Thread regarding Pearson PLC layoffs

National Sales Meetings? Wasn't limited to just Sales folks IMO. I work in NA HigherEd and it was a joke. Management (Rights Dev Prod) left for the sales meeting (blabbing about how it was a vacation and including the family and all) while staff would play golf games while they were away. One or two empty suits as supervisors while staff ran wild.

I remember throwing out stacks and stacks of National Sales Meeting hardcovers (party pic photos) that seem to have been meant for distribution or lame S.W.A.G. (Stuff We All Get). Can't believe they wasted money on that stuff.

Then again, they did the stupid rebranding where everyone got a calendar, block (to hold the calendar) etc. Rebranded logo looks like it was taken from Pinterest. Fail.

Company is run by inept people including senior and middle management.

Fish rots from the head down.

if I was a shareholder I would be questioning how much revenue was wasted on PLC for the top 10% of the salesforce. All expense paid trips for them and a guest to nice locations: Hawaii, Thailand, Canada, etc. How much is spent on National Sales Meetings to bring all entire salesforce to these meetings. Without this lavish spending perhaps the dividends could have still been paid.

Pearson employees that are close to the customer have known this was coming for quite some time. Senior management has not only ignored the warnings, they have created a culture that explains revenue decline as a sign of a poor employee performance. That way, they could easily jettison anyone painting a picture that wasn't sunshine and rainbows. Replacing them with a new graduate that might have difficulty ascertaining industry trends is a bonus.

Unfortunately, the only thing left after years of this toxic culture is declining sales and a lack of talent in the workforce.

If Fallon was truly caught off guard by these trends, he needs to blame his managers and leadership team for misleading him.

quote:

The company has enjoyed a 24-year run of dividend increases, between 1991 and 2015. The 2016 dividend is being frozen and the cut to future payouts is a major blow to Fallon and senior management.

“Our argument has been, and remains, investors have no visibility on what this company looks like in five years,” said Gary Paulin, the head of global equities for Northern Trust Capital Markets. “The one saving grace, the dividend, is now at significant risk. As, we suspect, is the chief executive’s tenure.”

Pearson has issued five profit warnings in the four years since Fallon took over running the company from Marjorie Scardino in 2013. He formerly ran Pearson’s international division.

He has pocketed more than £6m since becoming chief executive. This includes an estimate for his pay in 2016, which will not be made public until Pearson publishes its annual report later this year, as well as about £1.5m in total annual and long-term incentive payments.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/18/pearson-penguin-random-house-shares-dive-profit-warning