Cepheid

New management shake up. In 2010 like other years, they have overpromised Wall Street revene projections that they will not meet. Look for more heads to roll mid year when they are under goal.

The place is a hornets nest for any rep (other than their favorites) with absolutely no loyalty.

JB, NA, RK, BM will sell anyone down river to save their positons.

 

sounds like someone has sour grapes.
This company has the best technology in the world. yes, it's expensive and not an easy sell but your job is to convince people to buy. If you can't do that, mgmt won't tolerate incompetence and will find someone who can get the job done.

I was surprised at the shake up for BM and RK. They'll probably get a little taste of their own medicine but I think it's good in the long run.

 

What is the issue in the Mid-Atlantic? You would think that this high profile area would be more fruitful than it has been thus far, especially in the metropolitan DC area.

 

It's a tough territory and lot of people focused specifically on spreadsheets as opposed to patient care and outcomes. Once the hosp decision makers start realizing that a fast, accurate result ultimately costs less than a cheaper, longer, less accurate result, they'll get their heads out of eachothers asses and Ceph will take off there.

 

Brian McDonald was let go last week. While a hard worker, Brian was a poor manager. He still thought he was in the military and used fear/degrading as a motivator and it simply doesn't work with this type of sales force.
It was a big surprise considering he was Rob's boy.

 

This company's management is a joke. There are a couple decent people in mgmt but the rest are scared of their own shadow.

 

The new dir of corp accts, G Piccolli is a joke. She has absolutely no clue of what it takes to see equipment in the field. All she does is hide behind gpo agreements and tells you to quit bitching about pricing.

 

yep, georgeann sucks. she's a nico trooper though so rob is afraid to put her in her place because rob is scared of nico and knows nico is just looking for an excuse to whack him

 

apparently it got a little too hot in the kitchen for koska. nico will no doubt hand pick the successor.

 

what are your thoughts on brien russell

 

Jim Post from Alere now the COO?

Wait til Bishop runs him off like he has every other Exec VP person in the last 5 years!

 

The sales force is not at all happy with Post or his lap boy, Mike Kreitzinger.
Why he was hired as a VP of sales is a mystery. Give them about 12 months and Bishop will replace them both. Wonder if Koska is just waiting his turn again?

 

Man, was that predictable! Post and Krietzinger both let go last week. No surprise since Bishop probably realized about 1 month into their tenure that he screwed up. Koska's got to be enjoying this soap opera but Bishop probably won't move him back into sales.

 

so you guys are expanding your salesforce...any insight on where you company is headed, the culture of the org., etc. Overall thoughts as I am looking to interview soon. thanks

 

Anyone? You guys are expanding, doubling your sales force...what is it like to work there? Challenges? Thanks

 

This place is toxic! PF has already rubbed JB the wrong way multiple times. No way he survives the yr. Expansion of sales force is going terribly. Why in the hell are we still hiring all of these alere DA's? I thought that trend wouldve died when JP and MK were axed. Stock prices may look A OK, but this is one miserable place to be. Incompetent leadership, back stabbing/infighting, and a sales force that gets worse by the day. The technology is solid, but there are way too many other choices now and even more to come in the next 12 mos. I'm out as soon as I can get on with one of the many companies that JB is terrified of. Prospects, consider yourselves warned.

 

people are pissed at dan Jenkins for not promoting any of his sales reps to any of the rsd positions that he had available. He's never hit his number and is basically a nonexistent manager so no surprise he didn't feel like he prepared any of his people to move up. He and susan surber do not like each other and won't be surprised if one or both don't make it through the year. Pete isn't impressed with either of these two and if bishop is putting heat on Peter, it's going to get really warm under Jenkins and surbers asses.

 

word from Sunnyvale is that the two area managers positions are going to be consolidated into either 1 or none. the extra layer of management is redundant and an unnecessary expense.
it's going to get interesting to see how surber and Jenkins try to jockey for position to see who gets to keep their job and who is given a pink slip.
Peter might decide to have all the RSDs report to him, in which both will get pink slips. That wouldn't be a surprise. Either way, if Bishops track record of managemtn turnover holds, they'll be some changes before the end of the year.

 

news travels fast......people aren't happy with Peter and Peter's not happy with Jenkins or Serber. Expect 2 of the 3 or maybe even all 3 to be looking for new jobs by 2016.
If Bishop were smart, he would move Stapp back into the VP of Sales role, fire Peter, Jenkins and Serber and only have 2 layers of management instead of 4.
It's not about selling boxes much anymore although the NE and will continue to do well. It's about loading those boxes with cartridges.

 

insider information reports that a certain area director has been interviewing with other companies in recent weeks. I guess there's some writing on the wall for DJ or SS.