This company has enormous potential under the right leadership, but not without outside intervention. If the company is to withstand the challenges it faces in the near term, changes need to be made soon.
The company name is now Sensience. It was newly formed by the purchase of several entities previously owned by Emerson through a private equity form. Therm-O-Disc was one of these entities.
For starters, the company has an unbalanced, inexperienced executive team, most notably in HR, relative to the size and needs of the business. Since the purchase of TOD, inexperienced employees have been elevated to roles much senior to their abilities, and too much money has been spent on hiring low level/intern positions that are incapable of adding the much-needed intrinsic value inherent of seasoned professionals. In the case of the HR organization, it consists of a hodge podge of people who hold specific competencies and/or just have a basic understanding of HR in general. In most organizations, HR is the example for all others to follow in terms of adding discipline to processes, acting with integrity, and being the first line of defense in terms of mitigating company liability. This is not the case with HR at Sensience. Senior HR leadership exercises authority in an arbitrary and capricious manner across the board to maintain professional advantages over others and to discourage anyone from taking a deeper look at the structure, processes, and practices of this department. Looking from within the ranks, the values of integrity, competency and trust are not evident in this group, and in fact they viewed as being contrary to how HR operates. Taking just one aspect of HR into account – recruiting – current hiring practices in the marketplace aimed at more fully supporting the business without breaking the bank are either not understood or not considered. It surprised me to learn of their heavy reliance on headhunters to fill entry – junior level positions, not only because of costs, but also considering how much time the HR manager spends in this area. There have also been a number of tenured and experienced engineers who have been terminated without concern for the future needs of the business, and a CYA culture throughout the company has been created as a result. In terms of diversity, this company goes out of the way to accommodate some while completely ignoring others. Diversity should be looked at in a broader sense.
Lastly, the CEO suffers from a superiority complex like I have never seen.