Dear Lord, thank you for ridding us of Val Snyder. He was an evil little weasel that brought great harm and suffering to L-3. His “fruit” is the pain and loss CSW suffers from today. He was the worst president the division has ever had, by far. There is no joy today, only the shock, destruction and terror he leaves in his wake.
It would be appropriate for corporate management to learn a lesson here and go back to consider how they made the horrid mistake of putting such an incapable stooge into a key position. He had poor engineering skills, and little to no background in business systems, manufacturing, finance, process, quality, supply chain management, marketing, and program management or the ability to build strong customer relationships. And yet, he was given the position to lead the company at a critical transitional juncture in its history. In retrospect, it was like giving a 5 year old a 5-gallon can of gasoline and a box of matches. The outcome was inevitable. He had no admirable character traits: no sense of loyalty, no sense of duty, no vision for how to develop products that could compete in our niche market and grow the company. He had not a drop of patriotic blood in his body. He never considered how L-3 could help support our nations security. Poor Frank Lanza would roll over in his grave if he knew what dismal leadership his original flagship division had in place.
Sorry if some readers here feel like Val is being kicked while already down, that is not the purpose of this message. There is a serious lesson to be learned here.
The culture of the company develops directly from the senior leader. It is how that person, on a daily basis, acts, thinks, and behaves that sets to tone of the culture. In selecting the next president, it would be wise if both competent and noble traits were the criteria for selection.
The division’s culture has been deeply corrupted. During the past few years, higher-level management decisions were made based on cronyism, settling grudges, self-benefiting politics, nepotism, paranoia, and who knows what other nonsense.
We need someone with a sense of direction with the desire to lead and ability to compete. We need someone with character. Someone who is tough, fair, and can separate the BS from fact. The days of nepotism and petty politics needs to end.
How are we going to compete with the new entrants in the high bandwidth secure communications market? How are we going to structure the company to make better decisions, products the services need and want, be more streamlined to lower costs, quicker to market, with added features and higher reliability. How do we reward people who will build a strong company verses ego-building empires? How are we going to reduce and eliminate inefficiency? How do we get rid of the fiefdoms that drive costs yet add little to no value? How are we going to make the business systems work efficiently, without armies of analysts? (It’s in many departments it's in their own self interest to not let SAP work) How can we use discretionary IRAD money to prove concepts and reduce technical risks on upcoming competitive contracts rather than pay for things that should bid as contract specific tasks? How do we earn back customers respect, trust and business? How do we get our dignity back?
We are a company in crisis and are desperate for honorable leadership. We need someone who knows the market, knows how to run a business, and refuses the corrupt ways of the current leadership team. It's time to clean house.