Thread regarding Cengage layoffs

5m Rebranding Campaign to be Announced

Greetings,

In today's fast-paced world of Ed-Tech, Cengage needs to remain the leader. While Cengage Unlimited has proven to be the clear standout in a crowded field of learning tools, we must provide the necessary resources to stay a transitional force in modern learning.

The company has utilized its resources to re-launch our flagship platform, Cengage Unlimited, and will soon begin a full-scale marketing effort designed to engage our customers better. The action will include stylish swag for students and faculty, discount movie passes to student ambassadors, and a more inclusive price of $99/yr to make our product more equitable.

In addition, a percentage of the profits will be donated to the oppressed people of the Gaza Strip as they continue to struggle against their oppressors. Cengage opposes the illegal occupation and will do its part to show solidarity. We will continue this until the occupiers get on the train!

As many of you know, Cengage Unlimited has, to date, been an unmitigated success. We will strategically realign our business to become more agile, productive, and scalable. The two-in-a-box thinking of the leadership team has proven to be effective, and department managers will share these business updates with you as time permits.

Full Stop!

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| 2753 views | | 18 replies (last October 21, 2023) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1oZiDgOS

18 replies (most recent on top)

@cpog+1oZiDgOS Don’t make it weird, man.

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Post ID: @diei+1oZiDgOS

It’s all about market penetration, about penetrating the market in the same fashion the reps are penetrated at the NES, brutally and without lubrication.

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Post ID: @cpog+1oZiDgOS

Are they just letting go Field Reps? No word of layoffs in the Kentucky Office. I’ve been checking my email all morning. So I am assuming everything is cool?

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Post ID: @9sft+1oZiDgOS

Greetings,

Over the last several quarters, the average drop in cash has been ~100M. At the beginning of Q4, the center of engagement had ~100M remaining, which leads us to one question - is Cengage entirely out of cash?

The question shall be answered when the numbers come out. At this time, we can only speculate as to what is to come. Cengage has led the Ed-Tech industry for over one hundred years and, without the oppressive and backward thinking of the previous governmental administration, was on the cusp of completely revolutionizing the way students learn. Instead, many of us - including myself, worried about being deported.

As the report draws near, we must tighten our belts and sharpen our pencils - even if the belt you are wearing costs $ 5,000 and was purchased to wear at Davos and your pencil is virtual. Know that your leadership team is doing everything it can to right the ship and continue to score win after win.

Full Stop!

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Post ID: @9gah+1oZiDgOS

@6xlj+1oZiDgOS

WTF, we got people LARPing as IPS now?

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Post ID: @7grq+1oZiDgOS

Greetings,

I once sat in a re-org meeting where it was like The Office where they decided to fire someone else instead of the intended target because someone liked to go to on trips with the soon-to-be fired employee and their "life partner".

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Post ID: @6xlj+1oZiDgOS

@3sff+1oZiDgOS I hate to break this to you, but you are giving your manager way too much credit for being in the know. I've sat in these decision rooms before. The decisions are made very quickly, with little thought. It's just names in a spreadsheet.

Your manager could very likely be let go first.

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Post ID: @4ugc+1oZiDgOS

The q4 numbers must be really…really bad.

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Post ID: @4dfa+1oZiDgOS

Why even have sales goals. Seriously?

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Post ID: @3xni+1oZiDgOS

I have a meeting set up with my manager to go over sales goals for 10/26 in Independence. So I don’t think there are any plans for a shut down. Maybe there is some new campaign.

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Post ID: @3sff+1oZiDgOS

I sold a competing and better product against Mind Tap. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. It wasn’t even fair.

We pretty much wiped the list off the face of the earth.

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Post ID: @3bmb+1oZiDgOS

@2zpf+1oZiDgOS

A full page ad in the PRINT edition of the New York Times Sunday Magazine. To announce the launch of a "revolutionary" new DIGITAL platform.

We also spent well into the 6-figures for a promotional spot at the TED conference which was only seen by the 1%er attendees....the vast majority of whom had nothing to do with higher ed. It was a vanity spot so a handful of execs could say they were involved with TED, which they talked about frequently.

We also hired one of the trendiest ad agencies to come up with the name. We spent well into the 6-figures for that and they gave us....MindTap.

The best part of the entire launch was the platform was so underdeveloped that no one could articulate what the F it actually did (answer: not much). So our VP - who thought he was the 2nd coming of Steve Jobs - just ran wild and pretended he was launching an Apple product with empty, meaningless taglines like "Give educators an orange!" We ended up giving them a lemon. Ah memories....

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Post ID: @3mmg+1oZiDgOS

Cengage actually took a full page ad to announce that piece of dog sh-t? You really can’t make it up.

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Post ID: @2zpf+1oZiDgOS

With Cengage, it’s all about penetration. Get into that market and make a change. Then go to the ES.

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Post ID: @2gin+1oZiDgOS

What is it? Official position???
In addition, a percentage of the profits will be donated to the oppressed people of the Gaza Strip as they continue to struggle against their oppressors. Cengage opposes the illegal occupation and will do its part to show solidarity. We will continue this until the occupiers get on the train!

Today???

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Post ID: @1bnn+1oZiDgOS

Thank you, IPS. This is incredibly exciting news. As someone who was involved in the marketing launch of MindTap under NQ, I can tell you Cengage has a long and successful history of establishing itself as a premium brand among the student and educators. With MindTap we "Gave educators an orange" and showed our customers we were on the cutting edge of EdTech by taking out a full-page ad in the print edition of the New York Times announcing the arrival of MindTap. Additionally, we showed screen shots and logos of MindTap via a paid appearance at the yearly TED conference, where major EdTech influncers such as Al Gore were excited to learn about the possibilities of giving educators an orange. This 7-figure marketing budget paid massive dividends as the initial launch of MindTap was an unmitigated success. Happy to see Cengage continue to lead in the marketing space!

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Post ID: @1nkn+1oZiDgOS

Multi passes!

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Post ID: @1jfz+1oZiDgOS

IPS for CEO. Am I the only one who reads this in the CEO's voice?

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Post ID: @1wxp+1oZiDgOS

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