Yesterday was a particularly bad Friday the 13th at Spot Runner, the Los Angeles startup that is trying to Web advertising techniques to TV. The company told employees it would need to go through its third major round of layoffs in less than a year. At least 60 people were told the would be let go, the company confirms. We’ve added the 60 to our Layoff Tracker.
This is on top of the 115 employees who lost their jobs last November and the 50 more last August. Throw in natural attrition, and the company, which at one point numbered more than 500 employees, could soon be down to less than 120 people.
The layoffs supposedly triggered the WARN Act, which requires companies to give employees 60 days notice for any mass layoff—defined as 33 percent or more of the active workforce. That would suggest Spot Runner currently employs less than 180 people, and after the layoffs take effect will employ less than the 120 mentioned above. Spokesperson Rosabel Tao disputes that math, saying, “As a private company, we do not disclose employee figures but it is out of hundreds.” She also notes that the California WARN Act is more stringent than the federal one and requires notice if 50 or more employees are effected, regardless of the percentage.
Tips started coming in to us yesterday. One mentioned that Spot Runner employees were updating their Facebook statuses with references to “suite 2160,” the conference room where the last round of layoffs took place. Tao confirms that most of the layoffs will be coming from the local search and local outbound sales groups, which is the business Spot Runner got into when it acquired Weblistic a year ago. She writes in an email:
The economic environment continues to worsen, with a rebound not expected until at least late next year. Companies are pulling back their marketing spend across all types of media. Local merchants simply aren’t advertising to the degree they were before and are pulling back their budgets. Like everyone else, Spot Runner has been impacted by these changes and we are hunkering down to get through this recession. Our core focus has not changed. We are a tech platform business for video, TV and online. This is about continuing to tighten our focus and investing our capital resources in the areas where there is the most opportunity.
As I said earlier, about 60 people were given notice that their jobs would be going away in a couple of months. . . . While there will be cuts throughout the company, they are primarily in two areas – local search and outbound sales for the local platform business. It is not the entire Weblistic team, but a good number of them. Just to be clear, we are not getting out of local TV but we are going to focus on our partnerships rather than independent local merchants.
. . . Our top priority continues to be Project Malibu and we will continue to invest heavily in developing this technology. This is an all-digital platform that streamlines and enhances the process of buying and selling all forms of TV and video advertising to benefit media owners and their advertising clients. We believe this is a game changing product and that this will be a significant business for us.
Whether or not the company has a future seems to be tied to the fate of “Project Malibu,” a digital ad-buying platform for TV commercials which one former employee characterizes as its Hail Mary pass.
Outsourcing is the future.
Why is that relevant? Most of the people are in sales.
The yellow pages of the future and internet advertising will be with companies like http://www.yourwebads.com
What does that have to do with anything?
dead………………pool
not yet but it look like they were heading there.
we tried spotrunner years ago and it didn’t work for us, no roi
Erick, FYI–
“the Los Angeles startup that is trying to Web advertising techniques to TV.”
Think you are missing the word “bring” in this sentence. And hate when people get haughty about spelling on my website so hope no offense taken. Back in the .com go-go days, $101M going poof would not have turned many heads. Today, it’s an eye opener. Lots of road kill out there in the marketplace.
Erick: Not trying to be a jackass, but I think your opening sentence is missing a word.
“Yesterday was a particularly bad Friday the 13th at Spot Runner, the Los Angeles startup that is trying to Web advertising techniques to TV.”
is trying to bring web ad techniques? is trying to advance?
(Sorry to be nitpicky – love reading your articles and was genuinely surprised by the odd opening sentence.)
I noticed this as well.
That’s a shame because I always wanted to use their services, the money just wasn’t there . . .
Confirmed, got an email from a friend there that they’re one of the affected employees
What on earth could 500 people be doing at that company? Were they on crack?
Please learn proper English and how to proofread. It’s really not that difficult. Thanks.
You missed a comma, and ended with a fragment.
Even so, you may have a point, I stopped reading after the second error in the first paragraph, as my mind rejected it as intelligible.
Did you mean “unintelligible”?
this is not because of the economy. this sounds like Hubris by an overly aggressive management team. hired 3x more people than they needed. grew too fast. feels good to raise money at huge valuations on the way up, then when the rug gets pulled out, those are the companies that fall the hardest. leadership team should be feeling very bad right now and, again, they shouldn’t be blaming the economy…just themselves. this would have happened anyway. the economy has just accelerated the inevitable.
I could not agree more! Rather than admit mistakes for inexperience and poor internal decisions, managers of these companies often will blame the economic conditions. An experienced team would have been able to forecast, prepare, and adjust more effectively for the downturn. It is always the employees who are let go, at the expense of poor judgement and mis-steps of incompentent managers. Companies with excessive layoffs of the workforce, never recover. My speculation is that Spotrunner will be shuttered within a year.
Where did you learn your English? You are missing a word and please proofread first.
It’s not that hard, unless Arrington push minimal blog posts on TC.
We can certainly teach English to Americans – We are vastly superior since we speak the Queen’s English. We do not care much about her, but we use her language with a funny accent, as everybody knows.
Anjali Spammersen
From India
thanks for putting it so nicely
anjali
Interesting that Rosabel now mentions CA’s WARN Act. There was no such 60 days notice given to the 115 laid off in Nov or the 50 in Aug. Back then each employee was given 1 week severance for each year and kicked to the curb within an hour.
WARN Act only goes into effect if an employer lays off 50 or more from ONE location in CA. The cunning leadership at SR made sure they spread the layoffs across multiple sites.
While multiple sites contributed to the 115 in November, specifically at the LA location more than 50 were laid off.
I don’t know the answer to that. Perhaps the 50+ people in November included contractors. Under WARN, they don’t count towards the 50 threshhold.
Yes, a huge group of those laid off in November were from the sales team in locations around the country. I suspect Trapped is right and the remainder at SR HQ were contractors.
Advertising has dropped. Those like Spotrunner who bet heavily that there is no limit to demand, well I guess they learned otherwise.
It is hard to regain once composure after such a misfire. I’m afraid I agree with other commenters. The company itself is deadpooled, soon.
However, there are huge opportunities on the web. Choosing the wrong strategies leads to death. Choosing the right moves in this down market can lead to huge wins.
The concept of Spotrunner seemed like a good idea – until I tried to use them when they were just selling TV ad time (Ad Agency). Basically, I could get the same deal from my local cable company, sometimes even at a better price. Then, SR tried to get into custom Video Production, but again could not compete with the local cable company. When I had seen they were getting into the web search/glorified Adwords reselling business – I thought bye, bye Spotrunner way to lose focus of your objective to build what was at one point a unique market niche.
People where I work lost their jobs too.
This is the third round of layoffs at Spot Runner, which they are conveniently blaming on the economy. This has nothing to do with the economy and everything to do with the leadership. Nick Grouf, David Waxman and John Gentry single handedly drove this company into the ground.
First, you have David who pretty much has no idea what he is doing (scary since he’s in charge of the technology side). Then you have Nick who is a compulsive liar and should receive an Academy Award for his performance over the last 4 years. Finally, you have John who instead of running the company has been too busy vacationing in Fiji and recruiting inept executives from Orange County Trailer Parks to destroy the company.
As soon as these three caught wind of the sinking ship instead of fixing the problems at hand – one purchased a boat, another purchased a home and one started looking into private jets. Therefore, you can see the economy had absolutely nothing to do with this and everything to do with The Three Stooges!
Everyone left at Spot Runner was everyone who single handedly destroyed this company to begin with. First, you have Nick’s college roommate – not sure what he does but gossip and create chaos (Is he in creative, no! Is he in client services, no! Is he is sales, no! Is he Nick’s Best Friend, yes!!! ). Then you have John’s Overture buddy (who’s been in more departments then I can count at Spot Runner and I’m still confused as to what he does besides make the company pay him to get his MBA). Finally, you have the GM of local who I’m convinced doesn’t exist since I don’t remember the last time he was in the office and I’m pretty sure he has a second job up-north where he lives.
Employees are all crammed together in one space (even though the company owns 3 floors in the building) because Nick likes the so-called “buzz”. This company doesn’t take care of it’s employees like they believe they do, they use them, abuse them then throw them away. It’s actually really sad since a lot of individuals gave up time with families and friends and poured everything they had into making Moe, Larry and Curly rich and the only thing they are left with is a pink slip.
Nick has perfected the art of falling up.
Rock on, Nick! Keep taking VC money for as long as they give it to you.
I’m sure he’ll take some credit for he sale of firefly to msft, but the guy has really never returned a penny of profit to his shareholders.
To clarify, the sixty have already lost their jobs, everyone was notified yesterday afternoon and asked to pack up their things…
It’s so amazing to see this. Spot Runner is the only company where the news is spun even internally. It was not 60 employees. It was 64 just in the room 2160. All the consultants were also let go and most former weblistic employees were let go. All told about 85 were let go. Bill Bender a week ago told us that the head count was 170.
Today they have some 85 employees with 45 in management and 20 VPs. This is a dead company
20 VP’s, 45 in management, the company has no chance.
Either they are title happy company or no one is left to do the work…..Sounds like the CEO and company need to take a visit to room 2160.
Soon there will be only half of them. SR wont survive for too long.
Can anyone help me out with this one. Spot Runner is the only company showing up in the Layoff Tracker more than once. This is a perfect picture into top management of this company.
I have spoken with several companies who have used their services and they could not get anything right. One company found out all the “hidden” fee’s and mark ups they place on all their ad buys. Oh yeah, and they were billing them up front for stuff that wasn’t even running, last time I checked, I think that’s robbery!
This company is snake oil swindlers. You would have to a pathetic business person to allow a company like this to manage your advertising dollars.
Can everyone stop posting these types of comments. I too am upset, I too am laid off but I still need a job and what I don’t need is for my potential future employers to read this stuff!
Seems like yesterday an arrogant Spot Runner executive claimed his company was undervalued in a story written by SAI.
Well, that executive moron was again proven wrong. His model had legs and they could not execute and scale. Next!
i don’t mean to be rude, but i’m very glad to not bein this situation. i really feel sorry for these people. i was watching the news last night, and there are people living in communities of tents. i hope this turns around soon.
I worked at SR for a short time in waxmans group and it certainly was one of the most hostile environments you could ever dream of. Huge mistake. Bad hires all the way especially in management and key positions in engineering . Engg team was way overrated and it consisted of a bunch of twenty something spoiled brats with huge egos but no past accomplishments on their resume . What do u expect when you hire a 27 yr old System architect who was probably the worst hire . His wars with the Director Database services (another train wreck ) was entertaining gossip in the company . These two were complimented by a team of kids who loved “Sr” or “architect” next to their titles . They may have decent IQ but no real world experience .This was no facebook or myspace like infrastructure . All you had to do was to write a very low transaction B-B app . So no wonder their inexperience was not really exposed. Did i talk about the expensive consultants in tech who unnecessarily prolonged their work day to 16 hrs a day to make huge payoffs. The inexperience and fake egos was prevalent in the TPM and product management group as well . These guys enjoyed being promoted to Directors even when they had done absolutely nothing to earn that . There stature in my opinion was equal to entry level engineers.Give me a break , the company had 80 people with title of Dir and up out of 300 (when i was there). Unbelievable. The engg management treated the real heroes and the true stars of the company like crap and rewarded the kids with 50$ gift cards to keep them engaged. They all believed they could piss of or misbehave with any new hire and get away with it . This place was hostile.
They were some really smart and experienced people there as well but most of them didnt last long as they realized working with spoiled brats would be a waste of time.
Ya, you wish. Just because SR had an merit based engineering culture and you didn’t make the cut (you’re obviously not in the “cream of the crop” based on your grammar) doesn’t mean it was hostile. We just didn’t bring stupid people into the fold and made a point of actively pushing them out. Most of us who did make the cut considered this a good thing.
haha.. wow keynote is an idiot. the problem at this company was *not* the engineering. as the post below says, can you name one item the engineering team was not able to deliver? to some extent management was giving the engineering team bad requirements, to some extent the business plan we all thought was good at the time just didn’t work out like we thought it was going to.
who were these “true stars of the company” who didn’t get recognition? sr engineering was all about recognizing the heroic effort and engineering excellence and we did all the time. protip: if you were on the engineering team but weren’t getting recognition and no one liked you it was probably because you suck.
Could you name one item that engineering team was not able to deliver? Everything that the business ever requested was delivered
What a public pissing contest!
Could everyone please stop… You guys are really starting to hurt those of us who have been let go and many great people who are still at Spot Runner.
If you have any comments about anyone please email them to me and I will get them to the proper management anonymously but doing it in public is hurting all of us.
thanks
Ha Ha are you kidding me?
What kind of a douche are you?
“If you have any comments about anyone please email them to me and I will get them to the proper management anonymously but doing it in public is hurting all of us.”
Sure man, here give me your email, I’ll be sure to email you Azat. Please make sure it gets to the management k thanks guy.
HA HA HA HA although I worked for this company, I would say most of the top executives did not have any idea what of they were doing. When I was hired the person who talked to me kept on saying “WE ARE NEXT GOOGLE” LOL makes me wonder what they’ve been thinking.
They never had clear set of goals and after every new experiments they decided to “restructure the org”. I feel bad for people who got laid off yesterday. I was part of them too in November. Hang in there and I am sure you’ll all find something better than “SPOTRUNNER”
To any and all SpotRunner staff let go (or leaving):
I am sorry things have taken a turn for the worse, and sympathize with you and your families.
I know SpotRunner has some very dedicated, hard-working staff.
We are hiring multiple Sales and Account Management staff, particularly with local search and/or local tv sales experience.
Please feel free to contact me at george@roiworks.com
Good luck,
George Revutsky
CEO
ROI.works Search Marketing, Inc.
That’s one heck of a downsizing over the last few months. Too bad…..I like their concept.
Glad I didn’t take a job there. I’d be stuck in CA with nothing to show for it.
I think we can do better
http://www.yout...h?v=4ful-g_DWCE
I ran a $120,000 campaign through spot runner last year. They sent me a bunch of fake reports saying the ads where running when they weren’t. I got very suspicious after a week and called the TV stations where the ads were supposidly airing and they told me they weren’t running our ads. After confronting spotrunner they fired several people supposidly and then ran the ads.
i don’t mean to be rude, but i’m very glad to not bein this situation. i really feel sorry for these people. i was watching the news last night, and there are people living in communities of tents. i hope this turns around soon.
this company needs a new ceo. this guy has obviously been doing a terrible job. Also, i hear that they have a very small amount of re3venue
The next to fail at this will be Spotzer, who like Spotrunner, also charged additional fees for air time. Google will follow them in failure after the FTC gets wind of Restraint of Trade issues regarding the secret deal Google made with EchoStar/Dish which excludes real media agencies from buying certain classes of air time. There are limitations to the good that venture capital can do to build companies, after which there can be heard a loud flushing sound. But the public is getting wiser. Passive investment is for the birds. Specifically birds of the scavenger variety.
This company is a disaster. It is ineptly managed, has no revenue to speak of, and it is putting all of their eggs into a unproven platform.
Management regularly had no idea what was going on within the daily operations of the company. No department actually knew what another department of the company was actually doing.
If this “Project Malibu” is run like their other business lines, it will be driven into the ground within a year.
So they have had $101m in funding and they are running on fumes.. hmmmmm.
Spot Runner is officially dead. They’ll be shutting their doors by December 2009 – that’s my predictions. Do the VC’s get any money left over that’s not spent? I kinda wonder.
After all, if the top brass of Gentry, Grouf and Waxman are buying boats, taking exotic vacations and purchasing private jets, then maybe they’re going to spend what’s left.
If Bill Bender is correct, Spot Runner now has less than 100 employees. You can guess that half of them are upper-management and prolly a big heap of them are ex-cronies from Overture. They might not have gotten the big payouts from the Yahoo/Overture deal from several years ago, so they’re making up for lost time by milking SR.
I feel bad for those who were swayed by HR’s sell of “We’re the next Google” and who thought their stock options would be worth millions of dollars, and therefore took sub-rate pay in downtown LA.
The fail of this company is in the execution. They didn’t have a fixed goal that they moved toward. Instead they spent so much time and effort to just spin their wheels without going anywhere.
I honestly don’t know why anybody would apply for a job there now. And for the few people still remaining, they’ve probably already updated their resume on their home computer, and are waiting to get calls for an interview.
BTW, has anybody every heard of a Positive Testimonial from past SR customers? Surely there must be somebody who has had a positive experience? After all, if these positive testimonials are far and few between, then it’s an indicator that Spot Runner is DEAD.
According to her quote, Rosabel Tao says that everyone has been impacted by recent events, and that local merchants are not advertising to the degree that they were, before. This is not true. For example, the original dotcom online TV ad agency, CheapTVSpots, is nearly booked solid and is expanding worldwide. People in a down economy often advertise more if they know they are getting a good deal.
Displacing competition via advertising is the best way to survive during recessionary times. That’s why good agencies are doing well. Rosabel may not know this. Don’t blame the customer, Rosabel.
Lots of anger here. Understandable. Not sure about the personal attacks though. Let’s respect the quality of the people that are still at Spot Runner or no longer there. Spot Runner recruited good talent because they could, so if you need to place blame, place it where it belongs. At the top. Grouf’s a “celebrity”, not a leader.
No promise Spot Runner ever made was delivered. Self-service TV never worked and was abandoned. The national TV business completely failed. Search was abandoned right after they started it. The only revenue came from being a TV ad agency with the help of a partially-built platform. Now that’s gone, they’re still bleeding money and Spot Runner drops it’s plan *again* and moves to another “great idea”.
Grouf, Waxman and Gentry “run” the company but they are possibly the most disconnected, un-involved trio in the business. There is no management or even simple involvement between these guys and the people they task to make it work. Is there even an operating Plan? Grouf talks a good game, then does literally NOTHING you would expect from a CEO. No meetings, no guidance, no collaboration, no accountability. People are left to fend for themselves without support and resources. So they quit or get laid off.
Grouf is too immature to know what his self-styled Nice Guy image requires. Investors and employees put huge stake in Spot Runner based on buzz and Grouf’s salesmanship. Then Nick and his guys provide ZERO added value, and blame the economy for their troubles. Who looses? The investors, clients and staff. Who gains? Grouf, Waxman and Gentry receive HUGE bonuses. Sounds more like AIG, Citibank and Countrywide…..
Three layoffs in three quarters. Now the company’s primary business is shelved and the company’s down to one-fifth it’s size from just last summer. This all started before the economy went south. It started when Grouf received funding.
Erick. Ms. Tao is not really familiar with TV advertising as it is right now. She knows nothing about Europe’s Spotzer.com or the international expansion of CheapTVSpots.com or any other discount TV advertising agency. I do have to give her some credit. Was she the one who twisted an arm at CNN Money to get them to change their previously posted headline “Video Start-Up Spot Runner Burns Out,” to “Spot Runner a Video Start-Up Slashes Staff”? Very CNBC Cramer-manipulative tactics if you ask me, if that’s what happened. I think that blog-hyped pump-and-dumps are a thing of the past. I also think that bloggers were overly friendly with venture cap, and were complicit in the loss of many billions of hard-earned dollars and worker’s hopes and dreams – and homes and marriages.
Would you guys say this is a failure in execution at SR then? Aren’t video ads trending down too in general? Anyone know how Google TV Ads is doing?
Let’s feel bad for the employees and investors. There’s little doubt that Grouf deserves nearly all the blame for what appears to be a company heading in the wrong direction. Why all the money raised? My guess is because they knew that this day was coming.
In answer to Sekhar’s question: Google TV Ads is going to have trouble. First, they associate, in many cases, with substandard producers. I read that the Better Business Bureau has one of them listed with an F rating. Also the Restraint of Trade issue (with EchoStar) mentioned above could be a nail in the Goggle TV ad coffin. Secret deals like that are not overlooked as easily now as they would be in boom times. Also, television is a different ball game than online video ads. Google knows nothing about TV and never will. They failed with Radio and Newspaper ads, too. Google is nothing more than an inefficient Yellow Page system which has grown to monopolistic proportions with monopolistic intent. They still might get away with it, if they can maintain their influence in Washington. That is my heartfelt opinion.
Oops! SR did it yet again….
Nothing to be surprized about. The employees knew this was coming soon and the rest of us still remaining know that they will be kicked off when they launch Malibu next month with NO clients on board yet.
Waxman and his tech team are still beating the drums every day that Malibu is the chosen one
As a techie, I know Waxman more than Grouf and he is not the best at managing his people.
Waxman – By letting people go home early after announcing layoffs and making them work on weekends is no good. The excitement if you see any in the Malibu folks is not for real…I hope you know that. But again….I would partly blame on the bad economy too, after all you guys were successful twice before.
Sarcasm? If you believe Nick was successful twice before, you haven’t done your research. Firefly and PeoplePC were acquired at fire sale prices with employees getting nothing for their options except a big tax bill. Talk with one of the Spot Runners or ex-SRers who were there.
This was expected from SR. I am not sure what Nick and his team have been thinking. They just started to experiment all the thoughts they had in their mind. They hired people like crazy and then barely had any work from everyone. Most of the times they over exaggerated we will do this and we will do that in the future. Direct TV chose SR over other competitors and they thought they have the whole world under them.
Many people in the company didn’t have any idea of what they were doing. Also some people hired as Managers thought they were “all that” and had no idea to handle the teams, no professionalism, and rude at times but yet the top executives would not take any actions or tackle the manger(s) NOTE:This does not apply to all managers.
SR will close down soon. Nick and Wax will be the only people sitting on the 22nd floor still structuring their org chart.
You know your company is in trouble when the CEO tells you time and again, “At Harvard Business School they taught us…”
It would be much more reassuring if you heard, “When I ran my last company we were profitable and made a ton of money for everyone involved…here’s what I learned!”
FROM: The Circle of Five
TO: Nick Grouf, the Executive Staff, and the Spot Runner Board of Directors
We are a small group of existing Spot Runner employees that feel all is not lost, but recognize the witching hour is at hand. We are all vested at Spot Runner, for all of us came with our focus on an equity investment and payout as a result of our hard work.
We observe the fundamental problems that still exist at Spot Runner, even after the recent round of layoffs, and as a result of Nick’s and other executive’s illegitimate staffing decisions. We believe that if the following recommendations are not executed apropos, our equity investment will be at an infinite risk, a risk we are no longer willing to take.
The following are listed in order of priority:
IMMEDIATE RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Marginalize Ken Grouf. Ken has proved his ineffectiveness as a strategic leader and shown his tactical inability. He has single-handedly destroyed the Marketing department, turning it into a dysfunctional group of otherwise talented individuals. It is understood that family members want to look out for their own, but this is only considered acceptable by giving said person a distant office with a view and no direct reports.
2. Negotiate David Waxman’s departure and hire a legitimate CTO. David has proved his inability to manage any of the Engineering or Product leaders for the duration of the company. Oddly, this recommendation has been made by a number of people at their exit interviews with little notice and no action–an obvious sign that management does not listen to a valuable resource. Few will mind if David keeps his earlier cash payout, for what is done is done; however, the company must move forward if viability is a desired option.
3. Increase efforts on hiring the open VP of Product Marketing headcount. Marco is a useful resource, but only if managed well (see number 2 above). As anyone from the first .com generation knows, an Engineering organization that lacks balance with inbound Product Marketing (that is, the voice of the customer) will ultimately fail. The collective and ravaging “Spot Runner Technology Ego” has caused the majority of our current and past product failures and stagnation. We fail to test our hypotheses against the fire that is our customer. The Malibu auction model is a current, perfect example. Product Marketing should make this call and own it; the loudest voice should not win. Marco does not have to be at fault for much of the product failure to date, yet he is allowed to skirt the issue as he forces his opinion and then sidesteps ownership and responsibility. David’s personality is too timid to create the proper and necessary dichotomy between customers (that is, the “business”) and technology, and Ken is otherwise incompetent as earlier described.
4. Hire a VP or Senior Director of Product Management with Media Platform experience. We all know that Tom complained about a promotion a year ago and received–what was thought of at the time as an inconspicuous role–the Director position of a product that was the butt of company jokes. Now that we are trying to make it a legitimate product (Hail Mary or not), stronger leadership and industry knowledge in this position is a hard requirement.
5. Stop all efforts on Local TV and reduce Z’s access to resources. Early friend of Nick or not, Z uses infinite depth of knowledge to produce faulty business ideas. He focuses on what he finds complex and interesting rather than what could be profitable. Unfortunately, David Waxman is to blame for allowing Z so much access to company resources, but Z continues to exist as an “untouchable”, promising dreams of a business venture that can only exist in theory. Regarding Kurt Weinsheimer, carefully remember from the lesson of the .com bust: when anyone in Sales says you need to keep a piece of technology around (that is, Local TV and the self serve platform) due to “contractual obligations” something is amiss. Much of this is unfortunately due to John Gentry’s background in Sales and lack of experience in building all the functional, operational, and necessary components of technology organization. Remember, prior success in a booming economy is not proof of capability.
6. Formalize a legitimate business plan where egos are checked at the door. Create and evangelize an honest vision. Treat your employees as though you care. Let us all share in the reward of our hard work.
Sincerely,
The Circle of Five
TheCircleOfFive at Google Mail
You guys are my heroes. Preaching to the choir here, but preach on.
Fantastic letter if it was delivered to anyone real besides the blogs. If this Circle of Five has any coconuts and they aren’t just being venomous as scorned ex-employees…..it voices the opinions of several ex’s I have spoken to.
I heard Nick G. started the meeting with the people who made the cut with a joke…”We need to stop Meeting this Way”
If this is true – it shows his lack of compassion for thrusting so many people into difficult and hard times, while lacking the most important leadership quality….Passion. Passion to run a successful company, passion to help grow a business and those around him. Sad state of affairs if Nicks comments were truly that insensitive!
good luck with that
So where can a guy go to have a good quality low budget TV spot produced now that SR is washed up?
Nepotism rarely pays off.
The only opportunity cost of demoting and marginalizing Ken would be around $14.99 for his new business cards.
While I don’t necessarily agree with Circle/5 on all accounts, in this regard he is SPOT on.
Watching the daily news and consumer outrage at executive bonuses and compensation for companies run into the ground- you can’t help but see the paralells with the $7 million Grouf and company reported took out to buy new houses and boats. With shades of Maddox, as well, like all ponzi schemes, they eventually come to an end – so Allen and company make their money and continue to back Nick, and any naive investor who came forth as a result of all Rosabel’s wonderful work could buy Nick, Wax and John’s stock at an inflated price (the reported bonuses) – while employees are unceremoniously dumped.
The hiring decisions are indeed a debacle – did it never occur to them to bring on an EVP who knew advertising and tv? Instead, the ill-fated JoAnne Bradford move, reinforced by the Barbara hire. Great, if only you were selling online advertising instead of tv time.