I’m very familiar with the layoffs, why they happened, and what is next. I hope this post puts some of you at ease.
Xx There is a great deal of value with Sirius. No finger pointing. There are no issues there other than some of their current sales leaders not being able to maintain the enterprise relationships that they we confident in, which is equally due to CDW’s sales leadership combined with letting go of many strong leaders in Sirius. There is no blame game happening. We remain very pleased with the vast majority of Sirius coworkers.
Xx There are no more layoffs in the works, for now at least. If you are here, you are safe unless you are subject to an individual performance issue. Let’s see how it goes next quarter. Please let all of this distraction go and fight for the success of the company and understand how your work impacts NGOI dollars directly.
Xx This layoff was a minuscule fraction of the total population which is why there have been no global communications, and handled at a department level. The layoffs are mostly related to either individual performance or mission forward initiatives that need to be cut in favor of others that are more important right now in this market. This is normal course of business stuff. If you are impacted, the direct departmental leaders wanted you out for some reason, most likely related to priority, performance, cost or culture.
Xx If you were laid off , it was a very difficult choice, but necessary for the health of the rest. The decisions were made in December, then put aside until this week. The package is measurably better than what is typically given in a VAR business elsewhere and CDW is generously helping with outplacement, salary continuance and COBRA. CDW waited until now to assure coworkers had a good holiday season without this shadow affecting holidays and families. The ITS events last week had nothing to do with the timing; we just aren’t that coordinated. It was all about getting to this point in the year to help impacted coworkers, but also needed to happen prior to earnings season.
Xx CDW’s legacy performance management remains a pretty big blind spot, but we are waking up to it and its going to change. Tenure will be less important than contribution and relevance. We will all be measured objectively against goals in the future, which is how it should be in a healthy, well run company. It will probably feel more like Sirius moving forward. There is a post about revenue producing functions, which I don’t fully agree with, but is more close to reality than not. We need to understand how to quantify our direct impact and value beyond just doing our own jobs well.
Xx Our Digital Velocity business unit remains where the market is going, but it wasn’t executed correctly when looking in the rear view mirror. We made many mistakes with it because it is not our core business and we didn’t understand it well. No blame, it is a problem we all own and will subsequently fix together. As we have looked at other businesses, and we listen to our newly acquired coworkers from still other businesses we have bought, it has finally become obvious that we need to run that business differently than our traditional business. CDW is now making plans for the next iteration of that business and there will be investments made, and governance changes which in part explains the position advertisements that are out there. The Digital Velocity team will change and the leadership will lead the way by trying things in that business before we execute more broadly. It will start with people and performance.
Xx GCF is happening. There has been a great deal of thought put into it. The last thing we want to do is to make our coworkers angry and alienate them, so we shouldn’t worry about it other than it’s a change from how things were before.
Xx If you are here today, you are almost certainly safe as long as you can adapt to change, which is the only thing that is constant in a technology company if it is to win and thrive. You should bring your ideas related to change, rather than trying to find ways to make things fit into the past.
Xx Like many, we have over-rotated on DEI. It’s important, but not if the company is not healthy or is not able to perform because we have put that ahead of performance. The best part about CDW is our common goal which is that everything we do revolves around the customer. If they are happy, we are able to work and solve problems in the business and address social issues at the same time.
Xx Confidence is great, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Let’s all remember that.
Xx If you still don't want to be here, you should just leave now. If you decide to stay, make a decision right now to do the best you can, and then do even a little bit more, so that the business thrives in order to be able to take care of its people so that they in turn thrive. Nothing else really matters with respect to our work.
54 replies (most recent on top)
No… what is really going on is that CDW is a highly siloed organization and lacks a coherent go-to-market strategy. Without clear goals and direction, it will drift aimlessly until it hits something that causes it to take on water and sink. The leadership is in a bubble, ideas proferred by those in the ground are ignored.
It's appalling that they're laying off Sales Reps when they're told Marketing MUST be centralized and then the reps get next to zero Marketing Support. Don't even get me started on the embarrassment of what we call a website. If there is no clear proof of a "value add" to what we resell, customers will buy direct from the manufacturer or provider. It's not complicated. But hey, let's just keep splashing out money on swag and drinking junkets at conferences.
As a senior AM of 6 years. Internal CDW processes are so clunky that half the battle of selling services is navigating the convoluted process AND they’re withholding commission unless you sell a certain amount of OVERPRICED services. Thinking of finding a new AM position. Also, salesforce was a massive waste of resources IMO.
Prediction: 2023 Q4 figures won't be great, 2024 Q1 will be worse.
Chunky layoffs April 2024, a year on from the last larger redundancy wave.
That is The CDW Way© after all.
Still, could be much worse.. imagine being at VMware now and getting the Hock Tan slam lol
“Xx Confidence is great, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Let’s all remember that.”
‘Big tree, fall hard’ -caveman voice… wa-ker lol.
Cough, Eccles, cough...
End of the day, it's a public company and nothing matters other than the shareholders. We show huge profits that suggest no one should be let go but not enough to make the shareholders happy. Look at the top 15% shareholders. That's the problem.
Does
“how about we all stop bashing each other and work towards a common goal?”
I agree. There needs to be honest review of management and sales. How about direct reports perform reviews of their direct management and direct sales. I’d guarantee there would be a common theme.
Sirius had more service sales on a per employee basis at a much higher margin than CDW. That's a fact. If I remember correctly, Sirius' overall service sales were half of CDW's overall service sales despite the fact that CDW was 5-6x larger. The numbers are even worse when you consider that CDW had huge product sales to leverage services against.
The issue I've seen is that CDW just can't help themselves with their low-hour, cookie cutter SOWs which have little value add. Many of us are sick and tired of seeing legacy CDW employees act like their cr-p doesn't stink and engage in a bashfest against other acquisitions. It's old, tiring, and not necessary - remember, none of us asked to be acquired and to be frank, CDW's benefits and perks are terrible and frankly embarrassing compared to what many of us came from. We're just trying to earn a living and support our families in a poor tech job market.
Regardless, I have an even better idea - how about we all stop bashing each other and work towards a common goal?
“ If you decide to stay, make a decision right now to do the best you can, and then do even a little bit more.”
Tell me this…at what point do worthless, underperforming sales managers and directors get let go? There are so many in place at CDW who are absolutely awful leaders, but stay in the same role with the same teams for YEARS. They are dead weight. C-Suite needs to hold them more accountable for their lack of leadership skills, rather than continuing to feed their egos while at the same time letting go of other, much more valuable coworkers who bring much more to the table.
“The best part about CDW is our common goal which is that everything we do revolves around the customer.” … everything actually revolves around money at CDW… yes CDW is a for-profit company which CDW has made that clear in several of their all-hands. It’s the first thing front and center on CDW slideshows. Which is the problem… It really should be customer first, employees and then money will come. Take care of the first two and the 3rd won’t be a problem… there is so much toxicity between management and sales people, looking to get their cut of the pie it is truely appalling.
Lol...your point one unfortunately just isn't true. Sirius and FP were big mistakes on our part. CDW got a bad bill of sale on those. They had the greatest con going in regards to what they were making vs how knowledgeable they actually are. I've had both Sirius and FP legacy reps on various customer calls and it's basically read off a power point, no real technical knowledge or further scoping, once they have to go off script. I literally had one customer hang up on a legacy FP rep because the call was so bad. Their versions of ISA's are nowhere as competent as what CDW legacy has offered in those positions.
Mimicking their business model is a bad idea, and isn't going to work for CDW unfortunately. It worked for them with the "named accounts" because they didn't have the volume of AMs and accounts our specialists have to deal with now. You mention what's worked in the past doesn't work now, it's not true, you don't have to reinvent the a wheel that has been working well. Everyone is all for change as long as it makes sense and makes things MORE efficient. Jamming a new system down AM's throats in a model that isn't going to work isn't the way. We've voiced it on the sales level, but no one wants to hear it. Just look what's happening right now in Security. Mass confusion and the new "roles" are doing nothing but slowing processes down and creating more hand offs, not less. Way less effective than the old model.
The tail wagging the dog mentality of Sirius running the show isn’t working. Also, when are sellers going g to be required to come in on a weekly basis? It’s ki-ling the culture and partner relationships.