Pernod Ricard USA Reviews

Pros

Great work life balance and great benefits

Cons

Unclear career path. A bit longer than usual to get advancing on

Advice to Management

More structured career path, quicker decision making process

Pros

Great team environment, mutual trust, and opportunities for advancement

Cons

Tends to be an "always on" culture

Pros

Agile Working, Great Salary, Excellent Work Life Balance, Strong Communication, Socially Responsible, Strong Leadership, Great Benefits & Vacation, Builds Talent Within.

Cons

I should have starting working here years ago.

Pros

there are some very nice people. product allowance (granted it is much lower for non directors) and extremely large travel budgets

Cons

Company is extremely insular - top management is 90% Pernod lifers and European. Culture is passive aggressive and hierarchical. leadership cannot make a decision or stick to it. lots of churn and inefficiency. true lack of empathy among leaders. company cannot face reality that Absolut is a dog that is draining resources. company is more focused on the dog and pony shows that actually gaining a consumer insight... or doing an ROI analysis on spend. spend more time doing internal power point than driving business.

Pros

This is a fun place to work - the work is interesting, challenging; the people are mostly smart, driven and well-intentioned; the culture is fun, intrepreneurial and “convivial”; the brands are incredible and the chance for personal growth is always there for the taking.

Cons

Hours can be long; the industry is fast paced and teams are lean; it can be challenging working in a matrixed organization when other parties are responsible for delivering, but don’t always do so on time (don’t have same pace as USA).

Advice to Management

Help teams focus on what really matters and cut some of grunt work from their day to day; take the time to appreciate the teams and the hours they work; reward some of those who over perform but don’t self promote.

Pros

Flexible hours, week off between Dec 25- Jan 1, lots of PTO, great benefits. Plenty of career mobility

Cons

Everything is micro-managed by current Regional Directors in SoCal, management has no idea that everyone is miserable working for them. Just a number and completely indispensable in the eyes of management, who is often disconnected from markets. Zero work/life balance

Advice to Management

Senior management doesn't seem aware that their managers below are running this company into the ground through low employee moral. Company pays the women in this specific roles less than men

Pros

-Low stress -High pay vs what is expected of you -Good brands -Lite hours offer good work/life balance -Easy to show up, do very little, and collect your paycheck -The company stands by its mission of bringing people together -People are friendly for the most part -Weekly open bar happy hour -Many, many off-site events, retreats, parties, etc -Free branded merch -Sales teams seem good at what they... do -It's in the alcohol industry. This makes it fun. And means the product will likely sell itself, regardless of what you do. -The NBV brands and some of the smaller brands seem to be very well run

Cons

I think I can say this is the most regrettable work experience of my career. It was not challenging, it was not rewarding, and I genuinely feel less capable in my job leaving the role than when I began it. -Corporate and hierarchical -Bureaucratic. Every decision is consensus driven and nobody ever stands up for what they believe is the right path forward. Decisions are made by gut feeling, rather than data,... so reaching a consensus is like herding cats. -Reward relationship over competence -Dispassionate employees. Many seem to be there because "alcohol is a fun industry" and because they get access to parties. Surprised to see many working on the brand side and in marketing do not even know how their brand's products are made. -Emphasis on "doing things the way they've been done before" even when those approaches failed -Excessively wasteful spending -I cannot describe the amount of time wasted in pointless meetings. This will occupy the bulk of your time. -Most of the thinking is outsourced to consultants/agencies. Roles become executional. The title of "manager" more so means "agency relationship manager" -Sexual harassment. -Making the sexual harassment worse is the notion that HR is incompetent, so nobody will speak up. -Significant amounts of work are not done for any purpose other than to check the box that the task was completed. Even if it is pointless. -Deadlines are almost never met. But there is never any consequence. New "deadlines" are simply conjured... and again not met. -Culture of favoritism and nepotism -Re-org constantly -Little collaboration between sales and marketing -Innovation often means following what the competition has brought to market -Data only appears relevant to sales, finance, and the digital team. Data not relevant in brand marketing. -Operate with blinders, as though no competitors do anything worthwhile. Unwilling to acknowledge areas where they are not the best. And yet try to fast-follow competitors. -Always focused on the next reporting period, but rarely look beyond that. No long-term planning or concrete strategies develop as a result -Rely on their 4 hero brands, which receive 99% of the company's attention. Little consideration as to what will happen if sales slow among those brands. I could go on

Advice to Management

-Encourage long-term planning -Focus on strategies that don't need to be revisited and completely renewed every 3-6 months -Nurture the smaller brands, NBV brands, and recent acquisitions. -Use data to inform marketing decisions -Hire capable talent to cut the massive annual capital outflows to consultants and agencies. To that end, I would suggest listening to what Elliott Management has to say; despite not... being especially senior within the org, it was clear that there was substantial room for cost cutting across the board. It pleases me immensely to see an activist investor getting involved. -Incentivize top talent to stay, and nurture their growth. -Get an HR department the staff can believe in and so then can rely on. The fact that issues are regularly gossiped about but, when a visit to HR is recommended the response is "they won't do anything anyway. And I may face retribution for bringing it up" you've established a failing department.

Pros

Great work/life balance, remote work option Weekly happy hour and product allowance Compensation and bonus structure is OK CEO is a nice guy and very hands-on

Cons

This really should be a fun job, but teams are stuck completing powerpoint presentations and hosting events for internal stakeholders vs. producing killer marketing programs for the actual consumer. Goals/metrics are created out of thin air and unsubstantiated. Politics are at an all time high. I've seen staff actually do great work, but get blackballed because they refuse to share their Instagram handle. Tier II... Marketing leaders (Directors/VP) are old-school thinkers and rely heavily on traditional tactics that fail to move product. There's also too much power given to a 30-something year old that has never been accountable for P&L. Speaking of leadership, there's an obvious disregard for diversity among senior staff, brand teams, and distributor partners. Which SUCKS because several brands rely on multicultural consumers to sell product. Growth opportunities are laughable - no clear avenues or benefits for promotion. FREQUENT layoffs (almost yearly) and constant reorgs.

Advice to Management

Clean house from the top down. Start holding VPs/Leadership accountable for lack of positive team output and morale across the board. Stop tapping talent from Paris & Australia and focus on bringing in expert marketers here in the US. Revisit representation among the field sales team - no one is taking advice about a millennial target and Absolut from an older gentleman who's been drinking Jack & Coke since... 1980.