Senior management has decided to follow a model similar to what Edward Lampert did at Sears, namely they have stratified the company into vertically integrated organizations complete with stand-alone sales, marketing, engineering, and (unfortunately) operations. The goal, a worthy one, is to create entities that are market focused and able to move more quickly to address the needs of those specific markets. What has actually been created is a bloated management structure (each division has a VP of finance, VP of operations, etc, etc) and an environment where there is ZERO incentive to work with other groups for the betterment of TE as a whole.
The net result is a staggering level of in-fighting at the division level. Different operational groups will gouge an outside group if they attempt to build out of that industry-focused factory...all in an effort to inflate their EBIT at the expense of their sister division. From a sales and marketing perspective, entire customer industries are ignored in certain markets if the customers in those markets aren't large enough to justify having a direct sales person. Thus, a market that is heavy in the high-tech arena will have decent coverage but the industrial customers in that market will lack coverage as there are only so many industrial-specific sales people. Further, sales management flies over each other, calling on the same geography, creating an inflated cost structure.
I've read other reviews that mentioned the politicization of TE, they are correct. If you're from the AMP or Raychem era you are definitely marked for removal. That cannot be disputed. This is a company that values one thing, Motorola experience. If you were with Tom Lynch at Mot (or with one of the folks that came over with him) you can expect to have a lofty position in the company, regardless of your experience in the IP&E world (and they don't appear to know interconnect very well). They are smart people, no doubt about that. They just don't know the products and their print position within their customer base is a testament to that.
While the stock market seems to have a positive view of TE's prospects I'm left wondering if the analysts have taken a look at the book-to-bill ratio...it speaks volumes about the effectiveness of this structure. There are only so many consolidations that can take place (offsetting disappointing top-line results).
