Pros
Overall the company has a great... ummmmm.... logo, tag line, share price? Strong acquisition sense, for the most part. Corporate sets the plans, sometimes.
Cons
Complete lack of training from the bottom to the top. I find it incomprehensible how a company that preaches Quality puts such little focus on actually investing in the Quality of their staff. Many employees are given a short orientation on Safety and HR and then it's off to the races. Very little is done to train and therefore retain high calibre staff. The Company seems to, check that... does not effectively manage their sectors of business. The Company tends to treat macroeconomics as a non-entity of day to day operations therefore there is a strong disconnect of what reality is, which makes for ineffective planning leading to an unsustainable business. A strong guidance of "what is good for here is good for there" directs the local businesses into a failure mode. I don't feel that any of the Senior Management understands the local businesses and therefore do not make comprehensible decisions. Money, as in all businesses, is the root cause of why everyone works and SGS is not a charity. Understanding the flow of the money and the "who, what, where, when and why" is imperative to all of the above statements. Even if on the local level this is gospel it is difficult for others far away from the trenches to understand. "SGS is the World's Largest Testing, Inspection, Certification and Verification Company". Instead of focusing on being the biggest, focus on being the best. Compensation is average. Time-off is industry norm.