Since so many seem to hold nothing but disdain for TD (myself included) I'm curious what was the turning point for you?
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My very first day!
I started at Teradata just in time to catch Oliver Raztesberger's Nuremberg-style rally and unveiling of his new book about "upleveling". Didn't get the promised breakfast because all the new hires had to be rushed into the assemblyhall for the pow-wow. It was so strange and jarring, it felt like it came out of the Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. "Everyone buy a copy of my book!" Sure, buddy.
Not long after I joined, I was exposed to TD's version of "project planning". Which consisted of everyone being called last minute into a meeting room (during lunch), so we can fill out a Gantt chart full of project tasks stretching two months into the future and that nobody has any idea about yet because this is the first time the project initiative is actually being discussed with the subject-matter experts and no time was given to properly vet the proposal. Every subsequent "project meeting" is used to update the Gantt chart, instead of discussing the actual project (so the PM can check off their checkbox).
The managers were surly, rude, not knowledgeable, and passive-aggressive. They would completely ignore professional advice and technical recommendations from their employed subject-matter experts, then scapegoat them for the totally-predictable failure results later.
When we were conducting infrastructure upgrades and repairs on Webex calls, the managers would always invade and derail the call and harass the engineers trying to do the work. They would bicker and yell amongst themselves and then fill up the call with useless chatter about their upcoming fishing trips. Throw in an occasional interruption from some clueless project manager needing regular updates to send to upstream leadership even though nobody understands it.
It was a sh-t-show, in the textbook sense. It was so bad that TD made technicians with partner companies quit their jobs-- because they could not stand working with/for Teradata anymore. Not even short-term to fulfill a contract.
When VL wore his profane shirt on stage and told meaningless stories about his grandkids playing soccer. What qualified him to lead Teradata? His grocery experience? He should have never even been on the BOD. Then they made him CEO twice? That is what happens with a cozy apathetic board that just enriches their own pockets when the company revenue is declining.
It started several generations of executive teams ago when the COB + CEO + CFO decided that a $ of "subscription revenue" is worth more than a $ of "hardware/software/PS/maintenance/support revenue" in terms of market cap of the company in the stock market.
It was the first time the most important thing for the company is our market cap... not how to make the products/solutions more useful for our customers... not how to make our customers more successful... not how to maintain and advance our competitive advantage.
And I think we all know who benefits the most when the "market cap" of the company goes up... it's those who own the most number of shares of stock/option/RSU.
And that has remained the focus of BOD members and CEO's and E-teams ever since.
That was the beginning of the end.
When did I know? When they laid me off and kept our useless director in Marketing. Butt-kissers do very well at Teraturd.
Hiring NC. The day he got up at his first town hall and rather talk about his goals, strategy and vision as the CSO, he rabbled on about his difficulties in adopting a Chinese baby with his male partner and how offended he felt when someone called him a Mr.
It was at the instant I knew it was game over. You could see the stupid ELT just nodding in the front row thinking how brave he was whilst those behind in the back rows standing up groaned in embarrassment.
All we wanted was a vision, an intent and a purpose. All we got was just rubbish
Chappers and his 10 minute diatribe during his introduction
I can think of only one airline using Teradata. The rest know better.
I think some major airlines are using TD database to keep track when to replace certain parts in the airplane
I thought all major airlines + airplane manufacturers use our products
Sounds like great Marketing! Well, our products are obsolete, but at least our products don’t ki-l anyone.
We are lucky to be working on database products rather than manufacturing airplanes. If our products fail, it’s just Teradata that fails -not thousands of lives.
All competent engineers have left, and their work has been handed over to engineers who don’t know how to write codes.
The interviewers only recommend hiring low-quality candidates to secure their own job positions.
When SM gave NC a platform at company meetings to push a social agenda rather than talk about business strategy. The turn was fully justified when JW claimed making a PR appearance at the stock exchange was the most important TD event in 10 years—again, nothing to do with business strategy, marketing or products. The fact that HA is still here after failing to deliver a single workable technology that customers want is astounding. Ineptitude is highly rewarded at the ELT level, which should be a turning point for everyone.
I was laid off because I was trying to "do the right thing" and get teams to do products and concepts that were at least within 10 years of our competitors.
The long timers didn't like change (from 1990s processes and concepts) and played the buddy game to push me out.
Jokes on you numbnuts. I got a new job with more money, better benefits, and with a company that's actually growing.
Teraturd is swirling around the bowl, it's just a matter of time before the final flush.
Two strikes…. 1) Leadership which completely discounted cloud only to see Redshift and then others set the innovation trajectory. 2) Vic Lund (treated TD as a personal piggy bank and set the leadership incompetency trajectory). As for the third strike maybe the UBS survey is the harbinger of what is to come. The demise of Teradata is a given. It is the timing which remains unclear.
That's easy:
- after the founders (Schemer, Neches, et al) left and
- the IPO crowd (Simmonds, etc) left and
- NCR acquired the company and brought it's "corporate sludge" and
- various sales people became CEO (instead of people with some tech background who knew the industry) and
- part-time CTO and
- a series of bad acquisitions and missed acquisitions and
- the current crop of incompetents/wokesters was brought in
- the company's R&D team failed to anticipate the market dynamics ...
How many bad steps from the Board and management does it take to lose respect?
Hiring NC