You and Walt are a little late, see the March 1st blog on the JimPinto weblog: "YCA Houston we have a problem".

What was posted from Boyes’ blog is more of a marketing piece, likely spoon feed by YCA management to Control for publicity. You should be more concerned with the facts leading up to this. YCA originally purchased the rep business from Dixon for a hefty sum and YCA couldn’t manage it profitably. The solution was to lay off experienced personnel, take the financial loss and turn the territory over to, as stated "relatively newish firms". Turning this over to groups with little knowledge of Yokogawa products in the middle of the most turbulent time that YCA has ever had is questionable. At least they now have someone to blame outside the elite circle for any loss of sales. These are the types of decisions YCA management continues to make.

It is well known in the industry that "Yokogawa fared less well during the current recession than others" but the comments on the "good job of restructuring" have yet to be proven. The current climate within YCA would be contrary to the thinking that the restructuring is good, working or anywhere near over.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - From CONTROL Walt Boyes' blog (extracts):

"In a clear sign that Yokogawa's North American sales management sees the recovery beginning to happen, the company announced today that it was, effective March 16, appointing Techstar and BBP Sales as their representatives in the two most important US territories for the oil, gas and petrochemical focused automation giant. Techstar will represent Yokogawa in the all-important Houston area including the Ship Channel. as well as the rest of Texas and Southern New Mexico. BBP Sales will represent Yokogawa in the scarcely less important Louisiana territory as well as Southern Arkansas.

Normally, we don't print or cover announcements of new hires, new rep placements, etc. This however is significant for what it appears to signal, not just who's who. This one though, is important for everybody to think about for a number of reasons.

Yokogawa fared less well during the current recession than others of their competitors. At the same time, they appear to have done a good job restructuring and we'll see just how good they have done when the wallets come completely open, which is estimated by most observers to be late this year or in early 2011.

Clearly, they went looking for a few good reps. Both Techstar and BBP are relatively newish firms, and are young, aggressive and technically competent, with large support and service staffs. Even more importantly, not only do they share Yokogawa in contiguous territories, but they have several other product lines in common as well. This is a sales manager's dream date: two reps in the hottest territories you have to cover who already know and work with each other.

We'll see if Yokogawa guessed right. My money, speaking as an automation professional with about 30 years experience in sales management, is on "they did."

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

It's not a surprise that Dave Johnson is failing. Think about it.

The Japanese had a stranglehold on YCA, YIA, JYC, etc., ever since the beginning. There wasn't a single part of the operation that wasn't directed by Japan. For years they sent Japanese over to be the president in the states for 2-3 year stints. The first year was spent looking at the American operation and getting used to us. The next year was spent formulating a plan, which was left hanging for the last year as the President coasted until his return to Japan. Once they returned to Japan, they swept all problems and learnings under the carpet and move on to bigger and better things. To admit that there were problems in America is to admit that they were ineffective while they were here, a surefire way to kill their continued career.

By handing YCA off to Mr. Johnson, they distance themselves from the problems and leave him to drive it the rest of the way into the ground on his own, seemingly the only role at which he's effective.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Only two and a half weeks left until the end of the fiscal year. Keep your head down and try to look busy. If this does not work, try to match your attire to the wall coverings in the office and blend in as best you can. I hope they keep Doc Johnson; he has helped lift employee’s spirits and hemlines, or vice versa.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Hold on YCA...it is about to get even worse. Yes, here in Newnan we were hoping for a big turn around in the HR group and most of us were glad to see most of finance move to TX. That was short lived. I guess the GM HR is going to stay in GA. Lucky us!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Very interesting. I think the best post so far is the blof og Tuesday 19th January, 2010, that lists the items being exposed on this blog, which does not apply to any of the competitors.

If this is true, when Washington has finished flogging Toyota, it may be Yokogawa’s turn. This may explain why the "leader" has surrounded him self with so many to blame.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

As a former employee of Yokogawa, I was told this blog might be some interesting reading. Obviously, it's reading about people who need a place to release some stress anonymously because their stress may not be caused from their workplace.

In reference to the comments about the definitions of the HR and IT department – did an HR professional or IT professional write this or is it written by someone who also believes that management spends all their time getting people to brown nose? Has this person ever been in management? Probably not.

Why should you worry about pay, annual reviews, surfing the web, texting on your cell phone or making personal phone calls on the company phone – you are a professional, right? Anything you do on “company time” (that is the time you are getting paid to do your job) is not anything you need to hide, right?

If someone else is abusing their job it’s not your problem. And when they no longer have a job you will know why just like the people in HR and IT will know. In every successful company, eventually people who are just taking up space are weeded out.

Talk about generalizations - it is also amazing that people who are posting on this blog don’t even have their facts straight. It is obvious they are just repeating what other people “think” is true. Maybe these people have such a lack of self confidence they have to attack the leaders and departments of the company to make themselves feel better.

So, your skills and your job doesn’t grow on trees and uprooting your family is not an option – an option you don’t want to choose – so, maybe you should realize where your financial provision is coming from and start trying to make your environment a better place instead of feeding the negativity. We all have options.

Unions – you are not always protected, if you don’t do your job you will still go and you should.

And like the person posted before me – not all of us are forced to leave Yokogawa, some of us choose to move on to other opportunities and take good memories with us.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

I am a current employee of Yokogawa.
I am an ex-employee of Yokogawa.
I am a customer of Yokogawa.
I am an employee of a competitor.

My point? Believe maybe 15% of what is written here. Good luck trying to figure out which 15% to believe...

Sunday, March 7, 2010 - To the 2/27/2010 blogger:

We didn't say anything about beauty and brains. No need to worry about your future, you have them right where you want them. You are notorious about hiring the wrong people. Don't give us the crap about "they interview well but don't perfom." I have to say that I've personally seen some good talent in HR. It has been few and far between but we have see a couple. However, we run them off just as soon as we get them. As for the comment about the 1-800 number, looks like we kicked that person that was saying that to the curb. Gosh, why did it take so long for you to see that she wasn't a people person nor did she have any computer skills? I think when our HR team is threatened by talent, so they get rid of them. We had someone that stood up for the employees at YCA, they did a great job telling us about our benefits and helped people that had no clue what they were reading. We kicked her to the curb.

So when you are sitting in your bed at night reading these blogs and trying to find a "come back" look at yourself. How can you make our company great again? Some of us like working at YCA, we want to continue but we have a hard time not taking advantage of the openings at other companies when we can't see out future here. It is troubling to hear that we have employees that have been out sick or giving birth and we torment them while they are out and usually fire them when they return. Can't someone have a personal issue without this find of consequence? I look around and see what we let go and what was kept.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - Regarding the ongoing commentary on HR, a few posts back:

I think a few of you, both employees, and HR professionals, really don’t understand the role of HR at any corporation. HR departments do not exist for the benefit of the employees. HR exists for the sole purpose of protecting the employer from employee. The following is a list of some of the functions HR departments provide:

1. Maintain the lowest standard of pay, and benefits for any given position
2. Work closely with the legal department to ensure all agreements are in the corporations favor
3. Maintain an annual employee review process, to establish justification for corporate action
4. Provide a professional development program to create evidence of employee support

1. Track the cyber activity, the web sites you explore, the Emails you send
2. Track your phone activities (desk and cell) of all employees looking for rogue behavior

Things can go wrong when the leader of the company uses HR, IT, and the Legal department for his own purposes rather then for the benefit of the company. This happens in Companies as well as in Governments. All anyone has to do, is research a few dictatorships to see how the human animal behaves. If you are interested, Google Stalin. Stalin was so threatened by his generals, eventually he imprisoned and killed many of his military leaders. The bottom line was: he was afraid of losing his job to better qualified people. This is why in democratic countries, the number of terms that a leader can serve is limited. The leader knows that his job is temporary, and will not feel threatened since the end of the job is inevitable.

Is it possible that Yokogawa has turned into a dictatorship? Is the leader a dictator that surrounds himself with weak non-threatening people that don’t question him? Does he eliminate strong and qualified people that could do a better job then he does? How many years has he been working at the same company?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

It is a sorry, sorry time to see Yokogawa where it is today. Many talented workers are gone. Many talented workers are still there (even in management) The current VP's and managers should look around them and see how they can help stop the biggest problem with Yokogawa (and that is the current CEO). He has one goal and one goal only and that is to make everyone do what he wants and not what is good for the company. He was probably the wrong choice from the beginning but, he knew how to impress the Japan office. I'm sure if enough people email contacts in Japan with concerns and facts that everything will not fall on deaf ears. (Or at least I would hope not). Next time Mr. Johnson walks by just look at his face and you will see that it is not a face of a leader, and you will see some fear and at lot of anger in his eyes.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Reading these sure makes one insecure about their future at YCA! Maybe its time to start circulating the resume... I can say that YCA gave me a lot of room for growth, which I have appreciated and have returned the favor with 110% of effort and dedication. YCA certainly seems to be losing a lot of good worker bee's - management seems to not appreciate the Indians - thank goodness we have so many chiefs.

Monday, March 1, 2010

This is very entertaining; some one should make a movie about this company. It would be like the documentary on Enron with more sex.

Monday, March 1, 2010 - YCA Houston we have a problem.

March 2010 is the last month of the 09 fiscal year or, for many, the last stop on the employment highway at YCA. YCA’s current downward spiral will increase as this month’s close of business brings losses to an all time high. Loss leaders include Engineering and Service with disappointing projects and high head counts. Manipulation of the figures deep within the departments is no secret and is reminiscent of the saying, "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

A few years ago YCA paid a large sum to purchase the largest and most profitable sales-rep organization in the YCA region, Dixon, and turned it into Yokogawa Southwest (YSW). The management did a good job of running the YSW division into the ground. This part of the company was recently closed. Over 20 more people lost jobs a few weeks ago and the remainder of the business was turned over to a new outside-rep organization.

Part of the YCA rep organization was put on 30-days notice to terminate; due to performance issues. Although the instrument groups claim they are not contributors to the losses, this can be disputed by a number of factors. YCA has lost customer confidence in delivery with long lead times. YCA is also being excluded from opportunities that they were previously included on at major companies. This year Japan stopped all prepaid warranty money; this money for many years was paid to YCA in large installments at the beginning of each fiscal year. Any funds not consumed during the fiscal year were then added to the individual departments’ profitability at year end. After many years of this misuse of funds, Japan finally figured it out and decided to pay for warranty on a case by case basis. This, along with the economic downturn, constricted cash flow further.

YCA is facing more hard times as the growing loss of qualified personnel exit the company. Sporadic layoffs over January and February were kept low key, on top of early retirements and resignations. This has affected many projects including top customers like Shell and Chevron and caused a strained relationship to become agitated with YCA’s help.

More employees are set to leave the company in March, some with advance notification others will have the YCA surprise package at the end of the month. Maybe you remember the words of the CEO when he said “we have had no layoffs”, and his comments after the first layoff “we will have no further layoffs”. It may have been more appropriate to say “fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride” or “you can’t handle the truth”.

It appears that, in order to save face, Japan will keep the current management and let them run this ship right into an iceberg. For those of you who have left already, consider the severance packages and additional perks as your life boat. Those that are still aboard should be looking for anything that can keep them afloat.

Monday, March 1, 2010

I cannot comprehend why employees that know that the company they work for is horrible, continue to stay and complain how bad it is.

This is not 1942 Germany. You are free to make a choice. Although many of you say Hitler is in charge, and the SS is everywhere, you will not be shot for deserting if you quit and join a better company.

My advice: Stop complaining and get the hell out while you can. If you are valuable, another other company will see this and pick you up immediately.

Sunday, February 28, 2010 - To the Saturday, February 27th blogger on HR:

I know of more than one person over many years that YCA HR did not help, and in more than one instance hurt by helping implement management’s wishes. This can be confirmed by many people within YCA, or by others that have left. Assuming you are part of HR by the comments you have made, I am not surprised as your department hires your own.

HR at YCA is ultimately managed by the CEO and his cronies, and does not fight for any employee outside the power elite friendship base. The puppets within HR are under the control of management and their jobs are manipulated by the puppet masters/management pulling their strings.

Don’t concern yourself with complaints about HR; you should have enough to do with the pending year end layoffs. Soon you may get the chance to lay yourself off, or layoff others within your own department. Everyone I know within YCA has said that the last place you want to go and discuss any type issues is HR, with the exception of your benefits and pay, but if you get help, get it in writing and have it signed.

My suggestion, to any fellow YCA employee that has any issues, is to get a lawyer and see if you have a case first, then have your lawyer do the talking with YCA. Make sure everything is documented, with a copy sent to YCA, your lawyers’ office, a relative, the local newspaper and keep a copy in a safety deposit box. If you can’t afford to get a lawyer call your local bar association and they can usually help.

Your comments “it is more likely they are just unhappy with their life and they would complain no matter where they were, instead of taking charge of their life” shows the quality of person we continue to hire. Generalizations about people who have issues coming from anyone concerned about YCA HR or employees, I think you may have been right about “Everyone likes to think they are a "people person", but they are not. You appear not to be one.

Did you know that in Yokogawa Japan they have unions? Did you know that most Japanese management frown upon unions or the talk of unions in YCA? Why, when they have them for Japanese employees? The only way to make a change at YCA or Yokogawa globally is to unite as employees and form a union to make sure we have a voice. This way we don’t need to worry about HR helping us; we will have a union that will take care of the people with seniority and experience.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

My comments are to the employees who continually bash HR - if you have an issue and need assistance you should not accept the response: "just call this number"... HR is a department established to take care of employees. It seems to me that the people who continuously complain either don't really have a problem, or they don't need HR for assistance.

As far as who is experienced in HR. Do your homework. HR is more than just smiling and answering the phone - most people think they can work in HR but they don't have a clue. Why do you think HR keeps having turnover - sometimes people interview great, but can't (don't) perform after being hired. Everyone likes to think they are a "people person", but they are not. And you should know, if you are the one who keeps complaining about your paycheck not being correct. If you really want to find out who you have in HR - call them. They are there to help you. Just because the company is having layoffs and some employees are unhappy in their job doesn't mean the people in HR are not qualified. It probably really isn't their job at Yokogawa the complainer is complaining about - it is more likely they are just unhappy with their life and they would complain no matter where they were, instead of taking charge of their life.

Also, contrary to popular belief - there is not one woman in HR who has ever had any type of relationship with management other than professional. Again, do your homework - don't assume (in HR) because a woman has looks, she must not have brains, or she wouldn't be in her position.

Start focusing on doing the best job and being the best employee you can be. You are getting paid by the company to enhance the company, not to do a half job and see how much trash you can talk over lunch. Like the others before me... just my 2 cents.

Monday, February 22, 2010 - To the person who commented on 16 Feb, "one person that (sic) continues to write all the negative comments":

how can you possibly read what has been posted here and think that. If it's not clear by now that its a pervasive mood by the workers in the trenches, and that these are comments left by numerous contributors, then you need to go back and look at the different writing styles and descriptions of the situations and problems. Not only are there many different contributors, its obvious that there's multi national input from both sides of the pond (although none seems to be from our Asian colleagues......?).

Also, just a point of clarification. A former HR manager is returning, but she was there maybe 5 or 6 years ago, I'm not sure exactly. The reason I make that seemingly minor distinction is that we did have another manager approximately 10 years ago who WAS a disaster. She came out of the Corporate Communications department and had no heart, people skills or aptitude for the job.

The manager from 5 - 6 years ago came out of the Accounting group, and while she may have not had an HR background, she had managerial experience and good people skills. Unfortunately, she was also in over her head.

Again, please do not mistake the preceding for any type of support or defense of the current management, I'm just trying to keep it honest.

What does surprise me are the repeated "If you don't like it leave." comments. Folks, we're instrument people, recorder people or systems people and the like. We don't grow on trees and neither do our jobs. For many of us, changing jobs means a major relocation. If you have a working spouse and kids entrenched in schools, churches and sports, uprooting them is simply not an option.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The one person that continues to write all the negative comments about Yokogawa seems to be quite content on continuing to work at this awful place. If it was that bad, it seems they would leave. The job market is tough; but if the job is that bad you can always find a job somewhere else (or maybe this is the only job this person can find that will have them). I am sure some of the information that is being printed is true, but I am sure that half of it is NOT! You are a bitter little person that needs to move on.

I am a former employee of Yokogawa, and not everyone that leaves is fired.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

To see this manufacturer get discraced, as they currently are today, is quite a shame. Here we are again making major territory changes just to save a CEO's poistion. Since my time with Yokogawa, I have seen this inner operational restructure happen several times usually about every two or three years. The problem doesnt lie within the Rep-network, or the previously direct outside-sales, but realistically lie upstream in the very top level management. As many of you read this post, who are still employeed within our faboulous Houston location, are aware of the current pay increase to our Tier 1 board immediately after the headquater sales change this week. I just can't seem to understand why the Ninja hasnt fallen on his sword yet.

Friday, February 12, 2010

I just found out from a Manager earlier this week that an old HR person is returning. She sucked 10-years ago; why would they want her back again? Oh wait I forgot... friends of the new HR Manager (soon to be VP of HR) as I was told. What do you think?

Friday, February 12, 2010

I did read over most of the blogs and do agree with all these issues, but I think we need to be more mad at the fat-cats up top getting fatter. Most of us are every day people, trying to survive. We just want to come to work, do a great job and be paid a reasonable amount of money. I did have a hard time reading some of the stuff. I had no idea that some of the people that we have in HR are so ruthless and got their jobs from knowing someone. I believe that we are letting good people go, and that is a shame. Most of these people will find something else. But why should we promote like crazy and then have layoffs and then turn around and give money back to our employees? Don't get me wrong, I do love the fact that some of my money was returned; but I would have much rather have seen this money be kept and keep some of the good people we let go.

With that said, I do worry about the direction of our HR Team. We don't have a true leader. Just a bunch of women brown nosing to see who can climb the ladder the fastest. Come on, fearless leaders, stop looking at the high heels and whats under the chin and look what's above the shoulders. We have new/old HR people coming back. Did they do a good job when they were here before? Or are you just trying to proove a point with the person that hired and fired them many years ago?

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - Re the blog from Sunday Feb 7th

No surprise really my esteemed colleague, is it not the natural reaction of a salesman to find fault with everything apart from their own performance? Earlier blogs spell out exactly why projects struggle to deliver on time and to cost; you can’t make a silk purse out of a pigs ear!

I (and most) agree though about your comments about the ‘Teflon coated’ interim? Manager. After 5 years, what exactly has he contributed? He started life here as a strategy implementer because our wonderful management team were too busy to develop the business. His first assignment was helping (controlling/directing) our old service manager develop low cost servicing which resulted in buying 2 vans, 3 extra service engineers and no additional work, just adding to overhead. He also moved the responsibility for commissioning projects to service which accounts for their rapid increase in sales and prevented the projects group increasing our margins on a project i.e. robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I remember being told that he was turned down for a job at SCE and after the service manager left, he was in charge? Temporarily (the service manager told quite a few people before he left that Mr Teflon and the DD was the reason he moved on due to his manipulative, bullying, interfering mismanagement). His next project was to set up an installation service for projects, high risk and never tried before, resulting in probably the biggest loss on a project in the UK. He then took over projects where he couldn’t lose in that he was only trying to minimise the losses, if it improved he took the glory, if it failed it was a bridge too far.

Anybody noticed a pattern here? The DD always manages to keep him occupied, pay him twice as much as the senior managers but keeps the failing managers on in a reduced role with their old salary/perks. Both Mr Teflon and the DD used to work at Invensys so it looks like another case of jobs for the boys.

Perhaps when the Amersfoort ‘thought police’ review this blog they should start asking questions and Japan should investigate why they are reducing costs everywhere but allow this to happen. It appears that a lack of engineering management experience doesn’t stop you getting paid over the odds and bleeding the place dry for years, all you need to be is a buddy of the DD.

Monday, February 8, 2010 - Blog response to Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - Re: Yokogawa Business Ethics:

Ex colleagues have pointed me to this blog and from what I have read so far, ethics doesn’t seem to have the same definition in Yokogawa as every where else. When I worked there, the emphasis was always minimising the loss making situation sales put us in with no expectation, or in my opinion desire, to do future business with a customer afterwards. The blog earlier about the Iranian projects sums up for me what was (is) wrong with the place. I’m not a sales or business person (and have no desire to be one) but a good old fashioned engineer who knows what is good ethical practice, so my comments are related to that side of things.

I can’t remember which of the 2 Iranian projects it was, but the cabinets housing the ESD system were dropped off (fell from a great height!) the container ship at the (Bandar Assaluyeh?) docks in Iran, had not been fitted with impact indicators so we didn’t know how or if the electronics on the safety system (pro-safe) had been damaged or not. The safety cards had not been fitted properly at the factory and had all fallen out of the 19” racks. The cabinet was repaired but the safety cards were just plugged back in without any inspection. Management knew all about this but it was kept quiet from the customer/contractor. The reason for this I was told was that the pro-safe ESD was made by Siemens for Yokogawa who had announced they wouldn’t be making it anymore and any spares/new cards etc went up in price by nearly 100%. I far as I could see, the decision not to replace or even investigate and at least inform the client of any concerns Yokogawa had was made only for financial reasons. Sort of contradicts the spirit of IEC61508 me thinks. Hope they don’t ever have an emergency shutdown on site.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

What a surprise! All we are seeing is engineers calling sales staff in the UK, never questioning their own lack of ability. As I have asked in a previous blog – If you are so talented, why are you still at Yokogawa? There is a shortage of good engineers at many companies.

This is typical under skilled engineering staff, taking the easy option and blaming sales. It gets more difficult to sell Yokogawa systems job’s due to poor delivery by engineering on previous work.

I must agree though on the comments about the project director, and once again we have the Mr Teflon ex-service now as the ‘lack of engineering manager’

Friday, February 5, 2010

Yokogawa UK - I have resisted the temptation to post here previously, as I agreed with a previous bloggers comments that ‘dirty washing should not be aired in public’. Having read some of the blogs about who we are as a company and what we apparently represent these days, here’s my 2 cents/pennies/euro’s worth.

Management claim that the strength and success of the company is down to the people that work here. What is not said thought is that most employees do need leadership that can be respected and have trust and confidence in. In the words of the ex-service manager "we have employed a bunch of suits who don’t care about the place or the people that work there and every decision they make is to further there own self interest". I have worked for a few companies and have never known a company to tolerate poor performance and abject failure the way Yokogawa does, especially from its managers.

We have a projects director who doesn’t anymore after managing the 2 worst financially disastrous projects in the UK’s history, now working as a glorified clerk/secretary/sales support person, presumably on the same pay scales and package as he was when he was a Director. If he couldn’t do his job, why wasn’t he sacked?

We have a Financial Director who only does about 30% of what his predecessor did with twice as many staff and seems to spend most of his time on Linkedin. You have more chance of seeing a UFO than seeing this guy take ownership of anything.

Our Damaging Director, as he is now referred to, actually has set an example to us all, especially to those in sales. His excuses for his own failure to steer the ship in the right direction is that it’s not his fault, it’s the global downturn, it’s Amersfoort’s poor management bla bla, has given the sales guy’s the perfect reason to do as little as possible (certainly not busting a gut anyway) and if questioned about performance, trot out the DD’s excuses, what a brilliant example to us all.

There is no price for failure in management, but a big price to pay at the coal-face. Like a previous blogger commented: if Japan does read these blogs, why hasn’t anything been done before now? Would any sales guy who didn’t make his targets after 7 years be still in a job? I (we) think not. I am mindful of the old saying of small people always hiring smaller people than themselves to make them look good. We now have a significantly vertically challenged management team.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - Blog response to Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - Re: Yokogawa Business Ethics:

The blog re. the project that was for the Iranian companies cost the projects manager his job. Sales had quoted for something like only 15% type-testing and the customer ordered 100%. Sales either missed this point or ignored it when they accepted the order, which resulted in extra costs and 1000’s of man hours. The MD did not want to know about the problems as usual and left it to the PM to sort out. The PM had no choice but to comply with the contractual requirements, but he lost his job but no one in sales did. At the end of the project on internal close out and review, which lost over £750K, sales informed us of a fee to be paid to the middle-east just as the project was being closed out which made the loss almost double. Unbelievable, such mistakes can happen, but as usual projects got the blame and the PM lost his job as a result of this. The PM was an experienced professional who ran a tight ship and was respected by his team. Most of the good project people left after this, and it seems Yokogawa have lurched from one project disaster to the next. I could never understand why the MD accepted that sales didn’t review with projects before order acceptance. The accepted orders at a claimed 15% margin and after order acceptance we found in most cases the profit was virtually zero within 2-3 weeks of accepting the order. How projects were supposed to make up the loss and maintain good customer relationships was something that none of understood. Virtually every project was the same. I worked for Emerson and ABB and both had problems of some type or other, but the Yokogawa sales teams negligence and a company philosophy of ripping customers off with extra’s is the worst I have ever come across. I hear the UK MD is still there, how can this be?

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Gunter glieben glauchen globen
All right
I got something to say
Yeah, it's better to burn out
Yeah, than fade away

-Lyrics from Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages"

Monday, February 1, 2010 On the comment about send in the clowns, don't. They need to send in a OUTSIDE ADUIT TEAM TO FIND ALL THE MONEY THAT IS GOING INTO A BANK ACCOUNT. From the outside looking in, sounds like someone or someones pocket is getting fat. This company is miguided by it's mangement and that is sad!!

Monday, February 1, 2010 - Re: Sunday, January 24, 2010 "Joke":

The joke going around Runcorn, UK at the moment is: Osama Bin Laden has released his latest video, to prove he’s still alive. In the video, he included the statement that he knows that Yokogawa UK is still losing money with the UK Damaging Director still in charge. After examining that specific statement, the CIA and MI5 are saying that this video is not authentic proof of a recent recording, as it could have been made at any time in the last 7 years.

Monday, February 1, 2010 - To the blogger on Thur 28 Jan:

Maybe you're talking about the HR group in Houston? The HR head here in Newnan (who is relocating to Houston) was with YCA Newnan years ago as an HR Generalist. She left for a year or two for a higher position in HR at (I believe the Red Cross here in Atlanta). She came back to YCA/YIA as the Newnan HR Manager. She "survived" several HR managers who were based in Newnan and were absolutely wrong for YCA/YIA. One had absolutely no HR background and she embodied the myopic, cold lack of humanity that has become YCA/YIA. The next was from a much larger company and it was obvious from the start that employees were not people at YCA/YIA, only numbers.

Please do not interpret this post that I am in any way defending the current "Power Elite". I just want to clarify that, IF you're talking about the current HR Manager in Newnan, soon to move to Houston, she does come from an HR background.

Having said that, HR has no role in deciding who leaves YCA/YIA "to pursue other opportunities..." All they do is process the paperwork once DJ and the boys finalize the list.

Regarding the CEO's Ex-secretary/girlfriend going to HR, she obviously couldn't stay as his secretary; but it's a shame when a rich, successful CEO and his girlfriend need a second income to make a go of it. Oh, wait. Did I say "successful"? Not from where most of us stand. Rich? Yeah, maybe he should look at that big salary of his first the next time he needs to find a way to cut costs. It'd have a much larger impact and save the jobs of 5 or 6 of the folks who are doing the real work around here. Not to mention sending the message that he's going to shoulder a little of the pain. Something that hasn't happened to this point, to be sure.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Being in this industry and reading other blogs here, I have stumbled on Yokogawa. It seems that a lot of people have come here to vent about personal opinions and feelings. It seems that those that have posted here have a lot of negative comments about Yokogawa.

No matter where you go, you will find things to criticize. However, in this time of our economy and the extremely high rate of unemployment, shouldn't you all be thankful you have an employer? And if you are truly that dissatisfied with the company, why are you still there? Wouldnt you be better off somewhere else? Or would you find all their faults as well?

It's easy to find fault in every employer. However, stop to think of those who don't have a job and would give anything to have a job that paid half of yours to support their family. If you knew you would lose your job today and had to tell your spouse, wouldn't it make you just a little more thankful for that job? And maybe ease up on criticizing people personally at the company. You never know what kind of stress they are going through, or where they are in their lives. You may think you know their story, but there is always a piece or pieces that you DON'T know, which could change your perspective and the story you have been told.

Even when I get frustrated or ill, i take time to stop and become thankful for having a job to be ill at. It somehow changes things to seem a little easier to deal with.

Just my 2 cents, based on what I've read here. I hope it might help.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Comments: Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.

Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.

Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,
Making my entrance again with my usual flair,
Sure of my lines,
No one is there.

Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.

Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer,
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well, maybe next year.

Thursday, January 28, 2010'

I do agree with the 1/26 blogger that we have a terrible HR Team. The Management Team at YCA is terrible, and the HR group is no exception. It's very hard to take the group seriously when we've seen an HR GM get promoted from Marketing, then we hire someone that was a little "off" from GM and now what are we doing? Yep, promoting like CRAZY a friend of the CFO's. Not to mention the former secretary of Mr. Johnson's that is now working in HR. What is she a Manager of now? Secretary to Manager of HR? Did she get a degree that we all don't know about?

We laugh at lunch when we talk about the HR Team. We've seen a couple good employees that have been hired but they are asked not to help the employees out. What? Most of us have agreed to put in for the next HR Generalist position we see posted since all you need to have is some voice skills to tell people to call a number if you are having issues. Year after year we have issues with payroll and benefit deductions. Nobody seems to care that are paychecks seem to suffer.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - Re: Yokogawa Business Ethics:

I used to work in the Yokogawa UK projects group and witnessed on many occasions how the rules were breached/bypassed on export control to countries that were on the UN/Uk or even Japan’s own METI (Ministry of Economic Trade and Industry) organisation’s ‘banned list’.

A previous blogger reported a couple of projects for Iran that were sold by the UK and these almost certainly broke the rules. There were official procedures in place that clearly stated the even before a quotation was be made, that the final destination must be known and an export license obtained from HQ Tokyo before any quotation could be made as permission would not be given retrospectively.

I know on these projects that sales ‘forgot’ to do this, but they were granted retrospectively by Japan in breach of their own rules as the EPC would have sued Yokogawa for the full cost of the contract value, and more if they hadn’t delivered.

I remember a colleague also pointing out in a memo to the MD that the instrumentation supplied on these contracts fell under the UK export regulations in the dual-use category (i.e. could be used for WMD purposes) but he refused to let us contact the UK Export authority to confirm our suspicions and clarify the situation. This was completely at odds with the memo’s he used to send out saying we must be vigilant in these matters! We used to joke amongst ourselves that his response was part of his own ‘dodgy dossier’.

I also remember another case which was documented internally about how a Yokogawa company in Europe had an arrangement to take an order for a DCS locally and, for a small fee, pass it on to Yokogawa in the Middle East so it looked like an internal order.

The DCS was then sent to the client in Europe who then shipped it to the Tabriz Petrochemical Company in Iran who were on the ‘UN/US/METI banned list’ as they made WMD (missiles and nuclear I think). By the time Japan found out, the DCS was on site. As far as I remember it was just kept quiet. I don’t blame Japan for this as it was the other Yokogawa companies who broke the rules but the policing of the policy didn’t work in practice.

There was also a trading export company in London that bought DCS spare parts from the service dept destined for Libya/Iraq/Iran for years before it became too obvious and it couldn’t be ignored that all of these countries were on the banned list. We also used to receive in service, requests from small export companies in the Uk who provided part numbers of old Centum h/w, destination to countries and companies who had always been on a banned list for over 20 years, so who supplied the systems to them in the first place?

In the time I worked there I had the feeling that the only reason that instructions on export control were issued by Holland HQ was to cover them in case something went wrong. As has been said before, good people, poor management, lousy company attitude.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Cutbacks and layoffs in product sales-force – The latest plan from our leaders in Amersfoort is to reduce the size of the sales-force by up to 40% across Europe and only deal directly with the 20% of the customer base that gives 80% of the revenues. Must have originated from the Yokoboro/Foxagawa mafia as this is what they did years ago and lost most of their business eventually. The systems guys have never seen the point of instrument sales and even Hauptmeijer has said we should be a services and systems company for years. It’s easy to cut but hard to grow and everyone now realizes that our senior and middle managers milked the company when it was growing but have no clue how to deal with the crisis except to cut costs (people).

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Let's see...1/8/2010 we laid off 75 employees, and then Monday we are told that we will get back 2.5%. Glad to have the money returned, but are we struggling or not? Confused. Sounds like too many fish and not enough Indians!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

An interesting aspect of the Japanese management style, even more so than any other culture, is that most decisions are made by large committees after an endless series of meetings. If the outcome is good, everyone in upper level management adds it to his list of accomplishments. If the outcome is a disaster, then it was not carried out properly by subordinates and everyone covers everyone else's backsides (you don't actually think that a group of high level execs could make a bad decision, do you?). That philosophy is carried to an extreme, and the folks in the trenches bear the brunt of poor decisions by upper and middle level management. It truly does roll downhill.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

I find myself not being able to hold back from the comments in the 1/7/2010 blog. I won’t get the writer excited and say that it was very upsetting. But we all know that YCA is using the “tough economic times” comment as a front to furlough a lot of good, hard working employees that didn’t get their jobs from knowing the CFO. Most of us didn’t have kids that babysat or washed hair of our “power elite.” Sorry, 1/7/2010 blogger, I reused your wonderful word but I do think we need to use it sparingly especially since the GM of HR “gets off” on this type of “writing skills” especially when it pertains to herself. Our HR Team is sorry. I believe if we are going to survive we need to stop hiring our buddies and look at credentials. It has been a long time since we’ve had a good HR Team. I’ve been lucky enough to survive the furloughs, but I’m not sure what will happen in the future. Scary to think of that situation when you are the major bread winner in the family.

I can’t say we are too happy about the HR Team in Newnan moving to Texas. We have an HR Manager that is a Finance transplant that we are happy to get rid of. The former Jr. HR Clerk from 10 years ago (now GM Manager) will not be any better. It seems if we do get someone that is willing to help the employees, we let them go.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The joke in HQ now is that last week, our superman chairman Isao Uchida called his President, Senior VP’s, VP’s and Regional CEO’s to a meeting in Tokyo to mend the company and improve results. The meeting was held on the roof of the tallest office and Uchida ordered them all to jump off the roof as the journey to the bottom, and the adrenalin rush would inspire them to think of a strategy to resolve the company crisis. All but 2 of them landed at the bottom, some injuries but no new ideas. The 2 that still haven’t landed yet are the 2 regional CEO’s, Hauptmeijer and Johnson, who keep stopping asking for directions......

Funny, but this also shows the graveyard humor that exists in the company today, and it is also an accurate reflection of how most employees actually see their leaders performing.

I was asked last week by an old timer from production - what is being done to make our business better? I was embarrassed, because I could not give a truthful answer. Everyone blames Harry Hauptmeijer for the loss of production, which started when he was VP for instruments and has been given away to pay for the new building. Analyzer Instruments are what produced the money and we used to export everywhere. When the situation was bad before, the Analyzer profit kept us all OK; but now we buy, not sell, and the money is no more. Most I know think Harry is like a book-keeper with no personality, and is not a motivational manager who can give us confidence in these times.

We have serious problems and I don’t know what can be done to improve. But worse is that, along with my colleagues, I don’t think our managers know also.

Friday, January 22, 2010 - To the management responder of the blog 01/19/10, ‘Yokogawa is not the center of the universe’:

It is, if it pays your mortgage, utilitys and food bills! What arrogance to assume that if you don’t like it, you can just leave. Surprisingly, a few of us joined because we were sold the Yokogawa message, and believed we had a future to the extent we relocated with our wives and kids and all the upheaval that involves.

Friday, January 22, 2010 - Re: Yokogawa Ethics and how they do business:

I remember when I worked at Yokogawa many years previously; I attended a global strategic selling program at Amersfoort HQ. I had been on the same course many years ago at a previous employer, but this one was run by an ex-Yokogawa Japanese senior VP who was well known historically to European management through his local involvement with Shell, Chevron etc.

I clearly remember the shocked and embarrassed faces of the participants when this ex VP gave his definition of the term 'coach' used in the program. It was not the same as described in the official course program notes. His explanation was not only how this type of person could 'guide you' through the sales process to make a sale, but went on to explain how in his experience what must be done for this type of buyer/influence. There was no doubt about what he was saying, and never before or since have I heard such a blatant admission or suggestion that customers should be paid to win business. As is normal, unfortunately, nobody challenged him on this, but it was the topic of conversation in the bar later that night.

I saw enough in my time at Yokogawa to realise that the Japanese meet with your key accounts without telling you before or after the event and are very secretive about their dealings with customers. If a project engineered out of Europe has Japanese connections, we often used to find our Japanese colleagues were meeting in secret behind the backs and without the permission of the EPC contract holder. For any US or European Key account manager, when a project surfaced at best the role they performed was that of a bag carrier for the Japanese Global Account manager. I used to think at first it was because they didn’t trust us to win the business; but now I think there were inappropriate reasons why they didn’t want us to meet their contacts.

After I left Yokogawa, I wasn’t surprised to read that they were winning all these global agreements but even after employing their own unique win strategies, most customers I know think they ‘hit and run’. But as previous bloggers have commented, it’s a regretable purchase decision they have to live with for 20+ years.

My opinion is that Yokogawa are collapsing now due to how they have gone about their business in the past, and the quality of the management they have. They can’t blame the economic crisis forever. Restructuring (as they always seem to be doing) is the desperate strategy of amateurs who don’t know, and probably have never known, how to run a successful business. The issues of subsidies to prop up businesses in the US and Europe sounds to me like the old nationalised industries in the UK many years ago, and we all know what happened to them. I see on their web site their intention is to restructure, to break even by 2012. I’m glad I don’t work there any more, but I’m even more pleased I’m not a shareholder!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

In response to the problems in YCA (13 January) my colleague is misleading in his comments about European performance. It is only recently we have been in profit, and this is not in all areas. It is also not correct that no subsidies/financial help have been received to Europe from Tokyo.

If my memory in my mind is correct, the UK only has been in benefit over the years to an amount that must be greater than €8M, including monies from Japan for what are undocumented activities/reasons and various recapitalizations due to the debts they had with Amersfoort. An earlier blog referred to the advantages enjoyed by GB (below manufacturing cost buying of DCS components, hiring of illegally non EU nationals etc) which again causes a question to be answered about why the loss is so great over the many years?

Other subs have had problems before, but always recover within 18 months. Why not GB? Someone suggested earlier about an external audit being a good idea. It would be interesting what could be revealed in GB. Where has all the investments gone to? And why they have only made one really small profit in the last 10 years?

Thursday, January 21, 2010 - Re: Blog from 9 December about new GB sales manager:

With recruitment freeze and firings or short term daily workings across all of European operations, why is it possible that this has occurred. Why is not the GB country manager not running the sales teams?

As this operation is the continuous failing for many years across Europe, why can they still be hiring? Can anyone explain what he is doing all week? From the small number of information and talk, we are told he never visits customers, or talks to the sales people, or is involved in the loss-making project activity. So, like my GB colleagues, I must ask what is he paid for. Many of us in Europe are suffering the pain mainly due to the economics but GB is like a disease in the operation and should be cured or removed. It is their negative results again that drag us all down. It is no more a paper reporting problem, but the loss of real peoples jobs. Why does Harry protect them so much for so long? Does anyone know this?

Thursday, January 21, 2010 - Yokogawa blog versus other blogs:

In response to the blogger from Tuesday 19th January, re: all company blogs are similar, I would agree to a certain extent - apart from the fact that, having read as much as I can of the other blogs, I can’t recall any of our competitor blogs exposing:

1. Unfair (illegal?) financial support to compete in overseas markets
2. Pricing (dumping?) solely aimed to gain market share
3. Alleged payments/gifts to customers to win business
4. Misleading authorities by lying to them in order to hire cheap overseas labour in the EU
5. Paying a salesman US$1M for winning a new contract before any orders were placed
6. Senior management falsifying expense claims

There are so many blogs on Yokogawa that I see now we have our own space. Perhaps if senior management in Tokyo took the time to investigate only 10% of what is said or reported, they would start to realise how bad things are and there is a direct correlation between bad management and disasterous results. To my way of thinking, this blog is no different than the company staff mailbox, apart from the fact it is more secure. But still management ignore what is reported.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

I was recruited to join YCA late 2008 and was let go in a period of seven months. Coming there was the worst decision of my career. I am glad to be back on my feet again after another seven months. The time at YCA was pure hell, a blessing in disguise. Apologies for the dirty laundry, but it is an honest opinion.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - To the Tuesday, January 19, 2010 blogger:

A true reflection of the YCA management mind set. I quote: "if they don’t like his management decisions then quit. Everyone is expendable and replaceable". If you are not a manager, you certainly qualify for the position at YCA.

It doesn't give me a good feeling to know that someone working at YCA has that philosophy. People can't just quit in this economy; they try to hang in and hope that they can help make a change. This blogging is a desperate attempt to encourage change. In YCA you cannot speak up. If the management doesn't like it or you have a question that may implicate management, and if that manager is a friend of the chief, you can bet you will have some misfortune fall upon you.

YCA problems are not just due to the economy; some of the problems were created by plain old bad management. You did get one thing right: the person at the top of YCA is to blame. Your comments on "business decisions" are laughable. You should list out all the great "business decisions" YCA has made since April 2005, then the status of those decisions and how they were based on customer trends.

Keep your pennies you may need them after April 2010.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I find it admirable that people give their thoughts on a company they hold so dear, yet I'm disappointed by the blatant airing of dirty laundry on the Internet. It's a love-hate relationship. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the matter.

Every company has its share of problems and internal politics. They are just rarely shown to the public. Just take a look at one of the other blogs on this site, like Honeywell or Siemens. Some of the problems there resembles the problems happening at Yokogawa. It's just the nature of having an organization with many conflicting mindsets.

If there is a problem, the first instinct is to blame the person at the top. He is the scapegoat. It comes with the job and he should accept it. People should also realized that they have a choice. If they do not like his management decisions then quit. Everyone is expendable and replaceable.

Yokogawa, like all business, exist to serve customers. Customers spend money. Take off all the smokes and mirrors of "employees first" and, ultimately, all that matters is serving the customers. Business decisions are made based on customers trends and not employees reactions.

Yokogawa is not the center of the universe. By reading some of these blogs, it seems to most people that it is. Granted some of these people here probably spend more time at work than with their families, but they all had to go home some time. If you were fired or laid off, move on with your lives. If you still work there, do the best you can to keep your job to support your lives at home.

Change hurts. It's human nature to resist change but it's necessary to move on.

And there's several pennies for my thoughts.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

I am a current employee and wanted to make a few statements about the blogs on YCA, that have become popular within the company.

I have taken my time to carefully read the statements and have come to the conclusion that many of the comments are true, based on my knowledge of the company. The comments have raised the awareness of many employees on how wide-spread poor management is noticed within the company. The overwhelming comment from many of my fellow employees is: why isn't Japan taking any action to correct obvious problems? One of the previous bloggers said we shouldn't hold our breath; I am beginning to think that is right. I have heard that in the past Japan has stepped in and made corrections, but it looks like they are unaware of what is happening.

The current state of YCA has caused a great lack of enthusiasm from all the employees. No one I know will bring up any negativity to our President/CEO; this would surely result in being singled out and eventually dismissed by our direct managers, when the time was right. So I finally decided to write a blog.

The politics within YCA are present and troubling, in my opinion; they have hurt our overall ability to do business. Even though the products are great, we need leadership that can build a company and bring everyone together. I look forward to a time when things get better, but can’t see the current management leading the way. This is just my opinion based on what I have seen and discussions I have had.

Friday, January 15, 2010 - Response to YCA Field Instruments colleague 13/01/10:

When I first read your comments I thought you were discussing the UK situation, the parallels are frightening. The instrumentation business in the UK as far as anyone can remember has propped up the systems group who lose money for fun it seems.

Only a complete moron could argue for taking a project at a low margin and expecting to recoup money later on MRO business. How many times have the system sales not even bothered to try and get instruments included as part of the project and then we find ourselves in a price fight with Emerson, ABB etc. Even if they do remember we actually make instruments, MRO actually means in the real world small additions that the customer initially forgot about at the project start. Most automation systems/instrumentation has an operational lifetime expectancy of at least 20 years and since we make the most reliable/never go wrong products in the world our MRO business is virtually zero. The same can be said to a large degree for our serious competitors, ones or two’s on a plant per years is a reasonable normal expectation for MRO so that philosophy when examined by anyone with at least a couple of brain cells is dead in the water.

You could try the argument that our leader now prefers that you take the lifetime profit of all the service contracts on a project/add ons/extensions etc and over a 25 year spread, the profitability will be OK. This argument is flawed when our last 2 projects for BP and Exxon Mobil, lost over €4M, it’s a lot of service and MRO business to make up for!

Most businesses are judged on a year on year basis, not a 25 year period unless you are a financial services provider and we all know what a great success they have made of things lately. The upside of management supporting the 25 year view is that most of them will have retired or left in 25 years when judgement day comes a-calling.

Despite it seems buying the h/w and s/w at a really good (less than it costs to make?) transfer price and using cheap but illegal engineering services and I’m told by my colleagues in the know at Amersfoort, that after receiving over €5M including monies from Japan and various recapitalizations due to the debts they had with Amersfoort, our business has only ever made an €80k profit over the last 7 years and losses of many millions, not bad for a company employing 60 people! We are also told that our MD is the worst performing employee ever employed by Europe and like the rest of us, are confused as to why he is still here. I wish I had his KPI’s.

What is worrying is that despite all the global financial subsidies Tokyo have provided over the years, the business is still in a mess. Which ever way you look at it, propping up failing businesses, accepting loss making activities for so long, market pricing less than the levels in Japan, only spells one thing, dumping. All of us who have worked for other companies before have been naïve in not acknowledging that Yokogawa works a lot differently than other companies in the pursuit of its objectives and should have seen this coming.

I agree what is really frustrating is that you invest a good portion of your career into the company, try to be as successful as you can be and see all your good work flushed down the pan because of the Forest Gump management philosophy preached and practiced by so many. It seems sometimes that we have been constructing the building brick by brick only to find that the foundations of the building (put down by management) were made of wet sand and sawdust and it all comes tumbling down.

For those bloggers calling for Japan to sort this out, don’t hold your breath. Has it not occurred to you that if you have a poorly performing employee you should look at the person who hired them in the first place? You would think they would realise by now that all this slash/burn/restructuring results in shock, awe and eventually exodus of the people that make the business successful.

Personally, career wise, I’m going to do my best to reach a senior position within the company where I can live out the rest of my days in a state of true unconscious incompetence like the rest of them.

I feel better for this, it’s been a cathartic experience and also it’s the weekend.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - To the blogger from Europe who wrote "Unlike Europe, YCA has been in great benefit of generosity from Tokyo......":

I assume that you're talking from the perspective of the Systems group? Field Instruments have long been profitable, until recently that is, and have carried the Systems side of things for years. They carried Japan when they went through their domestic and regional downturn a few years ago. I think the same can be said of T&M and Recorders more than carrying their own weights.

Yokogawa has excellent products from a technical standpoint, and used to have very solid technical people in the field to back them up. Over the last 6-8 years, however, any technical expertise has been culled, in favor of smiling bobble-heads who have no clue how this stuff works, but have a hell of a smile and are on Mr. Johnson's "A" list.

The Systems group has always been a "loss leader". The supposed rationale being: "Bring in the project at little to no margin and you'll make it up in MRO business." Again, it shows a complete lack of understanding as to the reality of the beast. So you win a 6 million dollar project. It does you no good if it costs you 9 million dollars to execute it. AND the MRO business never materializes.

The "Tell me who you are and I'll split my bet money with you" comment would be laughable if it wasn't such a pathetic attempt at finding out who someone is so that another "problem" can be eliminated.

As to "having an axe to grind", a "hidden agenda", etc. What the ex-employees who post here have to gain is - absolutely nothing. We've already taken our shot and reaped the "rewards" of Mr. Johnson's approach to correcting problems.

Am I upset? You bet! I put a lot of effort into making things work, only to have it laid waste by a management team who didn't have a clue, but knew how to spend money; and middle level management who didn't have the courage to present a unified front to the top levels in addressing chronic problems. I have friends who are still trying to make a go of it, with no cooperation, appreciation or direction from the anyone above them.

All that we can do is express our opinions on what is wrong and what needs to be done, to correct it for the sake of our friends and colleagues who are still employed at YCA. If we can improve the situation for them, so much the better. They have seen what happens when fellow-employees try to address problems "within the system".

That's my $0.02 worth and I'm sticking to it.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - To the blogger from Europe:

You hit the nail on the head. YCA was making it to be self sufficient, or at least looked as if they we were. What changed was the forced effort to be "Number 1 by 2010". The YCA management analysis called for unlimited and unjustified spending as a strategy to get to the lead position. I actually heard a manager say we need to spend more to get to number 1, and they would try as hard as they could, and did. Crippled by a small customer base, and management staff designed around loyalty to the CEO, it was doomed from the start. We can't forget to add up the new office allocations for Sugar Land, Mexico and Canada. What is really remarkable is that Sugar Land was in the process of spending more money to expanding the building until Japan put a stop to it.

It seems as if YCA management had no idea that a business should grow based on its own sales and the quality of its employees. It appears to some degree that the financing from Japan is being taken for standard operating income. This goes back to the comments on mismanaging, the qualifications of the CEO and the friendship-based (not qualification-based) setup headed by Dave Johnson and supported by Kaihori and so on.

I don’t see how some of the employees let go from YCA can help clean up this mess. Short term, sure the reduced head-count can show a reduction in the loss on the books. Long term, can it improve the company’s position in the industry? Not likely. Sweeping changes need to be implemented by Japan to get YCA back on its feet. This includes a complete replacement of management starting at the top, and some across the pond. The end of the fiscal year is right around the corner, and I am sure a few of the so-called 'power elite' will be dusting off their resumes, if they haven't already done so. Since this is the same thing most of the staff is doing, I am not sure how much of a qualified company staff will be left between resignations and readjustments.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The recent blog activity from our colleagues in YCA would have been laughable if it were not so serious. Unlike Europe, YCA has been in great benefit of generosity from Tokyo with subsidies as far back as anyone can remember. It seems the entire business has been supported at the expense of investment to other Yokogawa areas and they still have the nerve to complain!

We too used to be a negative contributor many years ago, but guess what, we worked hard and used our talent to make it good again. I would suggest that you all do the same and as well as ‘talking the talk’ (which you seem to do better than everyone else) start the walking also.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

This is the worst I have seen it at YCA. I don’t care if Dave Johnson wants us to come into his office and discuss problems. It will put me between my manager and the CEO and I have to deal with my manager regularly. I am sure my manager’s relationship with DJ is better than mine. It will also put me in the spot light and next on the short list, or at least a more favorable fit for the next readjustment. He should have thought about this before, but I guess he was busy mismanaging, budding up and all that playing executive stuff. Wish I had the courage to speak up in person, but I have seen what happens to people in this company that speak up. That’s why I have placed a blog, after hours of course. It’s the only voice I have here. I think they should change Dave’s title to CUO Chief Unemployment Officer, that’s the one thing he seems to be good at.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

I worked for Yokogawa when Mr. Johnson first "ascended". On one of his first trips to Newnan, he wanted to meet individually with the employees in the PMK's (that's Yokogawa-speak for Product Marketing Groups). We were told to bring a resume with us for him to look at. As soon as they realized how transparent that request was, they dropped it. BUT, it was obvious from the start that he was sizing people up.

To pick up on another blogger's comment, again, take a look at who is on the recent list and you will see no managers, at least none that I am aware of. If you are in the "Power Elite" you have nothing to worry about.

On the other hand, some of the recent recipients of Mr. Johnson's business acumen are very long time employees in Newnan. They are, again, the ones in the trenches, the gears on which the inner workings of the company turn. They know the ins-and-outs of the products, the processes, the relationships in Japan and how to get things done.

In his wisdom, Mr. Johnson has further hobbled Yokogawa's ability to carry on it's day to day operations. The only thing worse than a CEO who makes bad decisions is a CEO who repeatedly makes bad decisions and is good at implementing them.

As usual, the views expressed here are strictly my opinion, yada-yada.......

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 - To the Angry Blogger from the Current Employee:

You are wrong in guessing my identity, but I note that you're off base in your comments about the company, too. You are clearly motivated to find destructive information and spin it to hurt YCA. You could be an employee, since you had access to the layoff date and some other YCA gossip. Most point to a couple of inside politicians, one who got demoted and deserved it, and one who had fantasies about becoming a manager and did not deserve it. That would certainly explain the grudge you have against the people you've attacked. I guess we'll never know. So, if I've guessed wrong, why are you so dedicated to attacking YCA? What's in it for you? If you will reveal your name and I'm right, I will split my bet winnings with you.

Monday, January 11, 2010

The bloggers that are posting positive comments in response to very detailed complaints have provided comments with no substance. Many of the comments on this blog are true. What you have heard in the message from Dave Johnson is called putting the spin on it. You have very detailed blogs that are to the point about the ongoing problems within YCA. Many of you may not have access to the real story behind many of the facts listed here. I don’t think any bloggers assassinated Mr. Johnson’s character; the comments were directed at his inability to manage and how he has structured the chain of command within YCA. The politics in YCA are not like most companies, they are much worse.

The 09 fiscal year ends on March 31, 2010 and Newnan hasn’t completed its move to Sugar Land. I would be skeptical of the propaganda provided in a meeting from the person (Dave Johnson) at the center of the problems that has his job along with his friend’s jobs on the line.

At the end of June 2009 similar statements were made after that layoff. More layoffs occurred between July and up to January 7, 2010 with a more noticeable layoff on January 8, 2010.

The count of employees laid off in one of the Friday blogs is wrong. YCA has now had 3 different layoffs (excuse me, restructurings) during this fiscal year. The first and the third layoff near the end of the first and third quarter the second layoff was spread over the second quarter. The total is well over 200; plus or minus some employees that resigned. According to Mr. Johnson’s own statement; 811 people worked for YCA in May 2009, with the reductions YCA has had an approximate decrease of 25% of its staff overall. The remaining staff has more to do and will need to rely on a few to answer simple questions and get real work accomplished. This will become more evident over the next few months.

Pull up a copy of your organizational chart (org. chart) on the intranet. Of those laid off how many across the top horizontal lines (management) are still on the org. chart? How many of those listed on the vertical lines (workers) are still on the org. chart? What has changed? Answer nothing, if you are in, or a friend of the power elite.

Do an internet search on your manager or fellow employee’s name with or without the word Yokogawa. You will find almost all YCA management and a few friends of management with a posting on an employment website (linkedin.com). For some reason I could not find some of the managers and workers in Newnan on this site, although I was surprised to see a few names pop up. I saw so many names I started to think a posting on this site was a perk for working at YCA. If it is a perk why isn’t everyone listed? Many of the managers have “career opportunities” and “job inquires” marked on the “Interested In” section of each person’s posting. Do they know something we don’t know? This is starting to sound like what happened at Enron around August 2000; investors and employees were told one thing while management had the inside track.

Monday, January 11, 2010

I want to begin my comments by stating that I am a current YCA employee. I am not a manager or a member of any power elite group that other bloggers have reffered to. Dave Johnson just addressed us in an all employee meeting and the man was a stand up guy. He explained how he made the decision to readjust the company size to fit current business conditions. He spoke straight to the point and told the facts. I am OK working for this guy. He invited us employees to come tell him our honest opinions, and I think he means it and will listen. While I am at it, I will add that there are politics in YCA, like most companies, and it is probably the politicians who are making most of the negative posts here. Much of what I read is pretty radical spinning of the facts. Most actual employees are not going to participate. It just looks like some folks have grudge to bear.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

YCA is having problems due to the policies and practices initiated by CEO Dave Johnson. Employees are divided; those brain washed by repeated claims of product reliability, others who are overcome with the fear of being laid off; and yet another group in fear of being asked to move to the Houston office from Newnan. If you could speak freely to the reduced staff they would tell you that they are leaving as soon as they find another opportunity.

Some employees will tell you that the products are good and YCA is restructuring due to the economy, that’s what they have been compelled to say. If you go deeper you will see that the company is not supported by its own sales. It has been propped up for years with financial support from Japan. This did not affect the over hiring and wild spending associated with expenses, conducted by many General Managers and underlings in the last two years. Apparently it was a spending free-for-all and CEO Dave Johnson looked the other way. This type of management should concern customers, investors, employees, managers and board members. As stated in a previous blog, an outside audit of YCA would be suitable at this time to track the funding provided by Japan.

The positive comments you see from bloggers are from Management and Sales trying to offset the negative comments. The comments that they place are aimed at preserving the hierarchy not solving the issues. Many of the comments from Yokogawa US and Europe on this blog were aimed at solving issues, exposing poor management and uncovering activities deemed inappropriate. Little has been done to change the companies’ practices, unfortunate for those in the trenches. Politics exists in all companies but YCA under CEO Dave Johnson has brought it to an all time high.

During the evaluation process to determine who would be laid off from what department, some managers created false chargeability for members of staff in an attempt to insulate themselves by retaining friends. Chargeability is normally defined as hours billable against available work measured over twelve months. However YCA managers artificially inflated hours associated with employees they viewed as friends to help preserve the buddy system. This did nothing to boost moral or retain qualified individuals it only confirmed the preferential treatment provided to managements friends. You can expect more changes between now and the end of the fiscal year.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

I work for another company and read this blog. It has to make me wonder why a company like YGA is laying people off. If the products they offer are good and they say, have great service, who is going to mind the store? We continue to pickup more business from former YGA customers who were dis-satisfied with service. It would make sense to me to keep or hire more personal to keep the business going. It has been my experience when this happens, it was management not doing their job and one if not a few people were on the take to rob the company blind. I feel sorry for the people that were laid off, because the (management) was not doing their job. Good luck Yokogaw, and thanks for the business!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Why isn't management held accountable by Japan? Instead they are allowed to fire (notice I said fire) employees and blame it on poor company performance. What happened to a system of employee reviews, goal based performance systems with follow-up during the year. If the employee didn't achieve their goals, or were insubordinate, it was noted in their file. After two or three strikes... the employee was let go. This is not how it works at Yokogawa. Employees daily just do what they think they should be doing with no direction from their managers. With their job descriptions and duties left to total ambiguity, it allows management to say and do whatever they want when the workforce has to be reduced. The manager should be blamed on the employees lack or poor performance; not the employee. Job ambiguity is both a sickness and power tool for management. It allows the company to make hiring, promotional, and firing decision based wholly on personal opinions, friendships, cronyism. This is what is taking place at YCA.

Also, I believe it needs to be made clear that this is not a layoff. It is a reduction-in-workforce and firing of employees. They dangle the carrot of giving a weeks salary for every year worked and paying your health insurance for a few months if you agree to sign the paper that says you will not sue them and you hold them harmless. Sounds like blackmail to me. Especially for those of us that only have enough savings to pay the mortgage and bills for a couple of months. It also allows the CEO, the CFO, and VP's to sleep at night and convince themselves that they are handling this the "Christian" way.

What happened to telling the employee that "you have done a good job and we value you at our company. Because the economy has slowed and orders are down, we have to lay you off temporarily. We would like you to consider working for us again and would like to reserve the right to call you back at a latter time. We are sorry that this has happed. Unfortunately we do not know how long this will be and that you may never be called back. Thank you for your service." I am sure they will hang their hat on some legal reason for handling the downsizing in this manner.

YCA is "shooting themselves in the foot" and the skilled employees will never return. I know I will work in Home Depot to make a living before I would return, just because of the way they have handled this. A little "sour grapes"... maybe, but I am a realist and know that companies must take this action sometimes. What happened to professionalism. It just goes back to poor personnel and operation management of should I say, the lack thereof.

Friday, January 8, 2010

It's interesting that the "airing of dirty laundry" does make one feel better, but it is doubtful that anything really changes in a company unless comments are taken serious by a company's decision-makers. Yokogawa's problems are deep and systemic.

1. To begin with, YCA is not much more than a big distributor in the US. It purchases both complete products and parts from Japan at various xfer rates. While some manufacturing is actually done in Newnan (almost the same amount as 10 years ago) and many of those parts are purchased domestically, the rest is bought from Japan. Japan doesn't consciously "dump" products in North America, moronic decisions by management allow the products to be sold below that xfer cost. And Japan treats YCA like a customer! Not much more than that. Day-to-day support from them is desperately needed but still not there even after 20 years.
2. There is no real engineering at YCA. While there are many "system engineers" that configure the DCS hardware and systems HMI interfaces and control schemes, there are only a couple field instrument engineers in service, technical assistance, and marketing. Support is provided by technicians. And there is a skeleton staff of them in certain departments. As a matter of fact, marketing does 10% marketing, 30% insides sales, and 60% applications engineering. There are a few manufactuing engineers in Newnan that keep the product assembly and test department operating but that's it.
3. Operationally, from a human resource standpoint YCA is broken. There are no more performance reviews, no annual goals, no day-to-day leadership except fire fighting, and no management training programs. The only continuing education reimbursement is for undergraduate degrees and the $$ is pathetic. Education is not valued, respected, or encouraged. Only a few upper management personnel even have bachelor degrees. Many of the upper managers have been with the company for 20 years or more. Like one of the original bloggers pointed out below, many "don't even know what they don't know". This was referred to as "unconscious incompetence". That description is very accurate.
4. As previously stated, there are only skeleton department numbers in certain areas. Management is still under the assumption that marketing personnel should know how to do everything (and do it) from enter an order to shipping the product out the door and all tasks in between. This thinking is valid in a "Mom and Pop" operation but in a $250 million operation?? This is not efficient nor cost effective. Tasks and job duties should be defined and segmented. How can a company scale up or down its resources??
5. Account managers, managers of account managers, and senior managers continue to be hired at ridiculous salaries. Today was the first time an account manager or regional manager were let go. But this takes place while middle management and hourly personnel suffer with the 5% pay-cut and no cost of living raise in several years. As another blogger pointed out, the "good ole boy" network prevails. Mr. Johnson has promoted or hired only the people that tell him what he wants to hear. The CFO, VP of Marketing, and GM's have put in place their friends at various levels. If you are viewed as negative or do not subscribe to their method of management, you might as well say goodbye to your job. And for goodness sakes, don't have Human Resources report to the CFO. That could be a major conflict of interest!
6. Yokogawa's independent Rep force have both strong sales personnel and weak sales personnel. Some are also strong technically and weak technically. Yokogawa Gulf Coast (the former Yokogawa Southwest organization and the former Dixon Engineering organization) also have similar attributes. But this inconsistancy is a major drag on Yokogawa product and system sales and service. Yokogawa does not have the infrastructure to support the technically weak sales personnel. The manager of Yokogawa Southwest had the opportunity to hire real sales engineers when the independent Rep was fired. Instead he hired the former Dixon personnel that were very weak technically. That was the easy way out.

So how can Yokogawa be fixed?

• First, the President needs to step down, or be removed along with 2-3 of the VP's and possible 2-3 of the GM's. Unfortunately, Japan must take control, but only until qualifed personnel can be found.
• A six-sigma or Lean element for Office must be introduced. An operational consultant will have to be used unfortunately, to help Human Resources revamp and implement a goal-based performance, review, and incentive program. Job duties should be documented and then redefined.
• Applications, inside sales, and marketing should be segmented and personnel hired. They should then come up with a real objective at the top and drive it down.
• Re-evaluate the Global Major Account objectives and perform a cost analysis. Sales at any cost is not a wise business plan for a company that is no more than a big distributor.

Friday, January 8, 2010

I've worked in both Newnan and Sugar Land for Yokogawa since the 90's. All in all...a good place to work.

A company that added 500 staff over the past 5 years and has to cut 50 in this economy is not the scum of the earth. I think all of our competitors laid off a much larger % of their staff.

It's also entertaining that both happy and unhappy current/Ex employees have tried to disguise themselves as customers!

One last comment of support from a previous blogger... Do we have to keep sharing our blog with Omron? Surely all this hand-wringing merits a blog of our own! (no offense to our Japanese cousins at Omron).

Note: This is now the Yokogawa weblog

Friday, January 8, 2010

The layoff did happened as predicted, which would make one think that someone is an insider with the knowledge of the ins and outs. If they do what they did after the last layoff, they will bring in temps to replace some of the ones laid off. They were already very short-handed before. I would be surprised if we see Yokogawa much longer. Current management is running the company into the ground. Morale has dropped even more, leaving the remaining empolyees wondering if they are next.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Short personal barbs aimed at employees and customers that have identified problems within YCA that have resorted to blogging as a last resort, are usually answered with arrogant statements by management further adding to the impression nothing will ever change. This type of attitude is nothing new for Yokogawa management and is at the root of the problems created by the leadership of YCA. As the company continues its downward spiral, management continues to attack everyone outside the power elite. It sounds a bit narcissistic.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Perhaps the former Yokogawa employees, now fiction writers, are being joined by a few trolls from competitors. Doesn't smell right to me.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

The products are fine the management and internal issues are the problem. It doesn't matter how good the products are if the company is not functional. Yokogawa has lost presence in the field and in front of the customer and they don't plan on any replacements.

Yokogawa has long lead times and has been dropped by long time users for this. If you have a catastrophic loss call YCA and ask for replacements in large quantity. A situation like this just happened in Georgia close to the YCA plant. Why? Because they ship the equipment in from China and keep stock to "just in time" that is never on time.

Lack of skilled local presence has always been a problem and continues to be today. Many customers are pulling Exaquantum and replacing it with Pi. Why? Lack of support and the price of support. A Japanese company in the southeastern US dropped Yokogawa and replaced the system with Delta V. More Japanese companies to follow just ask the competition.

If you are looking forward to this Friday January 8, 2010 I would call out sick.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

I've been using Yokogawa products in the US for many years, and the reason why is that they offer the most reliable products I've ever used, as the previous blogger pointed out. In addition, I've received top-notch support over the years.

Yes, a few times over the years an issue would come up; but in every case Yokogawa has bent over backwards to take care of me and my operation. I can not say the same thing about most of the other automation vendors. Furthermore, contrary to the previous bloggers comments, I've always found Yokogawa products to be one of most, if not the most, technologically advanced products around. A lot of vendors disguise weak core measurement and control technology with extra and often useless bells and whistles, which does fool many users. But for me I've always sided with highly accurate and reliable measurements in products that outlast the competitors. No company is perfect, but in my opinion Yokogawa is certainly better than most.

Thursday, January 7, 2010 - In response to the January 7, 2010 blog on YCA:

I don’t see you disputing any of the facts, but confirming the reduction in the work force at YCA. Further confirming the "restructuring", or as you call it, "managing tough economic times".

Restructuring was repeated in every management statement ever issued, blogged about since 2002, and in every Yokogawa press release, including that from Kaihori in his message to investors in July of 2009. (http://www.yokogawa.com/pr/IR/pr-ir-message-en.htm) I suggest a change from "Vigilance" to "Restructuring" as the Yokogawa motto.

I suspect you are one of the "power elite", trying to appear loyal to keep your own job. You have only demonstrated your lack of understanding by calling facts "fiction" and you need to reconnect with reality.

Current employees care about the company and see the lack of support for staff and favoritism within management. YCA's problems are also recognized by customers and potential customers. How could you be so blind? Maybe that's how you helped YCA get to this point. The only coincidence in the blogs about Yokogawa (domestic or international) is that the employees and customers have had enough.

You are the epitome of the YCA "power elite" and can only see and hear what you want to. If for some reason I have mistakenly called you this and you are not, you have successfully passed the test and are now fully qualified.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

There is no doubt Yokogawa is a good company and its products are good. Unfortunately what users have blogged about Yokogawa America is true. I have been using Yokogawa for more than a decade, and didn't find anything to complain. The products are not that technologically great compared to American counterparts, but run for a long time, troublefree.

Engineering was a real mess and Yokogawa America doesn't know how to use the proper resources. They sent few inexperienced folks to site, even though they have good experienced people. What n trusted insider tells is that they have started laying off few top brass on 6th January, 2010. The laying-off spree continued today for some middle level and contractual employees. But what the trusted sources comment is that the gala event would be this Friday, 8th January,2010.

It appears that Yokogawa North america leadership failed miserably and couldn't set the company back on thye right track. Other Automation companies have recovered and are back on track. One of important thing that the insider told me was that it appears everything is on a friendship basis, and many inexperienced folks are being given a lead position at sites, which is really pathetic.

As a Yokogawa user, I feel really sad about how North American management has messed up, and assume this blog would be read by their Japaneese counterparts in Japan. The fact in Yokogawa America is that they are not capable of grabbing a project and are losing to competitors.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

I see an obvious cooincidence here between a company that is performing reductions-in-force to manage tough economic times, and the number of blogs with extreme comments. I suspect that a few former Yokogawa employees should exercise their real talents and pursue new careers in writing creative fiction.

I know Yokogawa reasonably well, and see a large degree of poison-pen work in this blog. The work of "customers" and "insiders"? Not very likely. I take many of these comments with a grain of salt. No, make that a pound of salt.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

I was just referred to this blog by a contact within the industry. After reading some of the comments here, I can see I am not alone. I wanted to express my frustration with Yokogawa/YCA somewhere, and will try to limit my comments. Fortunately I was able to remove them from our vendors list due to a consistent lack of responsiveness; I am sure they don’t even realize it. When I needed help I couldn’t even get a return phone call, so we found help elsewhere.

I had heard from other vendors that Yokogawa seems to be in a constant state of flux, but I did not believe it at first. My relationship started out very positive with YCA, on the initial sales level, but I need action not words to support my plant. I can receive more responsive and personalized service from one of my other vendors or a smaller company that has more on the line. I only found out late in the game. I intend to spread the word about this blog to any other YCA customers I hear of, and suggest that other readers and bloggers do the same.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

As a recent prospective customer of YCA, it was very interesting to read the various comments on this topic here as some of these comments were experienced during our evaluation process for a significant project.

Initially we were quite impressed with YCA, as the many meetings with Sales, their Mid-Level and Senior Management staff was such that we had a clear preference for Yokogawa at the end of the bid stage. Their proposal was straightforward, and the highest quality of those received.

Only when we began to interview former and current clients of YCA at the urging of our management team did we uncover problems. We expected to receive a few negative comments regarding past performance as no vendor has an unblemished record of performance. However each and every YCA client interviewed by our team provided the same story. While fully impressed with the quality of their equipment, the unanimous comments were with regard to YCA's inability to deliver projects in a professional manner. All interviewed clients expressed an extreme degree of dissatisfaction with YCA's project execution and project management staff totally unexpected and previously experienced by our team members.

As a result, we were unable to recommend a decision to purchase Yokogawa to our management team based on these negative referrals. Based upon our initial opinions of YCA, we can only hope that they are able to correct their project execution problems quickly.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Does anyone know what is going on at Yokogawa Corporation of America (YCA)?

In May 2009 in an interview featured in Control Global, current CEO Dave Johnson said "We have had NO layoffs." Here is the link:

http://community.controlglobal.com/content/dave-johnson-yokogawa

"We are now $320 million in YCA. Products are $140 million, systems and engineering $160 million, with services at $20 million. We have 387 employees in Atlanta, 370 in Houston, 47 in Canada and Mexico, and 73 others (our regional sales people). We have had NO layoffs."

Layoffs occurred between June and December 2009 with an additional loss of more YCA direct employees. This was kept quiet and performed sporadically so customers would not be alarmed.

December 2009 ended the YCA third quarter with more bad financials resulting in additional layoffs scheduled for January 2010. Mr. Johnson will need to make major modifications to both his FY09 year end financials and employee count for the next interview.

The layoffs are apparently aimed at removing most of the experienced staff and firming up the power/friendship base in the Sugar Land office with new less experienced personnel. This was a strategic move to confirm the perceived position of management as a knowledge base.

In the same article Mr. Johnson indicates the official corporate office will be relocating to Sugar Land (Houston) Texas. Not a surprise, this has been in the works since the Sugar Land office opened. As stated previously, Human Resources, Finance and Legal are the first groups to be “requested” to move to the Houston area from the original Newnan Georgia location. This has left the Newnan staff depressed and demoralized; these are the people that helped build YCA. Rumor is the Newnan move will be accelerated in 2010 and you will also see a restructuring of the engineering center.

But we need to look closer at the rise to power of Mr. Johnson. During the reign of the previous YCA CEO, Shuzo (Shu) Kaihori, apparently Mr. Johnson made himself invaluable to him. As we all know Kaihori structured his current rise to CEO and President of Yokogawa Electric Inc. (YEI) and placed his friends in positions to support him. Unfortunately the process industry looked at the selection of Mr. Johnson as one of the least qualified individuals to hold the helm at YCA. I am sure the board of directors is taking a closer look at both Kaihori and Johnson, they can’t continue to blame the economy with the decisions they make.

The Senior Vice President (VP) of Sales, a former Invensys/Foxboro employee; adding to the “home for Ex-Foxboro” comments made by the industry and internally named “Foxagawa” by YCA employees. You would think that anyone in a position of this magnitude would have more to offer to the sales staff then a berating to meet the numbers; obviously limited in his sales abilities and mentoring skills. I will say his skills are enhanced only by his overall lack of understanding of the departments he “inherited” after the abrupt departure of the former Senior VP, at the hands of Mr. Johnson.

On 8 December 2009 a press release was issued by YCA, see the links below:

http://www.yokogawa.com/us/cp/aboutus/news/2009/937_Yokogawa_NextNine_AdvancedRemoteMonitoring_YCA.pdf

http://www.nextnine.com/index.aspx?id=2935&itemID=2096

I understand that the board of directors and senior management of Yokogawa Japan are reading this blog. Not surprised since US employees forwarded or brought copies to Japan. This being the case since Mr. Johnson and his “power elite” (quote from previous blogger) took over what has changed within YCA? I know the Sugar Land office is nicely decorated and the same old customer base is impressed with it; but you can’t be blind to the strangle hold Mr. Johnson and his “power elite” have on this regional office. Although Japan has deep pockets, investors and board members need to begin questioning financial allocations made to support YCA. Go beyond SAP and take a closer look at how the allocations are distributed and what the backing is actually used for; an outside audit may shed some light.

I have seen the rumor on this blog noting that a person from the US (YCA) may be added to the board of directors. I hope this is just the sake talking.

Recently Human Resources (HR) sent a request to all personnel asking them to verify that your spouse is really your spouse. Seems as though some employees signed up "friends" for medical benefits; how was this discovered? Guess we will never know as long as you are a friend of the CEO. This does give new meaning to the old term "friend with benefits".

Recently the General Manager (GM) of HR in Sugar Land was "requested" to move to Newnan Georgia and the HR Manager of Newnan was "requested" to take over in Sugar Land as GM. It is well known within YCA that the former Sugar Land GM of HR was from Finance and had little experience heading the HR department for the last two years. Again another friend of the CEO, this person did little to help employees and the company but did get the CEO to create a management position for her son-in-law.

As you can see from the many blogs on Yokogawa the problems are not limited to regional operations. Could this be the result of the direction set by the supreme leader and Chairman of Yokogawa, Isao Uchida? Maybe he started as a humble instrument salesman but he is a legend in his own mind now. He has lost touch with the employees and is unaware of the problems within his management. Remember his statement “Yokogawa will be number 1 by 2010”. This was not based on any logical business process or reasonable percentage increase over time. It resulted in an international assignment of quota to meet the expected financial results necessary to be number 1. The problems are complex and are compounded by the ineptness of YEI leadership.

If you are one of those hit by the layoff samurai in January 2010 don’t forget to ask HR and Mr. Johnson about the sayonara party that includes open bar and fine steak dinner, similar to that provided to Mr. Johnson’s girlfriend when she was asked to leave by Japan.

Happy New Year?