Thread regarding CDW layoffs

Legacy Sirius here. CDW kept Sirius in separate systems - still does. Forced Sirius to continue operating as an individual business unit - no legacy Sirius worker decided to do that in their own. Without successful integration of Sirius to CDW, we are forced to operate within the guidelines set. We begged for integration and were told the slow steady is the strategy - reality is that there is no strategy so everyone stays in limbo. The merger was good, but the integration (lack of) is a complete failure.

"How about you look at the lack of diversity within CDW?"

Lol - is this a joke? Go check backbone teams and tell me you feel confident in that statement. Ask Finance how they feel watching their entire group get cut and moved abroad. Go work with Technology for a bit and see how you feel.

As a long time (current) CDW employee I’ve never felt less confident in our direction from the top. It seems nobody understands customer priorities. We continue to ‘miss out’ on market trends, and I see our competitors excel. Shoot, we are no longer great at our core business model of selling stuff due to a host of operational challenges and a complete lack of urgency.

We continue to promote individuals from within for mission critical roles that have zero experience in said area. We need to start by looking at our executive talent and ensure they are in the right role.

All that being said, I’m not going anywhere (willingly) as I feel confident the area of the business I control will continue to perform. Even without the support from other BUs

This has devolved into ridiculous nonsense. Let’s stay on topic people. There’s not a leader anywhere that will jeopardize their position & the company to satisfy DEI initiatives, nor does leadership expect them to. They will hire & promote the ones that will make them look good regardless of what they look like or who they love. Stop concentrating on that junk and discuss how CDW can right the ship without blaming certain groups.

You guys are on it! CDW has been a hot mess!

ITS-DV had some good ideas since CDW bought IGNW and they took over DV (Cloud) leadership and was just messy how they took over and tried to integrate parts of CDW over, from Pro Services to Presales groups. Then the addition of Sirius just added more fuel to the fire. Everything was a mess including having to use multiple systems because DV favored Google Apps and Slack which was separate from CDW corp tools of choice. DV eventually dragged their feet in moving over to the corp standard but it was painful.

Good folks in ITS-DV have either left on their own or have been laid off …last year or earlier this year (January) cuts. Mind boggling the disorganization and lately I hear more are looking to jump ship. I know of 2 who quit within the past few months.

Some of the IGNW folks from the original CDW acquisition left because they stayed on for 3 years and earned their sweet deal incentive package and kissed goodbye. Their leaders were good technologists running a small startup-like tech firm but then handed the reins to run the DV dept and its been chaotic and operationally disorganized and the integration with legacy CDW Pro Services and Presales workers into the greater DV folks was just awful.

Huge nepotism going on as well in DV over the past year+.

Worked at CDW many years but glad I’m out. I’m hearing many good people are wanting to jump ship.

Has there been recent layoffs already or just feelings of an imminent layoff coming soon?

@4pqv+1tqVSH2a

CDW should retain the BEST talent. If you’re on my team, I don’t care what your race, gender, or orientation is - I want the person most qualified to help me succeed.

And you implying “non-diverse” talent is unqualified is totally absurd.

Why are you so triggered? DEI is an important policy to right the historical wrongs done to diverse populations. How about you look at the lack of diversity within CDW? CDW was right to retain diverse talent over entitled lazy unqualified non-diverse id--ts.

RACIST PIECE OF SH-T!!!!

"What kind of racist coded language is this? The only truly qualified people within CDW are the racially diverse coworkers."

Racist? Are you aware that "DEI" includes more than just race (at least 9 categories)? Nice job of showing the only aspect that matters to YOU. It wasn't a DEI focused post at all but that's obviously the only thing YOU cared about. Why is that? Are you insecure about how your job was obtained? If you are not aware that recent CDW layoffs have targeted coworkers to increase DEI goals you really should go back and read the post several months back from an obviously very senior SVP (now correctly deposed) who proudly admits to being involved in the layoff decision making process that "over rotated on DEI". It was older (from that post: "tenured") coworkers that were higher targeted. But that's not a class you care about, is it?

"CDW needs to fire everyone with these micro-aggressive attitudes because the customers are watching and will not engage a company full of racist ignorant id--ts."

Couldn't agree more that people like you, with a blatant racist macro-aggressive attitude, have no place at CDW. Good point bringing up that customers may care about doing business with companies like CDW that put DEI first. Maybe you should research what Tractor Supply (a large CDW customer, at least historically) has done with DEI recently. You might actually learn something, but I doubt it.

"Some still have their Sirius auto-signatures on instead of the CDW logo"

I once randomly spoke to Anand R about branding and was told we needed to have one, single CDW logo instead of some combination CDW + department logos in a signature (like many departments once used). Whenever I see a Sirius logo with "A CDW Company" I always laugh. What a joke that we cannot get these acquisitions to understand that their old company lifestyle is over and we need to consolidate. Sirius seemed like such an "aw shucks" Texas company where anything went.

"companies acquire others for a few basic reasons, cash flow, customer base, IP and buying market share."

Unfortunately CDW doesn't. CDWs acquires failing companies at fire sale to secure more coworkers because they won't actually pay for talent and cannot compete on the open market. It was the only way to "grow" during the Covid wage surge. The LAST thing they want is to give them an "exit plan" of any kind (except of course people targeted for mostly DEI initiative reasons). FP and Sirius talent was leaving in droves even before the completion of the acquisitions (see"failing", fire sale"). CDW managers were forced into a plan called "Operation Warm Blanket". The idea was to kiss the behind of all acquisition coworkers so they wouldn't leave and this was enacted straight from the top. That's why you see all the good roles going to acquisition people ("Operation Wet Blanket" was implemented for legacy CDW folks), and why acquisition coworkers are allowed to do anything they want even now, including the many stupid things listed here. It's also why their systems and processes, no matter how broken, became the new CDW direction. You see the geniuses who led these accusations justified them based on these companies knowing better than CDW, even though CDW had a very long history of growth and success. What happens when you do this, and put people who drove their company off a cliff in charge of CDW? See the current disaster that CDW is now. How many quarters of declining growth in a row? There were none before these failed acquisitions. Not a one. It was unheard of. If you can believe it, coworkers were actually happy and wanted to work at CDW.

Many Sirius team mates seem to believe they still work at a separate company that has their own processes and approvals - they don't.

It's long past time for Sr mgmt to have a very direct conversation with the acquired teams and explain the transition period is over and time to act like CDW or find another place that they do want to be part of. Yes I agree - offer exit packages and allow people to go to someplace where they do want to fit in. CDW is messed up enough with all of our policies and processes, having multiple ones and coworkers act like bratty kids that don't want to join the family at the dinner table and be part of the team is just not workable for anyone. We need to get the business going in one direction with everyone on board and stop this ridiculous bickering between us & them. It's just us now and if you don't want to be here, please use the door and let the rest of us try to get some work done.

"Many Sirius team mates seem to believe they still work at a separate company that has their own processes and approvals - they don't."

Why wouldn't they? Some still have their Sirius auto-signatures on instead of the CDW logo and our "CDW" office in Rosemont still has the Sirius sign hanging on it, public facing to the interstate and whoever visits. Ridiculous.

“ acquisition integrations doesn't understand how CDW is structured and what does and does not fall under her”

Yet another perspective on the "acquisition strategy" such as it is - companies acquire others for a few basic reasons, cash flow, customer base, IP and buying market share. CDW didn't acquire anyone (Sirius I'm talking to you) for their policies, processes and internal tech. And CDW hasn't really integrated well, we seem to kinda sorta let these acquisitions float along doing their thing with no structured integration plan. You can't have multiple systems, policies and business processes and expect it to work. There's a transition period where we should be clearly communicating how CDW does business (good or bad) and what CDW's expectations are. There's no incentive to adopt acquired technology or processes without letting everyone know what the strategy is or isn't. Many Sirius team mates seem to believe they still work at a separate company that has their own processes and approvals - they don't. Stop the confusion and explain CDW's business. Offer exit packages to all acquired people 6 months after the deal closes - let both parties decided it's a good fit or not but pretending it's all good when clearly there's major issues with account management (multiple sales people on the same account), deal approvals and processes conflict with CDW policy - fix the mass communications issues and let people know what CDW expects or give them an exit plan.

“ acquisition integrations doesn't understand how CDW is structured and what does and does not fall under her”

Respectfully, maybe you are the one who needs clarity? I agree with you on aspects of your post but I came from an acquisition and ended up leaving around the time of the big layoff and was working around the Sirius integration and Sona's team. I do keep in touch with peers from my former company. The frustration is and was mostly strategic. Sona’s team makes the acquisitions, most of them are purchased because they have something that makes them special, usually a technical advantage. But Sona then fails to understand and capitalize on the acquisition’s differentiator annd merge it into the overall CDW strategy and that makes those acquisitions’ thought-leadership talent very frustrated- I think the point of the poster’s comment. Thats on Sona. Yes Sanjay seems to be a sharp person but the IT integrations and systems are also part of Sona’s group and usually a downgrade, frustrating the teams’ ability to operate their business. Then, PPM messes up the acquisition’s partnering strategy with an outdated model and total lack of context, and the Marketing, or lack of it, is beyond words. Corley owns Sales and ITS and while that was frustrating at times, it worked decently and was a net positive because Sales did help grow the business and Eccles and his leadership team , many form acquisitions, seemed to advocate for the acquisitions. Also, from what I understand, most of the acquisitions have met their top-line goals. Good luck to you all.

There is so much right with this post but also so much wrong.
Anyone who blames Sona for a lack of acquisition integrations doesn't understand how CDW is structured and what does and does not fall under her. This quote here is telling:

"It also seems that Sona scoots off anyone who can genuinely innovate, possibly because it is threatening to her personal CDW piggy bank. Don't believe it? Look at the roster of post acquisition leadership teams and ITS. "

ITS falls under Corley, not Sona and was owned by Eccles throughout. How would the lineup of leadership within ITS post acquisition have anything to do with Sona?

If the posters point is that CDW may be overpaying at the top, especially at a time of under performance, that is fair. Sona herself seems to be pretty solid overall, but her direct reports vary greatly in quality. Some are really assets for CDW (like Sanjay), others are major liabilities. Her inability to tell which is is which is a problem and should be criticized.

That’s what you get with DEI hiring practices

Need Episode II: Attack of the Cronies.....

Episode 2 please

Need Episode 2!

I don't know why it's so therapeutic to see a post like this, but it is, even though it shouldn't be. My group has been raising many valid concerns about the "new" processes put in place with these acquisitions, which are way less effective paths than what were in place before. We try to give constructive feedback to our management team (several levels up even) to improve them and actually help this place, but it just falls on deaf ears and we are told to preach the company line, which none of us believe in. So much so it's actually one of our goals this year now that Workday is actually up (ie keep your mouths shut to other groups about the chaos going on).

I can't wait to get out, actively looking with a few things that seem to be lining up, fingers crossed. I'll just say I'm a very tenured CDW employee that before the last 2 years would never have considering leaving. If I get laid off before then, even better, give me at least a two or three months to reset my sanity.

Episode 2 please.

Can CDW compete for the talent at Amazon, Cisco, Google? The compensation and benefits are substantial at those companies

Yes she.is pretty bad. And so is most of her senior team it seems. Hot air. No experience. The weak hire the weaker. It’s embarrassing that our innovation and growth leader comes from Kohls and Walgreens. How about hiring an innovation officer from Apple or Amazon? Or AWS, Google, Microsoft or even Cisco, HP or Presidio or Insight? Someone who knows how to innovate and how to pivot and how we make money? And personally knows the partners? And the tech? Episode 2 please.

yes pls episode 2

Is there talk of new layoffs? That would be horrible.

Let's be honest, Chris Leahy needs to resign. CDW was a great place to work before she took over. The culture is gone. We have lost so many good tenured employees to outsource their jobs. Horrible acquisitions, layoffs, one bad decision after another. Created the most toxic work environment. CDW no longer cares about the employees, just the stock price.
The profit share was embarrassing yet how much did Leahy make last year?
We are losing customers because of the he-l we put them through to order from CDW. Writing is on the wall, so many people have left and are leaving. I left 6 months ago after 17 years. CDW has some great people still left but sadly they are not the ones in charge. Hopefully once this leadership is gone CDW can rebuild.

You might be on to something. Walgreens and Kohl’s simply are not the same after her leadership with those companies. Both are close to collapse. What can we do?

Oooof what a waste.

Yes please awaiting episode 2