Executives need to fix things before it's too late
Pros
Company: Blackhawk is established and dominates the industry. People: Some employees are still talented and motivated. Location: If you don't like commuting to S.F. or the South Bay and every day, Blackhawk is great. Pleasanton is a nice, safe area with lots of restaurants. Building: Nice and recently renovated. Open floor plan, if you like that sort of thing. Perks: Gym membership, Thirty Thursday's, team events and parties
Cons
Most of these 5 star reviews must be coming from HR... Leadership: Much of the leadership (VP and higher) at Blackhawk is "homegrown" and lacks the appropriate breadth of experience to drive efficiencies. Many of them are lightyears away from being qualified for their jobs and others are flat out unintelligent (that or apathetic). Newer age executives are often handcuffed by budget or politics, but some of them aren't great either. It doesn't help that Blackhawk is very "top heavy." As a result, there are many highly paid executives who are terrible at their jobs. Blackhawk is also a very sales focused environment, largely ignoring other needs. Year after year, the inefficiencies remain and leadership either doesn't care or is too busy selling. Most commonly, leadership simply does not have the experience to even recognize that a problem exists. Their subordinates (Directors, Managers) either don't know how or don't have the resources and approvals to fix these larger problems on behalf of the executives. Intellectuals be warned: you will be one of the smartest people at the company and it will get very frustrating. If you inevitably recognize the many problems at Blackhawk and actually want to fix them, you'll drive yourself insane. Prospects & Innovation: Blackhawk innovates more than it's primary competitor. Yet, the company is also very reactionary to the competitive market and often makes moves before thinking about, and quantifying, expectations. Internal innovations are almost nonexistent nowadays. Blackhawk has a strategy of acquiring it's growth and innovation. This can be great if done correctly. At Blackhawk it just leads to more operational difficulties than before. It takes years for the acquisitions to be integrated. The strategy of connecting everything as an enterprise is often discussed but never executed. Compensation: In general, compensation is lower at Blackhawk than it is at other leading Bay Area companies because of the convenient location and historical connection to retail grocery. Blackhawk's compensation policies are very strange. There are useless employees who get paid well. There are strong employees who aren't paid well. If you don't get what you want up front, you're screwed long term. Bonus and stock options are nonexistent for most employees. Career Growth: This is the biggest problem at Blackhawk for talented employees. The company seems to pay low and dare people to leave under the presumption that they can always find someone else. They may be right, but that doesn't make for a great environment. Growth is nonexistent for most people, except for the squeaky wheels and top performers. When promotions finally do occur they're several years late and usually minor. If you were hired below the market competitive scale, you might as well leave because at Blackhawk "re-leveling" salaries is almost nonexistent. People: Beyond leadership, much of the stronger talent at Blackhawk has left or wants to leave. Every once in a while, Blackhawk strikes gold with a talented hire. The person's dismay is almost comical once they realize what they're dealing with. Most everyone else is a worker bee, collecting a paycheck. Lower talent levels make it very difficult to get things done. Some people are really, really bad. Budgets make it difficult to get the right people. Teams are concerned with performing the bare minimum to get their job done, instead of going above and beyond to truly make a difference. Cross functional teams are difficult to form if they aren't the ones that have already existed for years. Dealing with the Engineering teams is almost futile - if it's not in their primary roadmap, an initiative won't get done. IT data governance and warehousing is an embarrassment, making it difficult for Blackhawk to take the next as as an analytics-driven company. Most people are nice, but that only takes you so far. If you're a motivated person who wants to make a difference, then the people at Blackhawk with infuriate you. The worst part is that most people aren't held accountable.
