Vantaggi
An organization begging to live into the integrity its been training for a decade.
Svantaggi
I imagine, especially when there are such contrasting perspectives in the postings about Fierce, it is extremely important each person do their own due diligence to discover the truth. So, even though I have been strongly connected with Fierce for years and utilize elements of their training, don't believe me either- do your own research to find out the capital T truth about this company. My research informs me in this case that the queen has no clothes. The worst part of this story is that a company built on training in authentic conversations and personal integrity demonstrates, by its actions, it has no clue about either one of these. As long as you're comfortable with the "do as I say not as I do" style of facilitation, then all of the rest of this post this is irrelevant. Stop here. For those continuing on, I would like to humbly offer a few corners to look into as you determine if this company is for you or if your organization wishes to hire them for training. I imagine most anyone who reads the chain of critiques about Fierce can tell there are at least some difficulties there. Perhaps the volume of negative responses tells us something. Unless all of these hard critiques of Fierce are the work of highly coordinated efforts, then their volume alone makes a thorough investigation by any reader a useful exercise. You can also examine the content of these postings. The positive reviews read like a late, reactive PR defense to tough criticisms. The positive comments do not directly respond to specific allegations. Instead, they are full of generalized comments about "a feeling of family among employees" , "full refrigerators" in the lunch room and requests for "riper avacado's" for snack time. In some ways, these responses to the serious allegations of former and current employees feel like the very thing we complainants are writing about- an unprofessional, cavalier, "we're just fine-what's wrong with you" response- something literally akin to "let them eat avacado's." The best defense is a good PR smoke screen. Okay, so let's blow the smoke off. The negative critiques in these postings contain adjectives such as, "untrained", "inexperienced" and "under educated" management. These are verifiable. Call and ask Fierce for a profile of their senior leader's education and experience. There are some MBA's in the room, but they have been assimilated and bring little business acumen to the table. If you ask and they are honest, you will find that their last CEO, the founder's daughter, (who was terminated overnight) finished her high school degree. This in itself isn't wrong- lots of high school graduates have built fabulous, lucrative businesses. The problem with a disingenuous Fierce is that this lack of education and experience at the highest level correlated to poor management, biased hiring and HR practices and devastating financial decisions. The current leadership team is the product of these practices and they continue under the current CEO. The Fierce business model operated for years on a cash-only economy. The financial planning was done by balancing the check book. Ideas such as cash flow, net present value, long and short term liabilities are foreign to Fierce management and absent from fiduciary responsibility and strategic and operational planning. What passes for a strategic plan is an organizational chart. The parameters of diligent financial management at Fierce was one, part-time, out-of-office bookkeeper, an external audit, and employees required to make all purchases on the one corporate credit card which gave kick-back airline and purchase bonuses to the CEO. (In fact, the gifts to employees touted by the positive responses in these postings were gift cards purchased by the CEO using the airline miles the employees earned for using the mandatory corporate card). What else is measurable that might indicate integrity problems at an organization that preaches about and trains others in integrity? Call Fierce and ask about turnover rates over the last 5 or 6 years. Call them and ask about the average tenure of their trainers, administrative staff and anyone below the senior manager level. How long do people stay there and why do they so quickly depart. Spend some time with the book that started Fierce in your own hands and examine through online research what has been attributed and what has been 'borrowed' without attribution throughout that book. You may marvel that like the organization itself, this book promoting personal authenticity and total integrity is written with little deference to trustworthy behaviors. The largest shadow is cast from the top. Verify yourself the depictions of a "volatile", "inconsistent" and "disingenuous" office atmosphere and an epithet wielding CEO. Take a few employees out for coffee and ask them about the Fierce roller coaster and the daily practice of unprofessional behaviors. Ask them how much the CEO swears or yells at individuals during meetings. Their feedback is measurable. In summation, I am asking readers to take the time to build your own conclusion- good or bad- about the real Fierce. Find Fierce Linked-in profiles and contact them about their experience. Ask them tough questions about skewed sales force commission programs which came and went with no financial or performance data. Call and ask Fierce where all of their award winning facilitators or business development people have gone. Ask them why the Fierce in the Schools (FITS) program and its staff were axed overnight and yet FITS is still marketed on their website as if it were both viable and successful. In short, please look for the capital 'T' truth of an organization marketing trust as its niche. Unless you're prepared to be stripped, avoid this parade!