Oh god .... where to begin:
Monthly. Sales. Targets.
I genuinely believe that a lot of meltwater problems stems with this above concept. Firstly, having a target every single month causes burnout and stress for every single person in the organization. The company also has a strategic goal of raising the average deal size but that often requires a longer deal cycle and we spend the last week of every month dropping our pants to get a deal in. It’s bad for business and it also causes us to lose credibility as a company. We also don’t spend enough time building value because we’re too busy trying to ask our clients to renew 6 months in advance. Lastly, there is a stigma with taking vacation when it suits you at the company even though they promise 4 weeks a year.
Management:
Meltwater only promotes from within, that means every single senior manager/director at this company virtually came here straight out of undergrad and its the only place they’ve ever worked. The amount of conformity of thought here is astonishing to me. All these directors have never had unique career experiences and have been raised to think the meltwater way... there is no critical thinking here and if you raise any objection to this you’re either perceived as rogue or against the culture.
Platform:
Granted, a lot of what we do depends on partnerships, but the platform is a disaster. It’s difficult to use and articles are missed all the time. When clients churn it’s blamed on the reps but it’s usually not our fault. We keep investing into new tools while forgetting that we have to make the 90% of our clients on our current tools happy.
Diversity:
This is the whitest company I’ve ever seen in my life. We pretty much hire only frat boys and sorority girls who come of as extroverted and friendly in the interviews. Most hires are also referrals from existing friends who look the same, it’s a self fulfilling prophecy and we can’t only have people at this company who think and grew up the same way.
There’s a lot more, but meltwater really needs to look in the mirror and think critically about how it’s going to grow as a company.
