As an ex HCB sales person who got "stuck" at 3M I still follow all my old European colleagues on Linkedin. Life looks amazing at Solventum! It's seems like unlimited travel and many chances to get together and meet in person at amazing high end conferences. At 3M we can't go anywhere . But then I come on here and it's all doom and gloom , seems like the two things be true so which one is it ???
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@OP looks like everyone is having an amazing time in Malta ! Dental must be thriving !
@2qk This is a brilliant post and makes a lot of sense!
@2qk What's the craziest thing we could do about it? Nothing but watch it happen or leave?
@2pp the private equity comparison is quite interesting and applicable here. Bryan is following the same script.
The big difference is when PE typically takes over a company, it has little debt. Then the PE firm borrows heavily to pay themselves back for their "investment" used to buy the company. The company's best parts are parceled off, like has happened for Filtration. More divestments happen, with the upper echelon (mostly external hires) somehow rewarding themselves with incentive clauses for each "spin" while the 90 percent of the worker bees get Christmas layoffs.
The dissolution of what was 3Ms HCBG is about 2 years long into a 5 year plan. Solventum Way is simply gobblygook for PE playbook tactics.
Bryan will also enrich some consulting firms by developing the Drive to Zero (zero being left over of the company). Maybe Dom and buddies at Kearney want another bite of the apple from what was 3M.
In about three years, some final piece of the company, heavily in debt and saddled with potential liabilities handed down from 3M will finally expire into bankruptcy. Bryan will have pocketed a cool 200+ million for his "troubles" and hard work in the machete job he was hired to do.
This POS stock is down 15 percent for the year but Bryan and his cronies (Heather, etc.) Are well fed and comfy, with 5000 sq ft McMansions with monthly energy bills higher than most SOLV employees mortgage payments.
What a frickin disgraceful way to maim and dismember this once great business.
I know people at SOLV personally. I don't recognize them on LinkedIn.
They're promoting an illusion – and privately, they'll admit it gives them chills. The ones who've been around long enough to know what a well-run company looks like are either in shock, mentally checked out, or quietly hoping they can survive until early retirement. That last part is no given: every year-end brings another round of layoffs. It doesn't matter what you've built or what your track record is.
Meanwhile, the org chart keeps filling up with external hires – Presidents, SVPs, VPs – while internal talent development is nonexistent. Zero organic growth in people. Just titles imported from outside.
The M&A narrative gets thrown around, but with a free cash flow of around $200M, the math doesn't support an acquisition strategy. What it does support is a gradual extraction play – stripping down assets until the remaining entity becomes an attractive takeover target. Watch which business unit gets sold next.
The bottom line: SOLV functions like a private equity vehicle. It serves the leadership team and their networks. If you're there to collect a check, chances are great to have your share. If you have actual talent and don't want to waste it, look elsewhere.
As a peon-level technical employee, I have no idea what you are talking about with unlimited travel and high end conferences. I suspect the discrepancy is one of job grade or function.
@OP It´s both. Business teams make amazing new-year conference and travel to nice places by the thousand, while other functional areas like R&D are being shrunk down.
@f7 it wouldn't be so bad if the buffet destroyer actually led her company through a sizeable share price growth. Instead she left a company that lost 80 percent of the peak share price and is getting sued by investors. She probably grabbed a lot of leftovers from the fridge on her last day there. Now she's probably getting a lot of T&E money at solventum to cover her "expenses".
@f2 I’m at the NTM now and thought there was a earth quake when the buffet destroyer took the stage!! Whoever gave her that name is right wow she is a large being! She did mention food several times in her speech….
This co is tanking so bad! I look around and you can just feel it everyone is checked out.
I’m just cashing checks and act like I care but will be outta here by the fall… before the next Christmas layoff…
Just wait and see...these people flashing their lives with Solventum, fancy company meetings, trips, stupid salary on job posting...it will all end. It is a joke that this company will even make 10 years total...it is being financially driven into the ground!
@b3 the worst part is the new hires Bryan has loaded down with lucrative signing bonuses and packages think anyone who joined from 3M is a blithering id--t. The destroyer of buffets is already making a reputation in Eagan. Don't get in between her and lunch cart. You will know what it feels like to be run over by a water buffalo
Feels the same as old 3M but instead of dedicated albeit not great executives we have a boatload of grifters who dgaf about the history or have any curiosity about why we got to where we are. They are subtle and often not that we are all id--ts and have never made good decisions. But most of us recognize the dismantling of 3M continues so it likely looks better in comparison on LinkedIn.
Check back every December for the Holiday Layoffs. It's a staple of Bryan. No dividend. Muted stock price growth. Maybe a few functions are happy, especially if you become a pet favorite of one of Bryan's external SVP hires like Heather.
The real winners are those who got spun with the filtration business and have escaped from the 3M/solventum shrinking (sinking) ship.