There are 4 major signs that point to an imminent layoff at CDW.
Sign 1, cost cutting via a new the PTO policy will yield a large pickup in the financials and the timing is very suspicious. A policy like this should normally be implemented on a calendar year starting in Q1 to allow it to work through the system.
Sign 2, compare the CDW stock chart to the S&P 500 average. It is severely under performing peers and not participating in economic rallies, showing the weak fundamentals of CDW. There is no uncertainty in tech buying as being stated on the earning calls. CDW is just not performing, that simple. This is due to the complete miss on cloud by CC and CL, MC, SC and others while happily selling Cisco and HP, stealing investment funds from those partners to boost the numbers and ignoring what customers are really asking for. They should be terminated now for being so smug and stupid, missing the market opportunity and wrecking our great company but that is another post.
Sign 3, pressure and micro-management of costs such as limiting travel, program cuts, putting in time and upper management approvals of any hiring always means a layoff is coming at CDW. Look back over each prior layoff.
Sign 4, recent large layoffs at other weak and obsolete players like Cisco, Intel, Zoom, Unity and so forth, and their stock popping as a result of a layoff set a precedent and normalizes for greedy CDW leadership to pump the stock and their own bank accounts. See trueup dot io and stock charts to prove.
The signs are there good people, I will bet on it. I predict this happens in late September or early October, before earnings and before the holidays so that the execs can pat themselves on the back by not cutting you during the holidays. Happy thanksgiving everyone. Oh and to make things even worse for us and better for the stock I also predict some more acquisitions to distract the market and try to play catchup. More chaos and pain for us. Sirius anyone?
The bottom line is that we are just a tool and are completely expendable to these ruthless people. So what do we do now? Is it too late to avoid? Are we already on the list? It’s very difficult to find a job right now. Post in the comments.
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Generative AI (where its useful) still requires a ton of effort and skill to use effectively and I can't see that changing very quickly, despite what the id--ts who only learned about it when ChatGPT came out and think it will replace everything. The id--ts who fire their staff will quickly learn that fact when their companies fall apart.
At what point will the EC be held accountable - Specifically, Corley’s organization which hasn’t hit target in how many quarters??? Any layoff’s should start & end in her organization. Most notably in the awful, bloated, overpaid “leadership,” and of whom she should be first in line. Isn’t it time for her to retire anyways?
Unlimited PTO is a HUGE red flag and ultimately a total con. You never get to use your PTO and when you get clipped they don’t have to pay anything out. Lots of comments here on DV. Is there any light there? I have not seen a lot come out of that area of the biz but def think there is potential. No idea what to market strat is though. Any thoughts on futures there? Seems like they running a skeleton crew now
“Over the past 2 years, between layoffs and those quitting....DV has lost a lot of folks including the Cloud GM. The 2 layoffs between last year and this year chopped a number of good DV guys who were at CDW a long time. etc etc”
Sorry but I think much of your analysis is incorrect unless you are coming from the perspective of a long time CDW data center person, except for some of the integration, comp and cultural issues you mention. The result of CDW’s hubris is that CDW has tried and failed at going somewhere in the cloud business 3 times now, and still doesn’t understand it although the current numbers and business size of DV are somewhat respectable. The IGNW leaders were frustrated, as were many of the CDW and the Sirius leaders because upper management doesn’t understand that Cloud is primarily a services-first business that requires understanding the workload plus some decent IP, that CDW wouldn’t pay/goal sellers on cloud, the acquisition integrations were huge steps backwards for IGNW and Sirius business agility, and the PPM/Marketing team botched the strong cloud relationships enjoyed by both Sirius and IGNW, and the sales people could subcontract competitors and get paid more. The DV operational procedures and organization that created some rift were designed on purpose to try to mitigate some of this, which of course failed without corporate support. We collectively blew up solid cloud IP from both Sirius and IGNW that were market ready in the name of risk mitigation, and now we are behind. Checked out leaders and turnover didn’t help either. Eccles, Bleeker, Conley, Melton, Ancona, Bergan, Grantham, Mierzwa, Wynkoop, Gau, Pyle, Cadwell, Lee, Mertens, Nelson to name just a few, and a whole bunch of other very good sellers, engineers and leaders who had significant success, relationships and experience in enterprise services and cloud are gone and the business suffers greatly because of it.
The way to recoup from all of this is to swallow the pride, understand what happened, learn what is up in the market and take sweeping corrective action against the gaps, not repeating the same mistakes, and for gosh sakes make sure to keep the strong leaders and team members that remain and let them do what they do without encumbrances. CDW can compete well if we do this.
Over the past 2 years, between layoffs and those quitting....DV has lost a lot of folks including the Cloud GM. The 2 layoffs between last year and this year chopped a number of good DV guys who were at CDW a long time. The purchase of IGNW to run DV was awful how they integrated with Classic CDW Presales and Professional Services practices. You had 2 disjointed practices that took a long time to integrate and the IGNW guys who took over did their own thing. For the longest time it was awful where IGNW wanted to use Slack and Google Apps and CDW was all in on M365 and DV folks had to juggle between the tools. Native DV guys were quite resistant to port over to the CDW standard platforms.
The DV Presales Director was able to keep at lot of her buddy friends stick around during the 2 layoffs but a number of them had weak Cloud Solution Architect skills and experience...but promoted as SAs and pushed them to get Associate Cloud certs.
In 2022 a CDW Datacenter SA moved to DV but by early 2023 he moved back to the Datacenter practice because he couldn't stand the disorganization and whirlwind chaos in DV....again he had seen enough and moved out of DV back over to his original Datacenter team/dept.
In 2022 DV tried a new team reorganization but then only to decide in early 2023 that they were scrapping it and redoing the team alignment again.
Back in 2021-22 they also lost a bunch of Associate Consulting Engineers....many jumped ship after getting a couple years of experience because CDW underpaid them. I spoke to a number of DV Pro Services Cloud Engineers especially in 2022 and there was a huge gap in communication with how the new DV would integrate the legacy CDW Pro Services teams. Everything was botched and it has just slowly gone downhill with layoffs and key personnel quitting. One Principal Cloud Solution Architect I'm familiar with actually quit about a month after the April 2023 layoffs. The CDW Cloud Technical Architect also left in 2022...frustrated from working with the stone-walled new DV group that again was taken over with new top leadership from the IGNW group.
A handful of DV folks over the past couple of years also moved out to the DX Dept/Practice....
"But yet CDW hires a new CHRO, while the rest of our backfill roles are on hold." Well, Someone needs to do the dirty work. Welcome aboard!
But yet CDW hires a new CHRO, while the rest of our backfill roles are on hold. Hmmm
Im worried but Im still going to work hard and help my team. That's really all I can do.
:(
With regard to the UK, it’s no better. JD just sits in the US - guess he lost interest, poor performance, terrible systems & processes, naive sales leadership and no cohesive strategy. Preparing for the inevitable - time to find a more dynamic place to work
I'm not in sales... but COVID really seemed to sc--w us (not in the way you'd think). The leadership team deluded themselves into believing the entire world suddenly scaling up on equipment, licensing, setups, etc. was sustainable and proof that CDW was going to continuously grow at crazy rates. Shocker that once normalcy returned and when every company and government agency under the sun wasn't buying tons of 'stuff' that our new and explosive sales disappeared. Tack on some acquisitions that seem to have fizzled and the general erosion of respect for the coworkers... here we are.
I sure hope we don't have to go through this again as the last 2 years we've seen enough formal and informal RIFs and I hate it for those impacted. But now that our company's main focus and identity is having Al come on all-hands calls and drone through a slide about profit being strong... it makes you really scratch your head if anything else matters. But, hey, a yodeling slide here... and a few build a bears there... must all be good, right?
Insight stock up 38% in the last year, CDW's up only 10. Nearly 4x difference.
Leadership matters.
At what point does the board say enough is enough, this is a Fortune 500 company not a lemonade stand.
We should have bought Ahead instead of Sirius, if we're being honest. Or we could grow organically, crazy thought.
Any signs in the UK?
Doesn't seem a fun or ambitious place to be
"Many of the best folks on the DV team have now quit and gone on to do other start ups or work for cloud native providers"
Yes. The DV team is now probably the worst place to work in the industry. The all-hands meeting run by Bob Kirby (the CDW government guy who is now in charge of DV) was the most unmotivating meeting I have ever been in, and the leadership team seemed completely checked out. No intellect or spark, no fun, no motivation, no challenge, no direction on the business that we have been promised and waiting for. None. Zero. I don't know how it can even be turned around short of begging the old leaders to return. CDW DV used to be the place where people wanted to come and work for their career advancement. Maybe I'll see you all at the next place, as there are PLENTY of jobs for good software engineers. I am outta here.
You are absolutely right and on the money. This is a sinking ship. Hopefully orders through September correct the course. If not, it will go down.
This post is most likely spot on. We are blowing it in cloud but what is very sad is that it would have been so easy to fix and lead the market. Many of the best folks on the DV team have now quit and gone on to do other start ups or work for cloud native providers, so we will need to buy some other company and try again if we want to win. It wont happen with the existing team that is left. For the layoffs, you will probably get cut if your goal is off or your utilization is low, that simple. Or if you are an a--hole. If this is you, start looking now and time a start date with your severance package. In the past it has been a week of severance per year of service I think?
You might be right. All I can say to everyone is be prepared. If you don't have an emergency fund to pay 6-12 months of expenses, it would be wise to build one. It doesn't hurt to keep an eye on the job market but I'd also caution against jumping at the first thing - many job offers have been rescinded and when you're the new guy at a company, you may be the first to get let go if they have layoffs.
Unfortunately you’re probably right.