Terribly disappointed. Job did not deliver as pitched. 100% Sales/Ops focus...ZERO Strategic thought/Customer focus
Pros
If you're in Insights or Marketing, you can goof off on YouTube all day and get paid, because the company doesn't value Insights or Marketing, doesn't spend against it, and has very limited resources to support those functions. Everything is done through a narrow SALES/OPS lense, and Insights, being Customer shopper consumer centric, providing thought leadership and delivering Category Strategy, etc. is all lip service. The organization tells their Customers this is important to them, and then returns to status quo....meeting their sales quota by spending all of their money on Trade spend, with VERY little left over for anything else STRATEGIC. Another pro....you have no where to go but up after leaving this org.
Cons
Too many to list. Top 5..1) ZERO Strategic thought, 100% sales/ops/tactical 2) unethical, dishonest Leadership - will make commitments to your face then abandon them when politically expedient 3) ZERO Category Management. Literally not one individual with a Category Manager title in a $2bb company. Remarkable! And speaks to the value Ocean Spray puts on Strategic functions such as being a thought leader and delivering department and category strategy recos 4) No cute girls. Sales meetings are 99.5% white males. The one poor Black dude stuck out like a sore thumb. Good 'ol boy, sales culture can be credited with this and 5) Cranberries are a dying product. Old people buy cranberry juice, and old people are dying. This company has THE WORST innovation pipeline I've ever seen or heard of in my 12 years in Retail/CPG. If you join the company, keep your resume revised and ready to field, because without any real plan for growth, no spend on Customer specific research in support of Customer specific innovation and category mgmt. strategy recos, the revenue outlook over the next 5-10 years is grim. However, the majority of leadership at Ocean Spray are only concerned with hitting bonus and retiring, thus the complete unwillingness to spend in areas outside of Trade to buy down price of juice in hi/lo Grocers, pay for cost of goods in Mass retailers like Walmart, and quid pro quo with retailers to secure slotting and merchandising space.
