Too big to Scale
Pros
- It’s one of the only places on the Central Coast that can get you even CLOSE to a living wage. The fact of the matter is that most of the jobs available in the area are in the service or retail industries. When these are the primary competing employers, MINDBODY’s wages and benefits look really good. - The people who work there are vibrant, active, and passionate. Most of the rank and file employees really care about their jobs and want to do the best they can. The problem is, sometimes they are hamstrung or not qualified in the first place. - The benefits are still pretty good compared to other employers in the area – health, vision, dental, and onsite childcare is nothing at all to sneeze at - The CEO is passionate, motivated, and leads from the front. This is a double-edged sword though.
Cons
- The CEO is also a huckster, his presentations are mesmerizing, but are ultimately empty sales pitches. He often represents the company to employees in ways that can easily leave a person with the false impression that this is a profitable, well managed organization from a financial perspective. The CEO is a master of playing bait and switch with the terms revenue and profit - which are not at all the same thing. MINDBODY has not been profitable in the recent past. Its IPO closed below its original offering. The numbers that are shown to employees are often not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or are out of date. - The core values are largely illusory. Once upon a time, the core values meant something. But the rapid growth of the company has diffused their effect such that they don’t really mean anything. - None of the core values have anything to do with how competent one is at one’s job. They care about competent “leadership” – but this is different than saying “we value people who know how to do their jobs well.” Thus, people are constantly hired based on cultural fit rather than merit or qualifications. MINDBODY has a very low percentage of employees with college degrees and is perfectly willing to take on people who are unsuited to their particular job description so long as they are young, healthy, and fit with the “vibe” of the company’s culture. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that this allows them to justify paying their employees less. - MINDBODY also displays a remarkable tendency to ignore research and sometimes displays outright disdain toward it. Despite its claim to take a reasoned, systems based, approach to problem solving, MINDBODY leaps before it looks and lashes out at the people who warn them that they’re jumping into a pit. If you’re the kind of person that likes decisions to be borne out by some degree of research beforehand, you’ll hate it here. - Despite the fact that MINDBODY has grown into a large multi-national company, the CEO still wants to maintain a very direct hand in the operations of the company. He constantly breaks up the systems that are in place to ensure the best possible product. Instead, his personal projects, promises, and pet-peeves get sent to the head of the line, heedless of the impact that this will have on the product as a whole. - The cost of living in SLO is ridiculous if you're anyone other than a 22 year old. Because MINDBODY has chosen to locate it's headquarters in an area where the median home price is 650K -- people with families or people looking to buy a home are going to be disappointed with how little their paychecks get them.
