#changemanagement

Every year, employees are asked to be honest and say how they really feel. We take the time to fill out the survey, the results are reviewed, presentations are made, and action plans are discussed.

And then… what actually changes?

AI is positioned to be removing many jobs in the name of OBD.

over all the culture around pretty much in all teams is deteriorating. old guard still in team resistance to changes & creating negative environment. don't know how to deal with these people.

Ever wondered why this question always scores the lowest?

I think that's because leaders don't give a flying f to people who can understand and fix the process. Process teams are either working on spi maintenance with low value, paid very low or buried under change managers who have no clue about the process. A handful of leaders in the organisation give importance to process and until process ideas move out of change teams, there's little hope for improvement here. AI is no help to a bad process. What do you think?

Read the HO QA questions and the ELT answers and seems to me like they will now be masking ISPs and layoffs with a term titled Future Ways of Working… I am all for the future and the tech we can invest in but my issue is we are nowhere ready for all that and I feel still years away from what they are wanting to do.

Now that Mike Lipps is running Coupa, I’m curious what former/current Qlik employees can share about his operating style there.

How did he approach layoffs, reorganizations, replacing C-level executives, acquisitions/integration, and cost cutting? Was he generally a “steady the ship” CEO, or did he make pretty significant changes when he came in?

I’m particularly interested in what actually happened on the ground versus the official company messaging.

Re-org after re-org. New processes that are more complicated than the old ones. We can't move forward because we're too busy moving sideways. Nothing ever gets better, nothing gets simpler. Just endless sideways shuffling.

With all the recent reports my manager now reports to India and there is a written public goal that our job is to build capability in Bangalore. How long until they fire my group? Anyone else experiencing similar changes?

Thoughts? They’re in the transition, why not? Shift a bit of sakes sales.
Less risk and guaranteed a cut for Senior Leadership.

I’ve had a lot of time to think about Centene over the weekend. I’ve talked about most of this in pieces before, but when you put it all together, the picture doesn’t look good.

Well-run companies are building their own technology, automation and AI skills because those things will run the business in the future. UnitedHealthcare said on its July 16 earnings call that AI is already used across its administrative work and in nearly every provider and member interaction. It is even automating complex claims that once required people to review them. UnitedHealth is investing about $1.5 billion in AI and wants 80% of prior authorizations processed in real time by the end of 2027. Like them or not, they built much of that capability through Optum and they own it.

Centene is going the other way. It is pushing out thousands of people who understand its systems, data, business rules, and history. Then it is reportedly paying Cognizant between $500 million and $1 billion to use TriZetto for claims, billing, and customer service. At the same time, cut-rate SOW tech jobs are showing up for work that looks a lot like what former Centene employees were doing. The jobs didn’t disappear. They were moved somewhere cheaper, with less ownership and less accountability.

Centene’s Q2 filing says it expects to spend $355–$405 million on severance and contract exits, plus another $85–$115 million on outside companies helping with “enterprise optimization.” That doesn’t include the full reported Cognizant deal. This isn’t cutting costs as much as moving them from employees to vendors.

Here’s the scary part. Centene already has the highest ACA prior-authorization denial rate among major insurers at 25%. In Medicare Advantage, 93% of its appealed denials were overturned. Those numbers suggest the decisions already need work. Now Centene wants to automate more of them through a system run by someone else.

What happens when that system is wrong thousands of times? Who checks the rules? Who stops it? Who can reverse the decisions? Who inside Centene will know enough to push back when Cognizant says everything is working as designed?

UnitedHealthcare has publicly said doctors will still be involved when care is denied and that its call centers will never be fully automated. What has Centene promised? Who will make sure it happens after so many of the people who understand the work are gone?

A Cognizant TriZetto business also had a data breach affecting roughly 3.4 million people. It was not necessarily the same TriZetto platform Centene may use, but it is still a fair reason to ask hard questions about security and giving one vendor this much control.

The board and leadership changes add another piece. Lauren Tyler, who has experience in audit, investor relations, HR and private equity, joined the board in June. Paul Diaz, a healthcare private-equity leader and former CEO of Kindred and Myriad, joined in July. That same day, former WellCare CEO and Centene executive Ken Burdick left the board. Now Drew Asher is leaving the CFO job. Maybe none of this is connected. But add the buyouts, layoffs, new leadership structure, board changes, Cognizant deal, and replacement SOW jobs, and it sure looks connected.

Reporters and analysts have plenty to cover with earnings, membership and medical costs. But somebody should also be asking what the full Cognizant deal includes, how many Centene jobs are being replaced by vendor jobs, who will own the rules and data, what all of this will really cost, and how Centene gets out if TriZetto doesn’t work.

There are still missing pieces. If you’re seeing public SOW postings, job titles, rates, vendor names, work moving offshore or teams being replaced, share what you know. No names or confidential information. Just help fill in the picture.

• This isn’t simplification. Centene may be handing over its ability to run itself, one SOW at a time.*

After careful consideration, extensive feedback, and realizing that nobody actually wants to commute five days a week, we’re pleased to announce that AT&T has decided to stop pretending 5x RTO makes any sense.

Effective immediately:

• Badge swipes are no longer a measure of productivity.
• Your commute is no longer considered part of your workday.
• Managers may once again manage people based on results.
• Teams may work remotely when the work can be done remotely.
• “Presence” reports will be repurposed for something useful.
• And most importantly, you are no longer required to sit in a building for eight hours to prove you have a job.

Thank you for your patience while we spent several billion dollars and a couple years figuring out what everyone already knew.

The way we work has changed. We should probably change with it.

RMSU is gone Nor Cal and PNW still online heard certain teams in mechanical came close to being shut down, territory got expanded here. Sounds like more TCIs will be in the works as they want everyone mobile.

Why so many executives and team members from Network moved under Vivek?
What’s the end goal ? There is Network SVP reporting to Vivek. They used to be peers.

I've seen good people try to make things better repeatedly. They proposed ideas, challenged bad processes, and tried to push change, and all they got for that was being put on the next layoff list. The only way to survive this place is to keep your head down and do what you're told. The new Dell way.

Arizona employees — we see what’s happening.

Arizonans, we want to hear from you.

Leadership keeps telling us they “don’t know” what’s happening, but then how do they explain all the background changes?

You don’t make major structural changes unless you’re preparing for something.

And it’s starting to feel like leadership genuinely believes employees are too stupid to notice.

Hey, we have a new president Paul T – who has a background as an asset manager. Must be here to replace Rawool?, In the failing DXC, do we think he is here to prepare a turnaround, sale, refinancing, or orderly wind-down?

T-Mobile is making leadership changes, including the departure of Mike Katz and the
rebuilding of the Un carrier spirit. The company is seeing progress in enterprise and
small-sized businesses, but the success of T-Mobile for Business is unclear. The
speakers discuss the potential for growth in the mobile business and the importance
of maintaining a fixed cost versus variable cost decision.The potential for disruptive companies to move into themobile space, with T-Mobile and Charter expected to see strong growth. TheSo we got some leadership changes taking place across the industry. Most recently, T Mobile where Mike Katz is stepping away after two decades. Coming on board at T Mobile as their new chief enterprise officer is Chris Sambar, who will be leadingthe SMB enterprises and government businesses. What we are observing here at T Mobile is with Srini Gopalan, a rebuilding, and we talked about thiswhen Srini came on board, a rebuilding of the Un carrier into a company that is even more focused
now on execution than it was ever before.With Greenie now being deeper in the saddle, and we saw like half a dozen of senior execs already leaving, the senior leadership team is like three quarters new.We see that Sriniis putting his team in place. You know, Andre Almeida, who came from Europe, oneof his close lieutenants of Srini's lieutenants, he ran the expanded enterprise group that not only hasbusiness init, but also like key ads and the Al efforts. He is now moving over as the president of marketing.It will be very interesting of how Andre will do that.They hired Chris Sambar, who, up until about two years ago, was at AT&T, a highly respected executive, a terrific leader, straight sho-ter, great executor, one of the architects and implementers of AT&T's FirstNet success story. For the last two years, he was like the COO of a storage company, and
now he's coming back to telecom. With Chris, T Mobile is getting a terrific executive. When we look at T Mobile for Business, they're making progress. They're growing. For somebody like Chris to come in, there's only upside,you know? In comparison, it's a huge number as a multiple. In absolute numbers, we always knew it was like.modest, but you have to start somewhere. And so, Andre is handing over that portfolio, and | think Chris will execute very well here. Yes. It will. Yeah. Well, let's see exactly where Chris takes this. On his farewell LinkedIn post or his goodbye to T Mobile LinkedIn post, Katz mentioned that he startedas ajunior in college as anin store sales rep. And with him, T Mobile and you have to give TMobile a lot of credit for rewriting telecom and, as they like to say, changing wireless for the better.He has a big role in this. He was also instrumental in forging the MVNO between the cable companiesand T Mobile for the business side. He never got enough credit for this. He was kind of the unsunghero here. | watched this over like five years happening, and how this slowly progressed forward.And without him, T Mobile would not have closed that MVNO agreement. You know, the cable companies just recently, and | don't think there was a big announcement about it,
they fully launched on T Mobile. | would say that the cable guys the cable guys are coming for small and mid.Now that
they have an offer where they can address up to a thousand lines, | would expect that the cable companies will get a lot, lot stronger in business on the mobile side.So, it will be an increasingly crowded space where three very disruptive companies, T Mobile witha new leader, Charter and Comcast, especially a Charter that will have absorbed Cox soon, play the.business market You know, we mentioned it before, T Mobile made about six monthsago the opposite decision of adding more company owned stores. For me, more company owned stores means you're more bullish that you have pretty consistent traffic where you put them.Whereas the variable decision, you don't know if it goes up or down, and you only want tocompensate for performance is when you move towards mobile.And from the T Mobile front, a branding perspective, you own the overall experience. So youyou are making sure that your employees are giving those customers exactly what they want.Obviously, you need the foot traffic to make that happen first and foremost. But, yeah, it's an.interesting divergence.At AT&T, about a month ago, Pascal Desroches announced he'll be retiring from a CFO position at the end of the year, and he will be replaced by Jennifer Beery. She's an AT&T alum,most recently CFO and COO at McAfee. Thoughts on Pascal stepping down?
Well, Pascal was the right man at the right time. He came in with John Stankey taking over as CEO,and he established a different tone than John Stevens had. Pascal really established faith and trust
and transparency back into the AT&T numbers. Under John Stevens, they changed how they reportedthe number almost every quarter. And it was so difficult to reconcile of what's actually going on in the
company and what the numbers said.
And as a result, none of the analysts trusted really AT&T's numbers. And a result, the stock traded ata discount of where it should trade. Pascal, who is a great person, really simplified how the company
was reporting, made it a lot more transparent, which also helped the company then to fully
demonstrate the success it has made over time, and how the company has focused on thefundamentals that has made AT&T an American icon. John Stankey refocused the company's strategyonconvergence. And Pascal told the story very successfully to Wall Street and investors.We did some work around investor relations. And one of the things that's also very interesting is
about half of AT&T's shareholders are retail shareholders. And what came out of that work that we did is that PASCAL restored the trust of small investors in the company. Investor Relations typically only deal with the massive investors, which is only half of the universe. And so, you know, Jennifer is coming in.She worked for John Stankey also before. When you go back when Jennifer worked for John the first
time around, John was very effusive about the qualifications of Jennifer. And I'm sure it hurt him when she stepped away. And what you need inthe relationship between the CEO and the CFO is a trusting relationship, you know, next to the COO. It's the most critical relationship you have.| always like to say the CEO is the brain of the company. The COO is the heart in Jeff McAlfresh. Hemoves the blood through the organization. The CFO is the lungs. They supply the oxygen that the
heart needs to push the blood through and to supply also the brain with oxygen.John gets back somebody he knows, he trusts, and based on what he said inthe past, admires and really gets along with.

Large number of them can be replaced with AI far easier than your lower level SMEs.

Honeywell Aerospace is pushing hard to adopt direct charge billing across every business unit. I am on a team (I won’t say which one) that is going from indirect to direct, and it’s going to be a huge mess. We’ve been assured by our management that it’s only going to be a small change with how we do business, but the devil is in the details. We now have a work-to-time-off ratio we need to keep in balance and our overhead billing is expected to be very tiny.

Thank you Eliot for messing with a formula that worked just fine before.

We are hearing Tara has been tasked to further reduce heads and after voluntary the target will be to consolidate duplication especially in teams that have merged eg MEA AND EUROPE. There can be some major changes at lower levels. This could re shape the whole thinking and way forward for this group. Profitable areas getting hit!

Wish the IGS boys and girls luck at AIP .. hopefully Trew can get the company back in shape after the big H destroyed it.

I can only imagine the horror in the new leadership's faces when they finally get an unfiltered view underneath the hood-- Chad and Girish were probably smart to stay behind.

He says he's learning and no immediate changes are coming but lets be for real

Does anyone have any insight on how they have handled previous reorgs? Do they assign you to a new role? Are you given options? Do you have to reapply? Is it simply this is your new position starting this date or you can leave?

Just my opinion, but after the last organizational shake-up, I wouldn’t be surprised if history repeats itself.

One question I keep coming back to: A.C. championed the “ways of working” in the previous CXO organization. Has anyone objectively looked at whether those same approaches may have contributed to some of the challenges the organization faced?

Hopefully the new organization has a different outcome—but time will tell. 🍿

Any news on what happened here?

McKinsey have been poking around on cost for years why has the T5 layer of managers not been removed. In my experience they largely work from home, demand lots of travel and are blockers to true change viewi g everything through their personal lens.

At many large enterprises like SAP, having a highly concentrated, top-heavy layer of senior executives (like the T5 band) can become a major drag on agility. While senior leadership is necessary for governance, an over-reliance on a massive executive tier often does more harm than good.
Here are some other reasons why a heavy executive management layer can be a bad idea, a waste of resources, and a massive blocker to organizational change:

1. The "Telephone Game" of Communication
   When strategic goals have to travel down from the board through T5 executives, T4 directors, and T3 managers before reaching the people doing the actual work, the original message gets distorted. Key details are lost in translation, and the boots on the ground often end up executing something entirely different from what was intended.
2. Decision Paralysis and Over-Analysis
   With too many high-level leaders wanting to leave their mark, decisions require endless rounds of reviews, steering committees, and alignments. Simple choices that should take days get dragged out for months because too many executives need to "sign off" or feel included.
3. High Compensation, Low Direct Output
   Executive-level talent commands premium salaries, stock options, and bonuses. When a company carries a bloated executive tier, a massive portion of the budget is spent on individuals who manage and coordinate, rather than those who build, sell, or support the actual product. This is a highly inefficient allocation of capital.
4. Preservation of the Status Quo
   Executives at this level have often spent decades navigating the corporate political landscape to achieve their status. Because their success is tied to the existing system, they are naturally incentivized to protect it. Truly disruptive change threatens their established domains, making them quiet saboteurs of radical innovation.
5. Silo Creation and Empire Building
   To justify their premium titles and budgets, senior managers often focus on expanding their "empires"—hiring more people under them and fiercely guarding their departmental boundaries. This breeds internal competition and political infighting rather than cross-functional collaboration.
6. Detachment from the Customer and Technology
   The higher up a leader goes, the further they get from the actual product and the day-to-day frustrations of the customer. Decisions are often made based on polished PowerPoint decks and sanitized reports rather than the raw, messy reality of the market.
7. Death by PowerPoint (The "Tax" on Middle Management)
   To keep senior executives informed, middle managers and individual contributors must spend countless hours preparing status updates, dashboards, and presentations. This "reporting tax" drains valuable time and energy that should be spent on actual execution.
8. Dilution of Accountability
   When a project involves multiple senior stakeholders, responsibility becomes diffused. If a major initiative fails, the layered structure makes it incredibly easy to point fingers, meaning no single executive is held accountable, and the organization fails to learn from its mistakes.
9. Suffocation of Grassroots Innovation
   Great ideas in tech usually bubble up from the engineers, designers, and customer-facing staff. When there is a thick layer of top-down management, these ideas struggle to get noticed. If an idea doesn't align with an executive's personal roadmap, it is often ki-led before it can even be trialed.
10. Heavy Friction for Agile Pivots
    In a fast-moving market, companies need to pivot quickly. A massive executive layer acts like a heavy anchor. Reorganizing, shifting budgets, or changing product direction requires untangling a complex web of executive egos, personal OKRs, and political alliances, making rapid adaptation nearly impossible.

Many technology firms are implementing frequent workforce reductions, often termed "continuous tuning," as they navigate evolving business priorities and invest heavily in artificial intelligence. This trend, observed across major companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, signifies a shift from cyclical layoffs to a more persistent strategy. Companies cite the need to reallocate resources towards AI development and adapt to technological advancements as primary drivers for these adjustments. While some layoffs are attributed to post-pandemic restructuring, the increasing mention of AI alongside workforce cuts on corporate calls highlights its growing influence. Experts suggest this approach, driven by uncertainty and competitive pressures, is likely to become a norm in the tech industry.

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-tech-companies-keep-doing-layoffs-ai-2026-7

Honestly-the uncertainty of this company will greatly improve with new leadership who already know our clients, products and technology. I loved ML but I don’t think he had the tools to manage such a complex environment from a technology perspective. I never knew Dvy but was excited and petrified of her AI roll out plan, she was only here 6 months so not much time to make any meaningful changes. I’m glad we can now roll out AI with a little more thoughtful approach internally. I believe we finally have the right C suite in place -they are far from perfect, But having the understanding of internal Fiserv is a huge knowledge bonus! These guys now have the authority to make the necessary changes Fiserv clients have been looking for in breaking down silos within the company. Clients need to know that this is a really a good thing! Moving forward truly as one Fiserv! Finally!

Do we think there’s going to be another reorg coming soon?

During our welcoming call, the new leader introduced himself, but obviously he forgot how we landed there, he was the CEO's executive assistant couple of years back. Note aside, If we observe this move, 3 previous executive assistants has been graduated that position with a nee executive position and big fat check.

The continuous organizational mess is masked with messages around "this is not about correction but an opportunity… this is the right path for us, to work closely”. One thing is having aspirations, but the reality is that we are not a AI-native organization, nor we can ship products every 3 weeks. Former BTP is a very large legacy organization, with strong figures that will navigate change with power politics, some are leaving like MA, but we have leaders and middle management that is obsolete and will continue to imped velocity.

Experimentation was another resource to minimize the impact of errors, of careful strategies and execution plans. Whereas experimentation is part of innovation, it is not just the means to justify mistakes for a company with such large scale. We expect leadership that has been there and done it, that are not headless moving forward.
There is an abysm between a Vision at Sapphire VS what needs to be done, the L1,L2,L3, L4 details are what matters the most: application to products, migration, infrastructure, guidance for customers, and how all the work is going to be prioritized and aligned.

HPOM theme surged into the Q&A, the failure of this program with the large amount of negative feedback was ignored and we were invited to "not draw conclusions yet".

Overall the Q&A section was answered poorly, a fresh face with a smile is not enough to lead one of the most transformational changes SAP is pushing forward. “I think… (pun intended)"

are executives empowering us? are they moving the obstacles for us? is it true that getting job done matters more than our roles? What are your thoughts?

https://investors.xerox.com/static-files/101bb5f2-18b8-4db1-897e-52c1c92a3bc7

So, LP has a golden parachute, that pays out for 24 months, or in one lump sum, at 2x his annual salary. This expires on 12/31/26 if there has not been a "Change in Control" of the company (i.e., CH 11).

CH11 before 12/31/26 = LP get 2x salary lump sum and a yet undetermined bonus.
CH11 after 12/31/26 = LP gets nothing.

Maybe there is a filing where they extended that date? If there is one, please share a link, but as this stands, LP can (will) get a multi-million dollar payout if this all goes bust before 2027.

Bonus: This was filed years ago, so it will probably hold up in court. The one they filed on 7/2/26? Not so much...

America's Test Kitchen has undergone multiple rounds of layoffs and operational shifts since its acquisition by Marquee Brands. These changes include the closure of ATK Kids and Cook's Country magazine, alongside a strategic pivot towards digital content and influencer collaborations. Company leadership asserts these adjustments are necessary for adaptation in a changing media landscape, aiming for organizational right-sizing rather than simple cost-cutting. Former employees express concerns that these shifts may dilute the brand's core mission of rigorous recipe testing. Despite these internal shifts, the company's flagship television show remains a primary driver of subscriptions.

Boston, MA

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/09/business/americas-test-kitchen-layoffs-strategy/

https://www.geekwire.com/2026/tech-moves-seattle-tech-exec-named-dropbox-cpo-xbox-vp-among-layoffs-c-suite-changes-at-t-mobile/

I’ll probably be in the minority, but I think Bill Brown is exactly the leader 3M needed.

He came in with a plan, had the courage to make the tough decisions, and is executing it without wavering. That isn’t easy, and it certainly isn’t popular.

Yes, the layoffs are painful, and my heart goes out to everyone affected. But leadership isn’t about avoiding difficult decisions—it’s about making them when the long-term future of the company is at stake.

Bill was hired to transform 3M, not to preserve the status quo. From what I’ve seen, he’s earning every cent by making the hard calls that many before him avoided.

History will judge whether he got everything right, but no one can say he lacks courage or conviction.

I can’t believe the lolcow that is this executive leadership team.

The email on change fatigue is the biggest joke in this company’s history. I think this is all intentional to force people out

BUCKLE UP -
There is no legal limit on how many times a company can alter a Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) offer before you sign it. An employer can revise, amend, or even cancel the offer entirely anytime prior to your acceptance.However, after you and the company have both signed the agreement, it becomes a binding contract. Neither party can legally change the terms post-signature unless the contract specifically includes a modification clause allowing for it, or both parties mutually agree in writing to an amendment.

DXC has all the energy of a company that accidentally put “innovation” on its PowerPoint template and has been trying to live up to it ever since. Every restructuring is announced like it’s the dawn of a bold new era, yet somehow the biggest breakthrough is discovering another department that can be renamed, outsourced, or merged into an acronym nobody understands. If corporate strategy were a game of Jenga, DXC would be the team proudly removing load-bearing blocks while assuring everyone the wobbling is actually “operational agility.” It’s the sort of place where “doing more with less” eventually becomes “doing less with absolutely nothing,” but somehow there’s still time for three meetings, four status reports, and a mandatory training module about embracing change.

SAP SE is divvying up responsibilities for its product and engineering functions in its second top-level reorganization this year, people familiar with the matter said, as Europe’s largest software company grapples with staying ahead of rising artificial intelligence competition.

SAP has decided to split the responsibilities of Chief Product Officer Muhammad Alam among existing executives as Alam prepares to leave the company in March, rather than name a new CPO with those duties, the people said, asking to not be identified as the plan hasn’t yet been shared internally. Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein will take over most of Alam’s teams, while Chief Operating Officer Sebastian Steinhäuser will handle industrial AI, the people said.

A spokesman for SAP declined to comment.

Growing enterprise interest in AI tools from OpenAI and Anthropic PBC has put SAP and other traditional software firms under pressure to adapt. Klein is reorganizing the company to focus more resources on AI development, something he sees as key to the German enterprise software company’s survival.

It’s come alongside several executive board departures in the last few years, which have shifted reporting lines and responsibilities. In March, Klein gave another board member his sales responsibilities and took on greater oversight of AI strategy. He said in an email to employees at the time that “we once again need to transform SAP end to end, going all in on AI.”

SAP’s shares have declined about 35% this year.

Read more: SAP CEO Says AI Transition Will Require Short-Term Pain

The company is fending off criticism from some partners and customers that its early AI tools aren’t worth the expense, and others who say that they may look outside of SAP’s ecosystem for AI capabilities. In March, Klein pushed to expand access to AI tools to customers who hadn’t yet migrated their all of their legacy systems to the cloud, prioritizing the newer technology.

SAP will continue to search outside of the company for a new executive product lead, two of the people added. The company will target candidates in the US, its largest market, where Alam is the only executive board member, they said. Alam, who took the role leading SAP’s global product and engineering organization in 2024, also oversaw SAP’s software applications including product strategy and development. It’s unclear how the role will be structured under the new CPO.

The July 1 announcement is just a few days away. Are we going to hear about massive change, or will it just be a repeat of what we heard a couple weeks ago? Will they announcement headcount targets or kick that down the road? Personally I’m getting tired of the LT breadcrumbing us.