Cranberry Stressline Forum

Cranberry Stressline Forum

Message Thread #1

Cleaning house should start at the TOP
Wednesday, 05-May-1999 20:52:12

Message:
205.188.200.56 writes:

Hal,
First off let me identify myself as one of those White House denizens. With the atmosphere the way it is now I would be a fool to put my name on this. I just want to send a "message in a bottle."
Many of us employees in Lakeville share the frustration of growers with Ocean Spray management. Our CEO seems clueless that his management team has made some very serious mistakes in marketing the cranberry crop. He is as out of touch with most employees as he is with the average grower.
You want arrogance? Chris Phillips is nothing compared, for instance, to our CFO. The guy would not know a grower unless he teed off with one. And Marketing, why is it so clumsy? Your comments, Hal, are right on the mark! For multiple six figures we get this? -- And more!
Here's another individual in upper-level management, let's call him "Mr. Surplus." Some of you may recognize this "strategic planner" -- the one who has repeatedly predicted a cranberry surplus and said that Ocean Spray was ready for it. Here's the guy who said growers should give back several bucks a barrel for a few years in order to fund future expansion and increased payments per barrel, the "hockey stick" with the handle pointing up up up. Well, sorry growers, this strategic planner was so wrong that his hockey stick was upside down: growers got a slight increase in payments, then a slide down the handle!!! And does he have to answer for his strategic errors??? Apparently not: he still is a valued member (company car, the whole she-bang) of the management team, attending strategic sessions at the BOD meetings in Washington AND retaining his entire group of "big thinkers" last week. What's wrong with this picture?!?
Employees are willing to share the pain with growers, but we too are tired of being lied to by bungling executives who have not delivered.
Thank you Hal for a forum; you're doing a great job!!!

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Replies:

Re: Cleaning house should start at the TOP ([email protected]) (06-May-1999 13:01:36)
Re: Cleaning house should start at the TOP (D. R.) (07-May-1999 09:00:48)
Re: Cleaning house should start at the TOP (Tom Gelsthorpe) (07-May-1999 11:06:09)

Thursday, 06-May-1999 13:01:36

204.214.112.214 writes:

Thanks for your input!!!! Isn't it amazing that this company has come to this. The morale in the white house is at an absolute low according to the growers that live near the office. The growers are sick of all the lying that has gone on under the last two administrations. It is refreshing that the people closest to this management team are finally speaking out. The only way we can force change is to get the truth out. Let's also realize that the BOD are the ones that put this group in place, and they are the ones ultimately responsible for a change. Scary isn't it????? It better happen soon before it's too late. This management team and board of directors don't care about the employees or the grower-owners....if they did they would not default on the payments to the former members(second pref.stock),and they wouldn't destroy the good faith that O.S. has heretofore enjoyed with their employees.

[email protected]

Friday, 07-May-1999 09:00:48

204.255.214.93 writes:

Praise to the Cran-Gods that there is at least one honest and perceptive person in our employ residing in the "White House". Thank
you for your "message in the bottle"!! You confirm what many of us grower-owners have known for a while! The question is...how to we convince the majority of the B.O.D. that they are backing a losing team coached by a C.E.O. with no visible game plan other than self-preservation at all costs. It continues to amaze me that a group of top management with an unblemished two year track record of failure
(two consecutive years, '97 & '98, of falling returns) is even allowed to remain employed.
In any other situation a B.O.D. would never have allowed this degree of mismanagement, without consequences for those actions.
Our B.O.D. makes themselves look worse with each passing day that they fail to take action! The ball is in their court! By failing to protect the interests of the shareholders, the B.O.D. only exposes for all to see who they are working for, and it sure isn't the growers! If the present B.O.D. won't hold top Mgm't accountable for failing to deliver, it is time to shift gears and sell the brand to competent managers, and a B.O.D. who are responsive to the wishes of the shareholders!

D. R.

Friday, 07-May-1999 11:06:09

216.41.47.131 writes:

I'm happy to see a denizen of the White House participate in "Stressline," but I'm mystified why there is so little response from the BOD and management. Is there a policy to maintain a code of silence in the hope that the Stressline will simply dry up and blow away? The only comment I've seen by a named executive is the "odd and misguided" remark by Chris Phillips. When hundreds of millions of dollars in shareholder value have been frittered away over a period of years, is it "odd and misguided" that stockholders might complain? We need a more vigorous outpouring of ideas, not more stonewalling. It's time the non-sycophants be regarded as a resource, not a nuisance. C'mon, people -- BOD, management & growers -- let's debate, either publicly on Stressline, or you can reach me confidentially at: [email protected].

Tom Gelsthorpe

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