Pros

Well, there's always the hope that things will improve. The vast majority of people who work here are really great, too. There has been a huge management turnover as part of the 'transformation' over the past five years or so. This modernization has brought in some new blood and a whole tier of people who want to make a difference in creating a more open, less patriarchal environment. Along with the change, Six Sigma was adopted throughout the company, which (while cumbersome at times) does establish the possibility of a common language and processes at every Textron site. This is good since the enterprise is comprised of nine businesses in various industries, with unique cultures. Theoretically, there is potential to move across the company, though not many people do so.

Cons

This is an old-school, top-down, hierarchical company. The top 200 managers are very concerned with giving the answers that senior leaders are looking for, which means that frank feedback is rarely surfaced to the highest level of management. The C-suite is surprizingly provincial and unsophisticated for a Fortune 200 company and they are only vaguely aware that there are issues -- with multi-million dollar bonuses, shame on them for that. The risk-averse, heavily process-oriented culture spends an immense amount of time lauding its own navel gazing and much less time simply making common sense changes. The environment is very heavily white male except at the shop floor levels, with most very senior roles and strongest influence enjoyed by men.

Advice to Senior Management

There is an immense gap between the rhetoric and the action at this company. Recognition is needed that the strong process orientation and the value placed on consistent thought / repeatable process do not fit with other programs that are being pushed. For example, the 'Greatness starts with me' campaign highlights individual contributions -- there is not much real value placed on independent thought in practice. I think there is trouble ahead, as Gen X, Y and Millennial employees do not want to work for a company with such an inflexible culture. Please wake up before it is too late. And while we're at it, could we please have a workable health plan?