Pros
Anaplan used to be an incredible place to work but ever since the Thoma Bravo takeover things somehow are going from bad to worse. There are some pockets of good people remaining but it is also dwindling rather swiftly. Some extraordinary individuals from the old days are still trying to make it all work.
Cons
- CEO - not sure if he is aware what is actually happening in the company. Announced that there won't be any salary increases for anyone, not even to match inflation, and everything is performance merit based. One wonders if he has been living under a rock and never heard of the cost-of-living-crisis. Well, probably not. - HR - Head of HR has a massive chip on her shoulder and literally wants to monitor everything employees are doing and micromanage anything from office attendance to time spent at a computer. If not for laws in the UK they probably would. Of course everyone knows that HR is there to protect the company but gosh, you can still treat people with respect. Let them do their jobs, don't lie to them. One wonders how things actually worked before the Thoma Bravo takeover. Advise to HR, stop being condescending. You are dealing with professional grown ups believe it or not. - Lack of diversity at the top - Would love to see more women and culturally diverse candidates be hired and promoted into the exec level. It is very white and very male. Out of 9 Execs (including the CEO) there are two women. One is a PA and the other one is HR... classic. - Lack of strategy - Even though the company has a roadmap of sorts it is heavily engineering driven and has not much to do with good product development and design. Sure, an overhaul of the previous architectural base is overdue but there seem to be no rhyme or reason how it is actually going to hang together. Lots of egos trying to be noticed so they can get their merit based bonus (and who can blame them). Things are siloed, teams are left on their own to figure out how to deliver consistency across the platform. It is laughable, with the rather small offering the product experience for customers varies too much. Some of it feels as if one works with different products. - Growth and development opportunities - Unless you are in sales or engineering there are basically none. - Outsourcing - stop outsourcing complex engineering problems off-shore. There seem to be a believe that one day they will finally get it and it'll work. Well, it hasn't. Hire good permanent people and yes, they cost money. - Innovation - heavy focus on short term and financial gains. There is hardly any innovation. Announcing a $500 million investment over the next 4 years into innovation and disguising it as "investment" is laughable. Per year this is less than what you pay your entire workforce. Besides, innovation is not only a financial investment but a cultural one and that is invaluable.
