General Consultant Discussion

Software giant Sage's UK leader Alan Laing has left the firm just a year after he was appointed, it has emerged. Mr Laing was only confirmed as the company's MD for UK and Ireland in June last year, having led the firm's operations in the UK following the shock departure of Jacqueline de Rojas - who also had a short tenure at the company - since March. Mr Laing previously ran the firm's global Partners and Alliances programme, a position he initially continued alongside his MD duties. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/business/business-news/sages-uk-boss-alan-laing-14812847

One less name to keep looking up on LinkedIn to see if he is still at Sage. Is it almost 3 envelope time in UK?

Apparently kilts are not compliant with the dress code at Sage UK.

I almost commented on this on your LinkedIn Post. My feeling is ""who cares?"" It's really kind of a shit show. These Sage execs are in a perpetual revolving door pattern these days. We don't get a chance to meet them and know them. They don't get a chance to understand their own roles. We don't get a chance to understand their goals and direction - or if they even have goals and direction. Not to be all ""remember the good old days?"" but ... do you remember the good old days when you would know the people at Sage and feel they had your back and we were all in it together? I think there are still a few great people there so I'm not saying it's all rotten. The management team needs to be stabilized though in my opinion.

I think Sage's core problems: - Trying to be global - it's just not working (and won't work) - different countries have different needs and one of those needs (as Peter correctly points out) is a stable management team - what we have now is UK guiding strategy which is fine except I constantly feel as if everyone in USA is hiding so as not to be voted off the island.. - Hiring executives who have never worked in the industry (no, it's not the same skillset as if you worked as a mortgage broker / meat cutter / bank manager ) - Tried to make vs acquire - Sage Live and Sage One and possible X3/Enterprise have failed to gain significant liftoff velocity but they take up tremendous $$ and attention - Relying too much on price hikes and lock-in (see Sage Payments - which really should have capture 90% of the installed base but didn't largely due to customer service problems) - Talking niche but chasing the next pretty - Sage 100 has a great life as a wholesale distribution niche - instead they try to hang every type of add-on / bolt-on off the side of this product diverting attention from serving the wholesale customer needs - As Peter accurately notes - the steady stream of people moving through the executive ranks - especially in marketing - pretty much ensures there is no one initiative that is around long enough to take hold - They are bat-shit crazy in some respects: Tacking cloud onto the end of perpetual product names - They are very smart in others: Striving toward expiring registration keys and 10% annual pricing when they are reasonably certain the remaining customers aren't going to feel right away