Upvote or downvote to vote the leadership
8 replies (most recent on top)
10/10 for VMware leadership. They did exactly what the board ordered them. They were governed by NDA and broadcom masters. They got us excellent severance terms.
Upset as I am they did their job as dictated by board and Michael dell.
I know there are a lot of people who are blaming this fully on either BC or VMW's c-level execs, but there's plenty of blame to go around.
BC certainly could have done a better job communicating. They're not prohibited from giving _any_ information to employees, and the excuse that they have subsidiaries in different jurisdictions with different rules doesn't fly--nothing prevented them from sending a separate email to Irish employees from the one they sent to employees in India. I've been part of four (five if you count EMC/VMW) acquisitions and this was the worst-run--by far--of any of them.
On the VMW side, the executives could have done a better job too. Their actions might be constrained by NDAs, but that's no excuse for how little they've communicated. Again, you don't have to offer detailed information if you can't, but the last six months of crickets--followed by the current chaos--is inexcusable. The cancelling of the all-hands on the pretext of "scheduling conflicts" is just the icing on the incompetence cake.
I'm not naive enough to think that either of these organizations has my best interests at heart. But you'd think their own self-interest would preclude taking actions that are going to drive employees away. I don't know if Hoc just doesn't understand software development or what, but the engineers who understand the code base are literally the most important asset VMW has. You want to watch a software company go down the toilet? Fire every developer who knows anything. What could possibly go wrong?
I hope everyone will find other (better) employment in the aftermath, whichever way it goes.
The captain has let go of the wheel. For weeks, VMware has operated without leadership. This is so unfortunate. Close this deal already and get the team back on track. We have work to do.
Dumpster fire!
One day, folks will write an academic article on the failure of leadership during acquisitions and use VMware as a case study. Even after talking to my VP directly about how we need to fill the leadership void urgently, no one has an interest in standing up and being a leader in a time like this --- disappointing, to be honest.
Executives know what is happening and who will stay and who will go
Not only do they not know, but they don't care to know. Raghu has no clue, Sanjay doesn't know who in Umesh's BU, etc. Your GM/SVP may know with 95% certainty, but they are also focusing on keeping the business going. Only Broadcom knows 100%, because they keep people in reserve. x% are in limbo as they wait to see how many people turn down the initial offer.
Otherwise you get the typical M&A blunder of "You're laid off! Sorry, never mind, can you come back?". Would you prefer that, or hearing nothing for a few days?
1 out 10 score. A vacuum of information to VMware employees during very stressful times. Executives know what is happening and who will stay and who will go, but hide behind the "its all in Broadcom's hands" wall. Cowards. Devoid of leadership and courage. They are obsessed about being enriched through the acquisition and don't care one iota about the humans who will be impacted by it. EPIC is a ruse to fool the minions that they are valued and loved.
What leadership?