Magellan Navigation Reviews

Pros

Magellan offered International exposure with opportunities to present financials in US GAAP, French GAAP, and IFRS format. Teamwork. Location. Evolving technology.

Cons

Part of the appeal of Magellan was its constant state of change, which also was its downside. However, good people made this challenge also rewarding.

Advice to Senior Management

Strive for approachability. Many managers tended to stay in their own domain instead of promoting cross-organizational exchange of ideas and teamwork.

Pros

high pay
easy to ask for time off

Cons

hard to advance
management makes a lot of excuses of why products aren't selling

Advice to Senior Management

Stop worrying about everything and stop making excuses.

Pros

People were great, even though management wasn't.

Cons

The money and product were poorly managed.

Pros

great momentum
new products are lines up

Cons

2nd or 3rd place in consumer electronics

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up with killing products

Pros

Good people
Technology
Fast paced

Cons

Always changing
GPS market is not stable - too much competition from cell phones

Pros

Good hands on experience. I worked on a variety of projects.

Cons

Uncertain/unstable environment. Employees are overworked and undercompensated.

Advice to Senior Management

not applicable, since company is no longer functioning....bought out by a Taiwanese company

Pros

Technology and industry are good for developing a base in consumer exlectronics. You get to work with leading contract manufacturers. You get to wear many hats.

Cons

Low quality products. Poor leadership. Lots of pollitics between the new ownership and previous employees. Company is run for short term numbers so that it will be and attractive company to sell or take public. However, the business plan is not there and the competition beats Magellan in flexibility, technology and quality. Sales and marketing organizations are weak. Understanding retail and trade marketing is non existant. Product development is slow. Engineering is acceptable but lacks operations knowledge.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit followin the trends and start creating them. Get serious about quality. Find a replacement for neverlost or you will lose the business.

Pros

New management has taken over. If you are willing to put in long hours for the limited chance of turning this company around and the options / rewards that may entitle you to then go ahead.

Cons

Very long hours focusing on latest fire drill instead of the core problems. Basic systems and processes are broken or non-existent. Example: did a very poor job of implementing SAP. One year later still can't get the most basic information out of it correctly. Senior management was very short term oriented.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to focus more on day to day operations, controls, systems and processes. Need to focus more on the long term and limit what you do (find a niche) but do it well.

Pros

You can work in one of the hottest product categories in consumer electronics. This makes it possible to be involved in "what's next".

Cons

Management can't see the true opportunities or a successful differentiated business model from what other competitors are doing. Most who work in managment are consumer electronics job jumpers who have never really had to come up with something novel on their own. As a result, most steer the company down the same paths as a dozen other industries. This has lead the company away from high margin, low competition markets to low margin, high competition markets. The problem is that the latest direction doesn't make any money. They can't figure out why and what to do next.

Advice to Senior Management

See beyond the basic core markets. In the end, no one will make money there.