Pros
When I joined DFV they were growing, they had great brands and a great culture with people who shared the excitement and direction of the company. New placements and programming was celebrated and anything lost was a learning experience from which professional growth and development was gleaned. Distributors and Retail accounts already knew about us when we walked through the door because of our increasingly positive reputation as the fastest-growing privately owned wine supplier. That was then....
Cons
This is now... First and foremost, while I loved being around the family and had a generally positive experience working with the CEO I am a firm believer that those in charge are ultimately responsible for everything, positive or negative, that happens with the company. Besides, this is about prospective employees (you) not the family. That said, I cannot provide a glowing endorsement of executive leadership because they are either aloof to the issues that exist (not good) or are systematically allowing unprofessional, uneducated and self-serving "buddies" drive the company into the ground (much worse). Either way, this is on them. The deteriorating culture is on them. Lost morale is on them. Stalling sales, on them. Employee dissatisfaction, turnover, lost credibility with distributors and retail accounts.....you get the idea. Upper management is a fraternity and there is no true accountability to which they are being held. They protect their own and will find scapegoats if it keeps their hide unscathed. There are countless changes with little to no explanation why changes are made. There is increasingly more admin required resulting in less time selling while accountability grows disproportionately in the wrong direction. There is rampant finger-pointing and misdirected blame within the organization and a strong lack in "resolve and learn from mistakes" environment.
