Pros
Written in the view of middle management. Given the growth push of the company in the past six to seven years (Team 150), there has been much turnover and/or new positions created- whether through voluntary or involuntary turnover. If one is willing to relocate or expand outside their comfort zone into another division, opportunities are often abundant. The company is finally starting to make some strides in upgrading database, analytics, and data mining systems in order to better utilize information in management decision making. There is a genuine sense of camaraderie among colleagues- we are all going through the same struggles together. There is still a pension system in place, which is not something you see much these days.
Cons
Meetings with executive and upper-middle management have turned into bloodbaths. Worse yet, every new "tool" to put into our "tool box" eventually becomes perverted into some kind of dashboard for "leadership" to beat us over the heads with. Following up on the latter point, there are now WAY too many metrics to keep track of, without the added headcount to do it (reference absorbing Comex and remaining headcount neutral- thanks for that). We are essentially left playing Whack-a-Mole with whatever we feel is going to be senior leadership's flavor of the month metric. Metaphorically speaking, we are trying to fight a 21st century war using largely mid-20th century equipment. We are far from state-of-the-art and cutting edge, and capital budgets, relative to what should be or needs to be done, are prohibitive. Budget expectations and justifications have become dictated from the top down. Why are we still going through this process if upper management will not listen to the justification and concerns of the folks "in the trenches"? Legitimate concerns are being ignored or skirted because of folks being afraid of the word "no". I feel for those taking the helm over the next 3-5 years. I don't feel that they have been put in a position to succeed given the priority we have placed meeting the expectations of "the Street".