Pros
Background: I worked at FB from 2008-2011 within the following departments: Site commission crew, R&D, Engineering, and finally Sales. Saw growth on FB side from 7 employees to 50 or so, on the Combo side from 20 to 50 or so. Around 2011 there was a transfer of leadership from original founders to new more suited management for a medium enterprise. Revenues exploded from about 10MM per year to $50MM a year within 12 months... split of 50/50 rental and CAPEX. This was not sustainable. PROS - From a sales perspective, great launch point for a new grad to make contacts in O&G - dealing in large contract values, $500k to tens of millions - sales to EPC, O&G, service companies in all geographies in North America - Smaller and more nimble than large enterprise companies like GE water, Siemens Water, etc. - ok place to learn about water treatment industry. - If you're into work life balance this company embodies that.
Cons
After massive growth and scale in 2009, the company struggled and still does today. Key leadership is the largest problem: Lack of clear vision, lack of agreement between management members, top heavy structure, politics of backstabbing, low wages, low total compensation and wage attitude by management indicates employees do not matter and can be easily replaced. Between 2011 and 2015 has and continues to be a revolving door of hiring, firing and resignations of people in all departments. In O&G packaged water systems are an afterthought and never given the respect they deserve. Compared with Uber for example which has high demand. Impossible project timelines and limited money to spend by clients. used to be a culture of lying to win jobs.....unsure if that changed after 2011. Water in O&G is a commodity and all projects are won on budget and price.....sales has little influence.... FB struggled to compete on price because manufacturing in AB is expensive and competition manufactures in cheaper places around world. Most projects had and have at least 4-6 bidders and growing....competition is too high for success compared to other industries and companies. no differentiators today (2015)....back in 2011 it was a new packaged solution..competition has caught up. original founders started Clearbakk to compete against FB Old GE management has moved from GE to FB...and is trying to instill giant organizational structure into an industry that needs to evolve or die.....slow, expensive, poor solutions. Poor management also extends to the main VC companies. The VC owns two competitors and gives money to the better performing one....Good and bad. the smartest people are currently in the tech industry or manage key positions at O&G companies....FB tends to not pay and therefore unable to retain smart people. utilization of technology doesn't exist. Have gone through 2 CRM systems that are not Salesforce for example water will never have massive or even exciting growth because its true supply/demand value is restricted by government. company takes the approach of only as good as weakest person so divide success of others to everyone.....no motivation to be a top performer in any department. blame game for failed projects was very negative. Sales cycles were 3 months to 5 years. SLOW! Project cycles were 6 months to 2 years. From PM perspective projects never finished on time nor on budget.....bad moods flow downhill. one project which finished around 2013, i saw 4 PM's in 6 months. Vacation and earned time off not very competitive. Departure packages we minimum Government Required. Should you take this post with a grain of Salt? I could put you in touch with a dozen others with similar opinions about management.