So, curious to know, in your opinion which TR initiatives (big or small) are epic failures? I can think of several recent ones that were just totally done halfa$$.
16 replies (most recent on top)
The chief strategy officer wall of shame
scanlon
MueIIer (twice for 3 months - funny)
Punt (gone within 12 months)
Wilburn (gone within 12 months)
Larson
CRMP! Miserable failure and waste of money
The TR initiative to find a competent chief strategy officer. There have been 6 or 7 in seven years. Each on huge compensation packages. Pop quiz, can anyone name who these clowns were and how long they actually lasted in the job?
Surprised no one has mentioned CRMP in all of this. So many millions wasted.
The "change program" didn't work for HSBC. It didn't work at Credit Suisse. Remind me again why a person with this track record and whose undergrad degree is in chemistry from Univ of Bristol is qualified to be COO of anything. She must interview well.
Project Lotus little brother the "change" project. and of course Onvio
“Tax Alerts”
Some people (most) in this response are clueless. MyPay Solutions simply leverages an existing product the business had for the professional market. And then from above the professional business head got massive budget cuts.
Tax simple was part of an acquisition for the professional segment that they decided to take a look at for no budget. Shut down quickly.
The Onvio line was just the next generation of the products and the to reach the golden place in true SaaS. The business philosophy was to start the next generation of products as soon as it released the last one. Fantastic process and execution, that provided consistent growth of at least 50% higher than the market. But guess what? Massive budget cuts, primarily as a result of an ill faded Government acquisition by a “business leader” that is still at TR that probably cost the business at least half a billion dollars before it could be dumped!
Did I say the executive that pitched that acquisition is still there?
And the professional software business grew consistently and was very profitable, year after year after year. Even very strong during the financial crash, when TR acquired Reuters, another albatross.
And to the point of consistent product investment, someone best wake up and re-invest in UltraTax, fast. Nothing has been done to it in almost 4 years.
And the Irrepressible product management organization got a new VP that has experience with some of these failures. Brilliant move.
Project Lotus takes the cake
Along the same lines but the question I have is: When/what is the last successful product we created vs bought? Edge? Anything else?
Any group that decided subject matter experts and domain knowledge experts should be offshored contractors. Smart move! Now the company relies on external contracting firms to tell them how their own products work. What could go wrong?
The change program - unmitigated disaster but KR needs to spin something so she gets her money
Onvio is an unmitigated disaster.
Startups and other companies are light-years ahead in the cloud.
It remains to be seen if TR will acquire some of these companies or start selling off the tax & accounting business.
Eventually, something will have to give - and in either case, Onvio just needs to be relegated to the scrap pile of failed projects and initiatives.
MyPay for at least a decade. TaxSimple. Onvio Firm Management. Onvio Tax US. OnBalance.
Project Lotus.
Huge amount of money spend, nothing of substance delivered. Those responsible either fired or in other roles now but my goodness what a cluster.