An amazing and important media brand, with huge potential, being run so, so badly. Every decision made by the ‘leadership’ team and especially the Group CEO, is the wrong one, even the most rudimentary. The cash reserves are exhausted and he is about to bankrupt the business.
There are multiple CEO positions in order to massage ego’s and demonstrate that there is no true leadership or individual capable of truly running the business and being accountable for anything (hence the multitude of bad decisions). In fact, the Group CEO claims (what he thinks are) any good ideas as his own and then spins them to the board and media as revolutionary. If he was asked to explain them in depth, he would struggle. Naturally, all bad decisions are somebody else's, of course - recent departures (including his old boss at Tripadvisor, who he begged to tag along) as an example. But he particularly loves the tale of how he chose Time Out, Time Out didn’t choose him.
The beginning of 2018 saw a new boss in the NY office. From the outset it was clear that he didn’t come close to fitting the culture of the company or with the staff. He was also given carte blanche to hire and fire whoever he wanted (which is semi-understandable). This led to 8 or so senior managers being let go, these were people that had been with the brand for years and very much believed in what Time Out was all about. Four of his ‘old media’ cronies came in (some out of retirement for a final pay day) with no reduction in the salary pool. Some of them soon left having realised they weren’t up for the fight and that their fellow senior leadership team were useless. He was fired before he even hit 6 months.
Where to start with the Group CEO?! His big idea was to turn Time Out into Trip Advisor by pouring 95% of the company resources into ecommerce, this is where his thinking ended. Flog an idea of 10+ years ago, to a generation that will simply google where to find a cheaper ticket, was never going to work, hasn’t and it’s everyone else's fault. He literally does nothing other than promote himself and make sure the office is tidy. Never have I seen so much self congratulation as when he bought a new coffee machine for the NY office. Because he claims to like star wars and wears hoodies, he thinks he is down with the kids...he couldn’t be more out of touch, with both the consumers he is trying to monetise and his own staff. Each end of year rally cry (after poorly attempting to convince staff of how the company isn’t performing as badly as it seems) and clearly after a ‘long lunch’ he tells everyone that if they don’t like what the company is doing, they should leave - just the reassurance you want from the most senior person in the business.
He has single handedly brought Time Out to its knees and to the edge of extinction. The cash reserves have run out and there are round after round of redundancies. God only knows why the board have allowed him to keep his job. It won't be long until parts of the business are auctioned off and he claims this as a victory too.
As a bonus, the Time Out North America HR team is terrible. They have single handedly undone all the great work done by their predecessor in making the office a pleasant and enjoyable place to work. On top of this, they managed to oversee the cockup of all US staffs taxes, leaving them all in the hole for thousands of dollars, but as is the theme - it's someone else's fault.
Oh, and the markets! It worked well in one city (that has no market/food hall competition) so let’s roll it out in every other city...its bound to work...just like ecommerce.
