Dow Chemical – “Stability Stability Stability”

Pros

Stability: They offered a pension which I think is no longer offered to new employees. You could be pretty sure that you would have a job with the company, or if you were let go, you would be given a fair warning and severance to help you land on your feet. There are relatively few levels of management from individual contributors to CEOs, this means that individual contributors do not feel lost at the bottom of a very large pyramid.

Cons

Stability: People seem to stay in the same job in the same field for a long time. There are relatively few levels of management from individual contributors to CEOs, thus not a lot of opportunity to rise through those ranks. Not a cutting edge company in many fields, they are focused on being fast followers of technology trends. Their key advantage is efficiency in production, not innovation. The CEO has made statements about changing this, but change comes slow to a company like Dow.

Advice to Senior Management

The management at Dow knows exactly what they need to do to run a company like this. It just is what it is. That will appeal to some people and not to others.