The loss of culture and values. This truly is one of the most distressing things I’ve witnessed during the last year and half. The culture is what made Cree successful, it is what made Cree a great place to work. You have to make a profit to stay in business, and that has always been the case, but now that is the only thing that matters, profit at the expense of everything else. Cree has historically been an R&D startup style company, which has made them very successful, but they are larger and now need to be a corporation. The people that are responsible for making that transition are not handling it well and as a result, Cree hasn’t transitioned from an R&D startup to a Global Corporation, but rather lost its whole identity.
Upper Management. There is a complete disconnect between upper management and the rest of the company. There was a time when the phrase "Cree is We" truly meant something and served as a cornerstone of Cree culture. Unfortunately that phrase is now used primarily when asking employees to make sacrifices. Anytime that phrase is used, the employees automatically take a negative view of whatever is said next. Employees no longer trust upper management or believe that they care about the people. The belief is that the stock price is all that matters. The ironic part is that the lack of attention to the people, who in essence are the core component of the business, has resulted in the stock price continuing to fall.
"Silos" and secrets. There is no continuity throughout the company, each business unit is allowed to operate independently, even though they all rely on the same support services and infrastructure. There is no of effective top-down communication, the C-suite no longer feels the need to communicate with the employees. There used to be quarterly meetings with the company, now those meetings are sporadic and held by individuals at the lower level. Morale at the company is at an all-time low because the people that make the products the company sells don’t know what direction the company is headed, are confused because ever department hears a different story, are not kept informed of the future of the company, do not believe their jobs are secure and, in many cases, are allowed to be treated as replaceable tools.
