they stay in business selling low margin laptops. The future is now, computing is a utility. Sharpen your skills and go to where the action is, AWS, Google, Microsoft, etc. they are all growing, hello?!?

I remember when............. EMC avoided (underline avoided), a big layoff .
The economy was in a slick spot but because the EMC team spirit was so strong and we were confident that we'd rebound, employees around the globe VOLUNTEERED to take short term pay decrease so that others could keep their jobs. THEN- when things recovered, EMC repaid everyone of us for what $$ we gave up. Bill Scannell was the leader then and IS still the sales leader. He's a great human. If Heritage Dell folks would quit pushing the Heritage EMC folks away, give Bill S a chance, to regrow the culture that I was part of- there would very likely be less layoff.
I'm no longer employed at EMC or Dell, I'm a CUSTOMER now. The brand and color of lights on the box may have changed. I'll always be an EMC'er at heart.

I have to agree , all the bagage that EMC brings has ruined what was once a great company. Things have changed so much, customers don't trust our solutions the way they used to. I do think we will keep changing and right the areas that have changed so much. It may take a refocusing of our priorities and our organizations, but it will happen. Have Faith. TP

Does somebody remember the layoff of 2002 and the burst of the DotCom bubble? At one moment EMC had to lay off 5% (or maybe even 7%) of its workforce. These were scary times..

At EMC we were treated as individuals and real people. At Dell we are all just numbers.

It's looking back. I worked for EMC for many years. The money was good, but our common mission and passionate team are what made the company great place to work. No such company exists today, at least not one that I'm aware of, and it's not because technology changed or to be blamed at all the name of the brand changed to DellEMC. The boots on the ground changed, the focus shifted. My friends who still work there say it's like a dog fight, been that way for a while now. Daily power struggles, fear of lost jobs, and silo's of work groups. D–k Egan, Joe Tucci, Bill Scanel, Frank, Howard, insisted on product excellence from the most passionate engineering team, before the shelves were stocked. sold by the industry best sales team , then delivered by deployed and supported by the most organized customer service organization. If something didn't work - phones started ringing. Customers felt safe with spending more $$ for EMC vs commodity players.
I'm grateful for the time that I worked at such a place. Thanks D–k and Maureen.

Wow- What an obnoxious reply to a kind memory. I bet you're a joy to have coffee with.... or not.

Its now 2021, technology is constantly evolving within the context of capitalist creative destruction . Get over it , noting is guaranteed .