Something is happening. No clue what. But all associates were instructed to work from home tomorrow.
"We will discuss important organizational updates and critical information about our organization."
110 replies (most recent on top)
*The upcoming layoffs have a clear root cause: C-Suite leadership failures between 2024–2026.**
Here's the breakdown:
Vendor Sprawl is Bleeding the Balance Sheet
T. Rowe Price is running 10+ vendors for overlapping or identical use cases. The pattern is familiar — legacy vendors never get cut, while new modernization projects layer on top, doubling costs with no accountability. This isn't innovation. It's financial negligence dressed up as transformation.
New C-Level Hires Are Spending Without Direction
The recent wave of C-suite additions has greenlit initiative after initiative with no clear line-of-sight to AUM growth — the only metric that truly matters for an asset management firm. Leadership in NY and at HQ appear structurally disconnected from core business functionality, approving technology solutions that move no needle on revenue or competitive positioning.
Offshore Vendor Mismanagement is a Recurring Failure
Contracts are being signed with offshore vendors who consistently miss delivery timelines, shift goalposts, and fulfill little of their original obligations — on both short and long-term projects. Rather than enforcing accountability, C-Level leadership enables this cycle. The firm has capable, motivated internal talent ready to deliver. They are being sidelined. And now with AI Capabilities some of these could be internally developed efficiently. C-Level leadership needs to push for adoption to increase delivery efficiency using AI in this way, rather than showcase AI transformation and do offshoring like an incapable child.
To Investors Reading This:
Review the balance sheet carefully. Expense ratios and vendor cost lines will tell the story. The current trajectory is not consistent with long-term value creation. Reassess your position or partnership exposure accordingly.
To the Board of Directors:
This is a governance issue, not an operational one. The C-Suite needs to be held accountable. Every associate is also a stakeholder — and the sentiment on the ground is clear. The first corrective step is replacing executives who cannot demonstrate disciplined, outcome-driven leadership with those who can.
This organization has the talent. It lacks the leadership to unlock it.
@1h6 I’m actually really curious to know what this team does?
@OP why not synergise some events roles? Should be less budget for all these events anyway.
@1h6 good question they like to change the names of groups every year.
Okay folks. What is Distribution Enablement?
@1ce APAC? Of course the did
Did any IPRC in APC survive?
@14b seriously. Like 1 in 5?
@py should be about 20% of marketing/distribution enablement now with current tally.
@wg what’s global distribution enablement? Why did they do?
@w3 some of the layoffs were in GD, though they were specifically targeted for the Global Distribution Enablement team under PJ. So the post is correct.
The post is a bit misleading. It should’ve read marketing and not distribution. I think readers were thinking the RM team had mass cuts.
@tr it ranged from those to product marketers, IPRC writers, designers and more.
@mq is this mainly the digital marketing peeps and some of those ‘brand and advertising’ randos? Got one of those in APAC and I still don’t know how it is a full time job…
A very sad outcome but not surprising after 18 Quarters of net outflows. I really don't know how the board of a publicly traded company hasn't forced changes in the MC. This form has a lot of tenured associates and most have not kept up with changes in the broader market. Entitled behavior is rampant, especially in tech. I would expect more actions, hopefully not deep like this one and changes at the top.
@pn Not me that thinks it. That view is held 'up there'...I have done RFPs and know it's a demanding job that requires judgment and knowledge to produce good outcomes!
@mq what a gut punch. I was shocked when I heard it was 10%; 15% is unreal
I hope all the layoffs trigger partial termination which will make the impacted employees vest 100%
@p3 lol if you think that you’ve never seen the RFP process up close and also don’t have a lot of familiarity with AI and its strengths and weaknesses.
@mc AI will replace 90% of the RFP team.
@kj 15% of marketing employees (about 400) in Global Distribution.
@fc you get the vacation you’ve accrued. No personal or sick. Since it’s February, that won’t be much. I took the hit last July and almost half “my” PTO balance was clawed back and I was educated about how your PTO balance ≠ accrued balance (what you’re entitled to). Let’s say you get 6wks a year and are laid off the end of February after serving 2 out of 12 months. That’s 1/6th … and would equal 1wk paid out vacation only.
@jx I totally empathise with the RFP team. Distribution are too lazy to get involved in RFPs other than a glance at the final product. Many of the RM analysts also seem like not only are they too lazy, but are also too d-mb to critique and finesse the RFPs and add value. End product is a generic report of mainly standard database answers. This is not the RFP team’s fault. It is on the RM team.
The sad thing is no one at the company wants to actually change this. Distribution heads are out of touch and/or too lazy and/or plain stupid. I’m not sure about all offices but this is just my 2c based on local knowledge.
@k1 59 people is not 15% of the workforce
@j2 is this just Global Marketing? Or are you including Global Distribution more broadly in that? Anyone fact check this?
@j9 no one is saying it does. However it is an important factor and the point is it’s not just all performance related. If it was, most equity funds should not even have any money as most equity funds actually underperform the index.
@j2 15% is a whopping big cut by TRP standards. They didn't do a layoff this big (firmwide) in 2009.
Granted, marketing and distribution really bloated up during the McKinney-designed "strategic initiative" era, but this still seems like a capitulation -- an admission that the firm can't grow its way out of its period of stagnation.
Almost makes me the company dressing it up for a sale, and/or a radical cutback in the '40 Act fund lineup.
@fs I would guess because they have been severely understaffed for quite some time, to the point where they’ve had to decline good opportunities because there was no staff to work on them. Plus their role is directly tied to winning new assets. No RFP team, no new money.
@j2 Where did you see this number?
@fa Good client service does not outweigh the factors that were listed. "Hey, your performance was cr-p and your PM has left, but we delivered your reports on time and we're good people to deal with". No matter how good the servie is, if the product doesn't work then the client is gone.
397 Total people in the group. 59 let go.
@b0 when is GD going to get their wholesale layoff? It seems they’ve only had a trickle…
I never thought I’d say this…but man I miss Charles Pepin. He’s the one who can unite us.
@fn cross the board cuts are terrible. How come RFP team was spared?
@fe I think almost every group was hit except the RFP team. IPRC was hit badly, lots of very tenured associates gone.
@fb question - what value add are incompetent RM analysts that lack technical investment knowledge, are late in responding internally and externally, make constant mistakes AND get paid a lot of money? AI can AND should take their jobs soon.
Does anyone know which teams in GM and GD actually got hit with cuts and what they did? Serious question, genuinely wondering?
Good job T. Rowe once again messing people’s lives up with layoffs…and when I look at the job postings out there I see so many new postings out there over the last several weeks. Are these new jobs really needed? Or will you hire and then fire these new people in another 2 years as well?
@e9 also there 4 years. Severance will net about 2 weeks for every year, so I’ll walk away with 8 wks plus all my vacation and personal time. Insurance ends Feb 28. Having a lawyer look at it before signing but I’m guessing there won’t be much to negotiate, tho longer health insurance would be helpful…
@f7 It’s no coincidence this went down after the launch of ChatGPT Enterprise. The firm’s marketing strategy is to do more with less people and AI. Like every other company.