Thread regarding 3M layoffs

I see no future left with this place

The fanatical obsession with meeting next quarter's numbers to mollify Wall Street is diametrically opposed to being a strong innovation company. The linkage between end customers and CRL and Divisions was very strong for decades. It covered all businesses. Major advances in road sign and road paint to improve nighttime visibility was a classic win-win. Think how many lives have been saved. Just pulled my winter gloves out for the first real cold blast of early Winter and love seeing Thinsulate.

Desi may have been a so-so CEO and perhaps a good example of Peter Principle, but the innovation didn't die with him. The problem began with James McNerney. He's the one who decided the penny-wise pound-foolish strategy of starving CRL to pay for bigger dividends or buying back shares was a winning strategy. WS loved the guy. Employees not so. Other than a 20% boost in 3M share price the week he was announced in 2000, the share price didn't beat the SP500 by much for the rest of his failed tenure. Inge borrowing billions to buyback shares and scare off activist investors saved his and Mike's job but left the company starved of new blockbusters.

Like Field of Dreams (build it and he will come), for CRL is needs to be "invent it and customers will come" - BBs obsession with NPIs only breeds game-playing (how about a peach colored sticky note, any one?). When Desi pushed for 30% of sales from new products, he at least fully funded CRL. BB, nope!

Just happy I somehow made it to the right age/experience to get pension and retiree medical support (although BB is sc--wing people over to be "competitive"). I see no future left with this place. Just pump it full of painkiller and break it off into pieces and hope the divisions don't end up with a Bryan Hanson 40 million dollar man doing what he's doing to wreck SOLV.

Perfectly said, @z9+1k9bbemrv.

#Culture #Innovation #Future #Retirement
by Anonymous
| 3581 views | | 9 replies (last December 10) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1ka6d2jjt
Comment! It's anonymous!

9 replies (most recent on top)

@3ny exactly what Chainsaw Al did at Sunbeam. And the Board signed off until investors sued when sales and earnings tanked after a few rounds of the gameplay.

BB, if 3M is really doing this, needs to have his bonuses clawed back and his Florida yacht impounded.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @3pg+1ka6d2jjt

@3ny is this the first time numbers have been pulled forward to meet goals?

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @3p6+1ka6d2jjt

There is so much being done to pull sales forward to make quarter numbers it's crazy. When that direction comes from the top, who's gonna be a whistle blower on the short term schemes being done?

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @3ny+1ka6d2jjt

Look at the insider trading. Which executives have been dumping their shares & options.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @mb+1ka6d2jjt

@dc Roman started the cuts when he realized that Inge starved research to borrow money to buyback shares to goose the share price and scare off activist investors who might have forced him out and broken up the company.

Hanson is simply either clueless and just cutting since he can't come up with a true growth strategy. Or he's being forced to cut costs by the activist investor Peltz because SOLV share price has been flat during his tenure plus zero dividend. Either way, people who joined HC somehow ended up worse than if they had stayed at 3M.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @e6+1ka6d2jjt

Understand how hard it is sometimes to get annoyed and frustrated with certain things going on, but keep chipping away at your daily work, don't think too far into the future if you don't have to, i have only a few months before i leave and yes my ambition has never materialized. It took me a few years to realize that my face and invisibility to management brought me no gains where I thought I could build on, but to be the bigger person and rise up and see out my career. Looking forward to going now, want to see the company progress , hope everyone gets more out of what they put in, good luck

by 88
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Post ID: @e5+1ka6d2jjt

@b6
I think Hanson is even worse than Roman. The cuts are fast and mighty, with little thought to maintaining top line sales.

by Constant
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Post ID: @dc+1ka6d2jjt

Amen brother, amen.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @bc+1ka6d2jjt

If it's even possible, SOLV layoff board is painting an even more dreadful picture of what happened under the "leadership" of the Forty Million Dollar Man (Bryan's salary and bonuses) than BB has inflicted on 3M.

Sounds like their CEO is another Roman, haphazardly cutting jobs with no strategy nor any hope. At least BB has doubled the share price so that some GESPP are now in the black. Not that I care for BB one iota.

Desi was very average but could have guided 3M or SOLV to a better performance without slashing as many heads. At least he refused to let Wall Street dictate to him to layoff 1000s.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @b6+1ka6d2jjt

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