I came to the company as an honest believer in the brands and in the product. Initially, I could say I really enjoyed working here; but the business practices of the company have put every field person in the position of being embarrassed and ashamed of representing this company.
The company is so tight financially, they will not stand behind their dealers or the product they sell. Dealers are stocked in some cases/product categories with 3 + years worth of inventory; home office continues to want field sales to push them for more orders, that they don't need and in most cases, don't have the credit line for. They are creating the environment where, the high floor plan interest will likely force dealers to resign.
The company has issues with product quality and they aren't adequate stocking recall repair kits to meet demand. Often customers are left hanging in the wind for months for repair parts. Then, they've made the warranty recovering so overbearing for dealers, that recovering any of their cost for repairs impossible.
The company is not capable of reacting to the market. When competitors launch new product that gives them a decisive advantage, it will likely take 5 - 7 years (if ever) to launch an equitable product. By that time, the market has either moved on or been saturated by competitors.
The company has a proclivity for third party sourcing of segments, that they don't find "financial sense" in manufacturing; i.e., compact tractors, minor hay tools, mini excavators, etc. For example, many dealers in urban/suburban areas, compact tractors are a big part of their business. Well, the majority of the compact tractor line is sourced from LS Mtron. LS builds our tractor and is allowed subsequently to open up dealers to compete against us. I don't know who agreed to this deal, but they should be fired.
Then forecasting, forecasting, forecasting, forecasting, forecasting, and more forecasting. You have to do a monthly retail forecast every week. That's fine. Then you have to do a rolling 12 month forecast, updated every 2 weeks. Then you have a forecast for each dealership, that they expect the dealers to do (but is done by the field team, because dealers refuse to do it.) about twice a quarter. If it isn't enough, you have to carve time out of trying to drive retail business to do these forecast; if you give honest feedback on what you think the industry and retails will look like over the given period, and they don't like it, they will make you change them. If someone sitting in home office knows what they want the numbers to be , change them yourself.
Then there are the twice per year layoffs that come almost like clockwork after Q1 and Q3 every year. If your over the age of 55 or if you are someone that puts integrity and good business practices over totting the company line: be prepared, because your days are numbered. Doesn't matter if you are strong performer. If you don't endorse every action the company makes, you have a target on your back.
