| Topic Name: |
Marketing |
| Message Name: |
The first round of layoffs target those.. |
| Date Posted: |
02/03/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
I know, I know...you think I'm crazy...not an ex-con, not a self-sadist, not a mercenary...just an interested third party who could not find any detail on the Hewitt website or annual report... |
| Message: |
...involved in bringing in new business. They laid off some of the most senior people who were all experts in their own areas and had risen through the ranks. A vert small number, but very highly paid. They got rid of people with a huge wealth of knowledge.
Those people used to help with marketing as well as making sure that each region stayed current in industry knowledge and operations in their particular area (H&W, DC, DB).
Now they do not have those people and other people are filling the gaps, as needed, in a very unorganized manner. Marketing is supposed to be centralized, and they think they have concentrated their industry knowledge in a central location in Lincolnshire. But what happens is that Lincolnshire gets the leads and takes it only so far, and then they throw it to the regions or business groups to close the sale and provide the prospective client with answers as well as make sure all the financials add up.
Quite frankly I am surprised they are hiring marketing people now, after getting rid of a significant number of people with great industry knowledge and some marketing experience. If you are a rainmaker type, then that would make sense, but if they want you do follow the sale through to completion, then it just shows their planning is terrible since they just got rid of people who could have done just that job. Good thing for you would be, they may be desperate now for someone with knowledge to fill the role.
When the company made huge cuts in it's BG/regional leadership, I really took it to mean they don't expoect to have to be selling a huge number of clients anytime soon. And I took that to mean that they are thinking of a buyout because new clients would likely be going up on the buyer's system, not Hewitt's anymore. Plus getting rid of all that talent was the kind of sleazy, cheap cost cutting move you would expect from a company trying to pump up it's earnings for one more quarter. Another indication of a pending sale.
I would expect that if the company does not get bought out, they will begin to suffer from being weak in the marketing department within the year. This would mean that anyone hired would likely be overworked, for what that's worth, but you may be able to strike a good deal.
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