My God! Middle management is so so? Middle management is fundamentally made up of mediocre people by its sheer nature. This forum is infested with 3-5 disgruntled, probably life career sales reps. Can it be any more obvious? Your syntax is predictable and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist. Get a life and perhaps even a job. My guess is you don't have one or are looking heavily. I may even know who you are.
Now looking at the last quarter, the US outperformed most indexes either GDP, total market growth rates or competitor small cap. This defeats the economic argument made by disgruntled turd number one. From my point of view (and I’ve been in finance before) I can’t say the US sales from the management presentation are really as some here are describing it.
5.6 percent on the bedrock business and 16.2 total is actually above market rate. If anything there does seem to be a misalignment in the expectations of WS and what the company has delivered. That’ll course correct over time and anyone with a half brain would understand that. I’m sure the 3-5 turds on here are ready for their emotional and defeating response after this. I suggest you get a real job, retire, or get on with that new job you’ve been considering but can’t land.