Thread regarding Pearson PLC layoffs

Create a platform that provides digital course ware, digital learning, online test taking that FUNCTIONS. Customer service that is responsive, trained and intelligible. Most online retailers have conquered this now and during the holiday season when systems fray, they still function decently or come back quickly.

The US has decided to deprioritize live customer service and companies rely upon inferior outsourcing and chat bots. Pearson does a particularly bad job with this and it hurts the company.

Mentioned below is having synergy across departments and this, this is sorely lacking to company detriment. Stop bragging about stupid non-achievements and actually work to get in step with 2022.

Terrible treatment and low pay of the lowest level workers keep the foundation weak, wasting scads of time on corporate busy work is just that, a waste, not truly innovating because you want to keep your personal profits, and resisting the fundamental changes that are here to stay in education are foolish moves for a Long Term healthy company.

That’s not what the empty suits who run these irrelevant companies tell me. AB says the Spice Academy is going to revolutionize learning.

Here’s all you need to do. Ask anyone…your neighbors, friends, you own kids if they are willing to pay for the cr-p that educational published produce.

We all know the answer….

Here's the truth. It's not new but boy is it weird: in that first year of Covid, when the need & desire for digital learning solutions was probably higher than it ever will be again, Pearson managed to somehow to fall 12% . . . in the digital arena.

If that is not proof that end-users have no desire to use your technology, I really can't imagine what would be.

So I guess the question is - is change afoot? New products being developed? New content being released? If the answers to those questions are "yes" then there may well be hope on the horizon. If those answers are no, the clock keeps on ticking . . .

@9lgf+1extaUim Well, the President and Managing Director of Pearson Higher Ed have been at Pearson for 20 and 22 years respectively. That's all you need to know.

I haven’t heard anything but our leadership and products are old and uninspiring. I’ve heard nothing but excuses and inaction since I’ve been at Pearson.

The problem is no one was willing to stomach the massive drop in revenue that changes like you rightfully propose would cause.

The tragedy of it all is there is money to be made in EdTech (data services, comprehensive OPM, professional development). Digital transitions necessary for institutions to stay relevant will pump billions into this vertical. A black-eye of this organization has been never seeing the value of synergy between HigherEd CW and POLs, both still operate with little to no communication or understanding of what the other group is doing. That lack of cohesion plus Higher Eds inability and unwillingness to innovate or disrupt (moving away from a sole focus on content) may be the missed opportunity of a lifetime.

@7nec+1extaUim I really wish more people would understand and accept this fact. Marjorie, like most CEO's that take over mature companies, got what was hers. She almost certainly knew what would happen to the business looking ahead, but why should she have cared? Marjorie, like pretty much every CEO or senior exec in the business between 1990 and 2015 did nothing but push problems down the road. It was her/their only choice.

The chickens have long come home to roost. It's too late to innovate. It's really hard to do anything when pretty much everyone hates your product and business model. Moreover, most don't even need the product itself. I went through college in the 1990s and never bought texbooks. My guess is most of you reading this didn't buy them either.

I don't like paying for insurance. But I need it. I don't like paying my Verizon bill. But my smartphone is essential to my life. I dont like paying for gas. But I need to be able to drive to work.

I dont need to buy content. It's everywhere. I certainly don't need to be "forced" to buy it.

The business model simply doesnt work any more. Execs over the last 30 years squeezed every cent they could for themselves. I probably would have done the same thing.

@4zkk+1extaUim That’s the kind of thing we used to do that got us in this mess. We lived the high life while the world around us changed and we didn’t. People praise Marjorie for being ‘the last great CEO’ but she left a s***show no one has been able to fix - because it’s too late.

@6vah+1extaUim. This is such faulty thinking. "Nothing says f-you quite like booting a bunch of people out of their jobs and insurance during a pandemic lockdown just because you wanted to continue with your plans. "

They could not care less about you. They dont care about the pandemic and its impact. They dont care about your insurance. You are a number on a spreadsheet.

BTW unemployment is at historic lows.

Still waiting on the fate meetings to be scheduled. I’m sure they’ll just add more execs like they always do, shuffle around the boys clique and use a corporate buzzword generator to explain it. It’s hard not to be apathetic at this point, they pretty blatantly have said they don’t care about anyone. Should have known better when they bragged that no one was laid off due to Covid but that they were still going to do layoffs anyway just because. Nothing says f-you quite like booting a bunch of people out of their jobs and insurance during a pandemic lockdown just because you wanted to continue with your plans. Your plans that still lead to failure on failure.

I'm arriving at the Sales Meeting today at 3:00. Let's all meet in the Ritz Carlton Bar at 4:00 for drinks.

Oh wait. That was 10 years ago. My how times have changed!

Any idea when in January people will get more info? Anyone had meetings scheduled?

• None aside from the stuff about the 200 layoffs
• No idea. No one in particular comes to mind
• Not sure. Not convinced they're doing another sell yet
• Yes