There is nothing remarkable about this company. The benefits are average and it goes down hill from there. There is really no culture or bond that ties people together. People might like their co-workers, but no one is excited the company and it’s prospects. In fact, most people have no clue what is going on outside their division. The left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing and there is a fair amount of redundancy.
The company is in clearly in crisis and everyone can feel it. University of Phoenix is a damaged brand that depends on Title 4 student loan money, GI Bill funds, and international students. The product is actually not bad at all but there are no admission standards and few academic standards. Read: Anyone can get in and everyone graduates with a degree. It is no surprise Congress is trying to shut down the student loan pipeline to online universities.
Because UoP, the flagship product, is performing poorly and the company is overcorrecting, cutting corners everywhere it can. As a result, employees in other business units suffer. Leadership is nonexistant and there is no clear turnaround strategy. These days you'd be hard pressed to find many people who are inspired or motivated about the future.
The company does not have the capacity to innovate, which is ironic because it sells a course called Innovator’s Accelerator to companies for an exorbitant price. It has tried really hard in the last 2-3 years and squandered tens of millions of dollars on education courses that have failed to gain traction in the market. It also purchased a promising edtech startup, staffed it mostly with existing employees, and ran it into the ground in 15 months.
Because UoP takes government student loan money, there is a heavy compliance and legal review component that impedes many business activities and destroys economic value. Lawyers review all marketing material and vendor contracts with intense scrutiny, lots of wasted time and excessive requests for changes. The net result could add 2 months of time to a contract negotiation and many times vendors just don't want to work for us, because all our lawyers want to do is remove every last drop of liability from contracts. Apollo is a legal state and many people fear the wrath of our legal team, even C-level executives.
Last quarter, the CEO told Wall Street that future of the company lies in corporate professional development products and services. This is a new initiative that Apollo started by reorganizing 3-4 business units / departments into one new one, but three months later there is no clear strategy or many products/services that exist or in development. Just confusion and chaos. Rumor has it that the professional development executive is desperate to buy companies in order to build out its professional development services and products.
It’s a sad state of affairs here and unless there is a major shake up at the C-level this company is on what is going to be a long and slow death march.
