First Time CEO and New Leadership - Anonymous employee Symphony Commerce Employee Review

Thank you for taking the time to share your opinion of Symphony and myself in your post. This may be the most painful feedback that I’ve ever been given and even more so since that feedback was provided through a flame on Glassdoor. I’ve been baptised. Let’s act on it. Though, I prefer to have these “conversations” in person, given the nature of your post, I’m going to allow myself the latitude of a thorough and personal response. One of our company values is “constructive candor.” A core tenet of that value is “assume positive intent.” I’m going to assume that you have positive intent (i.e., make Symphony better). I’m requesting that you do the same with me. A second tenet is to separate facts from stories. Facts are facts. They are what they are. “Stories” are our interpretation of facts. Those stories can be on target or not. I want to be clear that the style of your post violates both of those principles, which is not ok at Symphony. I’m going to respond to your post in a way to that is consistent with these principles. I’m glad you’ve learned a lot about eCommerce, respect your teammates and have built great relationships with them. I agree that we have great teammates at Symphony. That’s a primary reason that I am at the company today. I learned long ago that human interaction is a balance between what a person feels or intends and how it is perceived by others. So, here is how I feel. Nearly all of my time (in and out of the office) is devoted to finding paths to enable our success. Much of that motivation comes from a desire to create something great for our customers, teammates and our investors. That said, if that’s not what you see or feel, that’s a valid concern that I need to take seriously. Regarding my working hours, my typical day starts at 4:30am with e-mail and my workout. Then, I’m off to the office with calls during my commute. I’m in the office until ~5-5:30pm and generally have calls scheduled at 5:30pm from my car. Next, I’m working from home through late evening. That intensity carries over into weekends, too. That said, you own your experience and perspective. I need to consider how and where I do my work and set aside more time to engage with the broader team. We don’t have private offices at Symphony and, in my role, I’m often in a conference room on the phone with customers, prospects, investors, analysts, candidates, and teammates. Many of these calls are sensitive and it would be inappropriate or disrespectful to have them in the open. Regarding your comment on trainers or coaches, the intent has been to invest in the team. We don’t often use such resources. Those that we have used have received generally positive feedback , however, one session in particular was divided (some liked it, some did not). We carefully consider the feedback on these sessions and utilize it in planning future training. To your comment on office furniture, that was a minimal expense intended to replace selected aging, broken furniture and create a better work environment for our teammates and for guests (customers, partners, candidates). Our office manager and my EA spent a lot of time digging up good deals to keep the cost low. One of the reasons I came to Symphony was to join our co-founders. I have actively sought as much involvement from them as they can offer. They are great people and they founded Symphony with a compelling vision. I talk to both of them nearly every day. They will be the first to tell you that there were a number of challenges that they faced that required new perspective. The business was struggling and we needed to make some significant changes to enable Symphony to survive and grow. Those changes were tough and could not be made gradually. We did not have that luxury. Many of those changes are behind us. There are several that we are still tackling. Finally, you suggest that we “act like leaders.” Being a leader does not always mean doing what people want or like. In the last year, we focused our business on mid and enterprise clients and exited SMB. We made hard decisions to transform our product, contracts and support models which enabled our financial performance to improve. We have a growing sales pipeline. Our product is focused on its commerce core while we are building best-in-class partnerships to complement adjacent capabilities. Those changes are hard, but were necessary. Now we need to execute well as a team. What do I ask of you? If you want to help make Symphony better, be a leader. Engage me in person. Meaningful change doesn’t happen on Glassdoor - it happens when we have thoughtful dialogue and act. I’d be delighted to talk in person and embrace that intent. The best thing we can do together for Symphony is to execute, deliver and win. Respectfully, - Ken Fine, CEO