That expression, “...left his post to pursue his own ventures,” is usually a euphemistic way of saying, “You’re fired.” The company’s Managing Director, Paul Rouseau, a frequent Fox Business News personality, is also pursuing his own ventures as are many other former top executives who presided over the May Company’s financial collapse inherited by Jacobs and the May family lawyers in 2010.
As one of the replacement senior executives put it to me, in an email confirming the company’s demise, “I left at the beginning of the year, but it was a slow, painful end to a once great company. 2010 was like sitting on the deck of the Titanic watching people rearrange the deck chairs while the band played on.”
The Ridge building has a cornerstone: “1960.” Eisenhower, a golf enthusiast, was leaving office. Cadillacs were 22 feet long. Gasoline cost pennies. Business had boomed. Inside the conservative office building, a photo mural of golf’s greats inspired awe. I never knew whether to genuflect or salute when I entered and breathed in that 1960s air.
It has been said that the Kushnir-Rouseau regime monitored every phone call and every email. Yelling was the preferred mode of communication. The way they saw it, clients needed to be controlled by analysts and consultants. Intimidation meant control.
Israel Kushnir made an impression on me in an awkward moment at the Ridge, as I stood outside the training building on a cigarette break with a colleague during a conference. A dapper and bald gent strode across the parking lot and pointed at me.
“Stop smoking,” he declared, briskly.
“Grow hair,” I exhaled.
He passed me, smiled, and entered the building. My colleague bit his lip, trying not to laugh. “Do you know who that is?” he choked. “That’s the president of the company.”
Paul Rouseau convinced me to pursue my own interests that Christmas.
Article comments
1 - Jon Sobel
An interesting and sad tale. I never understood the usefulness of management consultants. My personal experiences with them, as an employee at a number of companies that have hired them, have always been bad. They come in with no understanding of a company's culture, and therefore their "fixes" end up intimidating and souring the longtime, productive employees, in the end leaving things worse off than when they came in. Maybe I just had bad luck...
2 - Christopher Rose
You know what they say about management consultants. They come and borrow your watch, tell you what time it is and keep the watch.
3 - Ray
A well written article. Tom was one of a number of able people who performed legitimate consulting work for GSMIC. His abilities and the abilities of many others who worked for the company were not appreciated.
4 - Tommy Mack
My personal email responding to the Requiem piece has been divided. An engineer client wrote that until we worked together he always thought that a consultant was “a salesman who lives 500 miles out of town.” That more accurately describes the consulting business. Billing hours and collecting payments is what the business does. They are separate activities altogether from actual consulting work.
In my opinion the May company became more obsessed with collecting money than with consulting work.
In my conclusion I used the term “small-business,” which drew this reply, “Hey, it ain't just 'small' business,” he wrote, “the May company's original model actually created household names [in addition to Sunbeam]. The company “did work early on in each Microsoft, in Harley-Davidson, in Starbucks, in Wal-Mart, in McDonalds, in United Parcel Service, in SouthWest Airlines & so many more that Americans use daily.”
However, things changed.
“I was always frustrated, during my tenure there, at how hard we had to work around the abusive culture, created by horrific management practices within GSM, in order to actually help the clients,” another colleague observed. “There were plenty of good and talented people at GSM who did [their] damnedest to help our clients despite the incredible odds that were fostered upon us by archaic, misguided and abusive management practices.”
Another May executive wrote me, “There is a lot that most people DON'T know about what went on over the last 9-10 years but I'll have to make that a part of my book.” He suggested that the book would read like a night time soap opera “because no one would believe what has gone on there. It is a regular Dynasty or Dallas.”
I appreciate the feedback.
Tommy
5 - AG
Very well written. It was a matter of time until they collapsed. You cannot mistreat most of your clients while "controlling" them. Some of us in our past incarnations surely did work of value, but generally speaking this was a powerful billing machine dedicated to producing boiler plate.
There was only one cardinal sin to commit while working for the: not to collect on time. That alone speaks volume, and the chapter is now closed on GSMIC, as it will soon close on IPA and all its alphabetical soups of names.
6 - Tommy Mack
It was the "Playhouse 90" on the phone that I always enjoyed. Secret code phrases like "had a very interesting conversation with the client" meant "the client is calling the cops" or "the client says they canceled" were common.
As you point out, collecting was everything. For a Project Director to physically take a client to the bank to direct deposit funds for the first invoice did it for me in that role.
Thanks for adding to this.
Tommy
7 - Chet Strader
It was certainly an interesting piece and unfortunately spoke the truth about the "game". The saddest part were the good consultants that wanted to bring benefit to thier clients and not kill them in the process who were prevented from doing so.
8 - JACK'S BOY
Tommy, I left in 1997 along with a huge percentage of the Analysts and Staff/PD's that were "Doing it right". Management was actively driving us all out.
My questions are:
1. WHY did they actively dump the top 20%+ of their top performers in terms of revenue and quality in 1997? They had to be making money on us!
2. How did they then hit $100 million? For at least 3 years,1994/5/6, the the core number of Analysts (HAM) was stuck at 50 +/-despite their infamous recruiting efforts.
3. What convinced the BOD to throw away six years of achievements in quality? This emphasis on quality was a direct response to what the 2+ years of John Burgess had done to GSMIC's reputation.
4. When did GSMIC begin this "Race to the Bottom" with IPA?
Thanx
9 - Edward Sielsky
Who is responsible for the demise of a once great company? The Board of Directors has no one to blame but themselves. Throughout the 90's there was tremendous growth. At that time we put a lot of effort into quailty. Don Fletcher and I insisted on it. This is not to say we were successful 100% of the time, but we spent a lot on it. Then came Burgess. It soon became appearant who and what he was and I tried to get rid of him and minimize the damage he did. I constrained him a little but he really got rid of himself with his eposide in the board room. This was one step over the line that could not be overlooked by the president.
After that we really started to grow, despite the huge drain on our time, mostly mine, the legal battles with Burgess became. At this time, quality and competent delivery of service was a priority. Profits soared. A lot of people made a lot of money.
Around 2000, the board and Dottie Campbell and Sam Jacobs became so accustomed to profits and dividends the likes of which they had never seen before, I believed they came to believe that the company was invincible, profits were automatic and anybody could manage it. In other words, we (basically Fletcher and I) made it look easy. I reminded them every chance I got that it was really a very fragile ballance and any changes must be carefully considered.
For some reason, they were drawn in and seduced by Kushnir. I believe this was mostly political, they were all of the same stripes and they put those affiliations ahead of sound business judgement. They were certainly warned repeatedly, but they obviously did not listen.
The family and the board never, never understood the business. They never worked in it and they did not understand it. As a result, they were swayed to certain ways of thinking based on what sounded good with their opinion that the management didn't really matter, that somehow success was assured just because it was the "May Company."
In September of 2001, when they decided that Kushnir was their new boy and put him in charge, is when the end began. Frankly, I was very surprised to see it take almost 10 years. How they could have been so blind, I will never understand. Any interest on quality just stopped. The underhanded tricks that Kushnir had always pulled became corporate culture. It became a big con job. It was say anything at the moment to get the client's money and don't worry about the consequences.
Employees were simply treated in the same manner that Kushnir always thought of them, another pawn to be played.
Everything this Kushnir/Roseau team did was easily anticipated unless you were a board member. Now just go and read the pleadings on both sides of their suit and counterclaim. Like I said, it's amazing it lasted as long as it did.
In the final analysis, they all deserved each other and the result that brings. When you lie down with dogs, don't be surprised when you get flees.
10 - Tommy Mack
They yanked me out of Alaska to come to Chicago for a weekend pow-wow of Project Directors. Those of us from the Las Vegas office were laid-back compared to the Home office bunch. We wore casual clothes and relaxed at dinner the first night, while the main-plant people wore suits and appeared tense. The main event, the next day at the World Headquarters, presented the Kushnir-Rouseau show that became a pissing contest to see who could berate the PDs more abusively.
I found it professionally insulting. I remember thinking that those guys were a bunch of wanna-be thugs in suits. I had company desires and they were sitting in my seat. I was wrong. They were not wanna-be thugs.
When IPA recruited me I was treated better, at first. But it did not take as long to realize that the that bunch of business thugs were just better game players than the ones at May, and certainly greedier. You can dress them up, but that’s all you can do. No class.
Thanks for weighing in, Ed. I would like to know what Don Fletcher thinks.
I am a Blogcritics editor and will be building a business feature starting in the culture section, where this article appears. The new feature will publish pieces, such as your comments, that tell the stories of business, as opposed to “sell” the business stories. How a successful company can lose itself is exactly the kind of article I mean. So thanks again for your comments, all of you, and let's get those stories told.
Tommy
11 - Michael L. Riebs
Thank you for the well written article, and thank you Mr. Sielsky for the insight from the glamour years.
As all things are, I guess I would be considered a "Johnny come lately" in the whole GSMIC game. Nonetheless, it was a proud day when I was on that plane for the first time, heading to my first client. THis was what I had been wanting to do for the past 10 years, and now I was finally doing it. I felt that I "had arrived".
Little did I know what was in store. Your descriptions of what went on in the offices at the Ridge are as accurate as I have heard them from others who worked there, and who also were friends.
There were many of us - even in the mid '00s - who were dedicated to the client, and to truly making a difference with good quality consulting work. Unfortunately that apparently was not what we had been hired to do.
I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to transfer from HAM to WAM (the Ridge to Las Vegas), and am honored to have worked under Michael Haber. Mr. Haber ran a tidy and tight ship, always ready with the right advice, truly committed to the betterment of the client AND dedicated to improve GSMIC's bottom line - but not by sending out survey analysts that would lie to the client, telling them that "this will only cost $5,000", or "we'll only be here for about 3 days."
Mr Haber monitored the majority of the traffic calls, and ensured that the shenanigans pulled off by survey in HQ were not permitted out west - and for some reason, honesty seemed to pay off with the clients.
I had longer running jobs in WAM than I did at HAM, with clients that had a better understanding of what to expect, and rarely had situations where we would show up, only to close on day 2 or 3. The jobs ran longer as a combination of Haber's efforts to ensure proper expectations and the fact that we were expected to spend more time providing quality work, than we were to spend on internal paperwork and collecting.
We had a very good team assembled at WAM. Quite a few competent, quality consultants, most of whom had worked out of the Ridge, and wanted nothing more to do with it.
When they closed las Vegas and pulled all those who remained back under the control and abuse of HAM, we knew it was only a matter of time before we too would need to find new jobs.
I never was fired - nor did I quit. My "Chief", LauBach, "resigned me." Huh?
I don't know whether anyone is aware off this, but Mr. Fletcher owns a new consulting business, having come out of retirement, with the intent of restoring the good name of Consulting, the way it ought to be.
The new business is: Legacy Analytics
I am proud to have had the opportunity to work for Mr. Fletcher during the very early phase of his new venture.
12 - ITKid
Tommy,
I worked in the IT Shop at MAY until close to its end. Set up in accounting in the basement for the first few months, I always thought it was somewhat entertaining to have your day randomely broken up with banging and shouting at any given moment. But soon it became kind of awkward like when your parents fought upstairs -- couldn't quite make out the words but you could tell whose turn it was by the alternating high and low frequencies coming thru the ventilation and walls. Ooops...I digress...thought I was in therapy for a moment. Moving on...
We had some good people in IT, but there was a lot of "looking the other way and doing your job", even in the face of obvious abnormality. See, we had access to the mechanics behind the madness.
You're references to the 60's culture of management was spot-on as well. This place was a bad imitation of Mad Men, however.
I've moved on but I enjoyed this article, and I actually enjoyed my time at May. Still can't get over how sad it is to see this once fine company completely crash and burn. If ever in Chicago I've love to break bread!
13 - Tommy Mack
Kerry Sam Jacobs needs me to write her story. It must be the stuff of television and should be objectively told. The culture of George when she came in to help fly it into the ground is hardly the legacy her grandfather had in mind. I am told stories privately by other George folks, such as ITKid and Michael L. Riebs most recently here, of the blind-siding Kerry Sam got. It surprised me that Chuck Black returned after his being sacked by Israel, but it’s a Chicago tale.
Thanks for updating it.
Tommy
14 - Jimmy Reves
This company needed to go out of business. It became a scrouge to society, abused clients and employees and broke people and companies. I am truly sorry for the well meaning and descent employees who worked at the firm, and who wanted to do a good job, but the world is bigger than George is, so society's interest was served very well with its demise. As for these 'executives,' Roseau, Black, Kushner, La Beau and Vaill were simply another type of lunatic parading with some level of legitimacy. Well written article, and I wait for the book.
Jimmy Me.
15 - MyGeorgeStories
The one constant in every piece written about the once great and now late George S. May International Company is that it suffered from antiquated overbearing management practices. As an alum, who was there when these practices were introduced as "new and improved", I can certainly attest to the veracity of this statement! By definition, this demands that the story be told from the bottom up and not the top down, sorry Ed. How many times did you say to yourself that we should write a book?!? [Personal contact info deleted] Please DO NOT write if your story is about "washing out" of training, the Internet is replete with your story. I am looking for those who "made it" and "know where the bodies are buried"! "The Rest of the Story" as it were, the absurdity and tragedy of it all. Those from the 1980's, 1990's, and 2000's are encouraged to write. I look forward to hearing from you all to reconnect and collaborate on this effort. Perhaps "sun light" will "disinfect" and potentially resurrect the industry. I am hoping and expecting to hear from: Walter, Paul, Jack, Bruce, Matt, Patrice, Charles, John, Jack, Steve, Coz, Tony, Teresa, Jorge, Tommy, Tom, Max, Beadle, Chuck, Don, Ron, Jan, Bill, Mike, Ray, and the rest of the cast of thousands. In the spirit of fairness, submissions from Brian, Ed, Don, MJ, et al are encouraged as well. For those that fought the good fight alone, let us write the story together! Pass this message along to one and all.
16 - Analyst
My view of the GSM recipe of their own collapse:
1) The final collapse of GSM is a typical case of what happens to a company when the sale of a service becomes more important than the ongoing relationships with their customers and employees.
2) Too much greed combined with lack of professional ethics. The GSM senior executives pressured the analysts to convince every potential Client, that they needed the equivalent in medicine to open heart surgery, despite the symptoms were not there. At some point in time, it was clear for the Client that the recommended treatment to cure the sickness was worst than the disease. The project crashed because it was unsustainable before it began, and GSM blamed the Analyst for their inability to convinced the Client. In other words, a Catch 22.
3) Lack of professional ethic from GSM to their employees. The Analyst had to finance GSM projects with their own credit cards. The GSM promise was to reimbursed their expenses. However, the Analysts had to comply with many hurdles that were fabricated by GSM as a tactic to delay payments and increase GSM cash level.
Summary of the causes for the collapse:
• Wrong selling strategy. Pressure every prospect Client to buy a service that is not right for him.
• Treating Business Analysts as low paid salesmen.
• High employee turnover.
• Too much greed.
• Lack of professional ethics.
• Lack of vision.
17 - gene retske
I worked for them briefly in the early 2000's. They were a rip-off then, both for employees and for clients. They said that they would get a dying company's "last $50k." I was a consultant, and the turn-over was amazing. I lasted exactly 2 weeks. A week of training in Park Ridge and a week in Mexico, ripping off an old family owned business. The saying was, "there is the right way, the wrong way, and the May way."
18 - Steve Steadman
First, let me thank you, Tommy, as well as all the other contributors to this blog. For so long, I've felt like I was the "Lone Ranger" for feeling mistreated while working for GSMIC. Although the company is long dead, I'm glad I have an opportunity of sharing experiences from my brief tenure with them.
The recruiter actually contacted me after I had made an inquiry about working for them. I had finished my MBA a couple years prior to this and felt that I had finally arrived to where I needed to be at this point in my career. I had a few problems during training but still managed to graduate. After a few assignments, I was finally starting to get the hang of this (except for a few problems which I was helped with by some very talented PDs). However, these problems probably didn't earn me a lot of follow-on assignments.
After six months, I had a restaurant assignment in Idaho with a fellow Staff Executive. We had a difficult time with the opening and the owner called the Ridge to launch a complaint. We were called in to meet with Mr. Rauseo. Apparently, one of the criteria for keeping your job is to maintain your annualized income for the company. My partner's projection was $9 million while mine was only $4 million. So, I was convinced that I no longer needed to maintain a relationship with the company...much to my relief.
I enjoyed my time at May. I loved the travel as well as working with our clients. However, the greediness of the company towards their clients and employees was over the top. I hope that many of those affected have been able to recover and move on with their lives.
If it ever comes out, I'm looking forward to the book and the movie!
19 - ExAnalyst
Thank you for this article.
I was a single woman in this nightmare being out on the road and at times given crappy direction from the home office. To this day however, I have met some great clients whom I have the honor of calling friends.
In 2009 I had a client in D.C. who was a very prominent political figure in the Justice Department and his wife had a business we were going to do consulting with. Everything was going well until Rauseo became involved.
They were bringing in so many people for the project, more than what was called for and on the 56...and none were qualified to accomplish what we were needing. They were bodies.
When I returned to my hotel room and called my SENEX, Rauseo broke into the call and said, "Hold just a moment while I get the file..." He returned onto the line with 4 other people and started lambasting me and my ignorance. I quietly said I was finished with the phone call as it became more of a bullying session instead of a professional business call and please get my ticket home as I officially quit and would not become a part of the fraud.
Kushnir then called my hotel room and started in. I didn't back down one bit. He told me to "shut the f... up - your talking to the president of this company." I calmly and quietly stated, "I was not aware a company President spoke so blue-collar to his employees and couldn't he see where I would be confused - but if you will act like a President of a corporation I will be more than happy to treat you as such."
This project failed and I had the responsibility of responding to this client - and I assure you, their relationship to the political powers in DC were dinner quests weekly and personal friends. That was October 2009. I was not amazed regarding the downfall of this company under their leadership of Rauseo and Kushnir, along with the employees who supported their philosophy.
With all this being said, I did enjoy the clients I was able to meet and strove to help. And yes, I kept contact during projects and after projects. When a person pours his/her soul out to you, places a gun in front of you and says this was my next solution to get out of the mess... let's just say I became emotionally involved. I have no regrets of trying to help these people.
My best wishes to those who were ethical and trying now to build a consulting company to continue to help those businesses who desperately need guidance. The need is there...we just can't lose sight of the objective(s).
20 - Anne Adcock
I stumbled upon this article, as the date shows, and read it while just shaking my head. Those who can't - teach or consult.
I was a victim of GSMC in 2003. Working for a 3rd generation family owned business. I'd been with them for 5 years. Was in purchasing & inventory control. I answered only to CFO,VP & President. We had excellent communication & good report.
They wanted to tweak things, bring the Co into 21st century etc. So along came GSMC. The consulting team knew nothing about the business i.e. the products, our customers or the fact that it was basically a mom & pop business built on years of customer service and personal follow-through by salespeople and word of mouth.
The higher ups are somewhat to fault for that. At first there was just observation & questions: why this, why that? Then full company meeting with intended goals.
Right after the 1st meeting I went to Pres. Told him my reservations. It didn't matter to GSMC if we were Sunbeam or Stu's Body Shop. They could print new policy & procedure handbooks and completely revise chain of command for more efficiency, we were still a tight group, like family. He told me to relax no worries, he was aware. Blah, blah.
Long story short...... a month later morale very low, employees not happy at all with new"corporate " rules & reg. The woman consultant did not like me from day one nor I her. She felt I had too much input and beyond my job description, decision powers. I didn't even have a BA.
On a vacation day, I was asked to come in for a meeting. I did and was promptly let go. Here's your final check, pack up your things and was escorted to the door.
In the room for my firing, the VP and GSMC woman consultant. Honestly, she had a smirk on her face. Highly unprofessional! I called the weasel President, who swore up & down that he was unaware of any of it because with the new chain of command I was directly under other weasel VP.
The 3rd generation family owned business paid somewhere around $87,000 to GSMC to relieve themselves of me. Only me. 21 employees. I was just 1 too many. I left, GSMC left & all the BS that was implemented, went by the wayside within another month.
Both GSMC & 3rd generation family business, out of business! Karma might be a real thing. I went back to school, got that BA & then my masters & then my doctorate in pastoral counseling - never looked back. Every cloud, silver lining.
21 - RL Barrett
I am not surprised by what I have read here. I joined GSMay in December 2007, quit in January 2008. They professed themselves to be a "driven" company. What I discovered in a few weeks is that the leadership group for the analysts made the characters in Boiler Room look like the staff at World Vision.
Money was the only concern. To them every company needed extensive consulting services. Their business model was demented and their methods nefarious. They wanted analyst to sell the services of people they would not allow us to meet (they did not want members from one division to talk to members of another (big RED FLAG for me). The worst part was making scripted phone calls in front of prospective clients (essentially for the client to overhear our discussion. When I said it was manipulative, they screamed at me. A treat I had missed since basic training in the service.) I said I could not sell something I did not believe in; and was not permitted to fully research. They did need an outside consultant. RLB
22 - Rich Neher
I had a brief encounter as an Analyst with GSMay Redwood City in 1991. Believe I worked for 3 months. During the 1 week training I made friends with some of the 23 that started with me. Unfortunately, 3 were let go without a return flight ticket, which was explained during the recruiting process. If you failed the training, you had to pay your own way home.
After about 1 month I was the only person left from that class. Everyone else quit or was fired. I was successful, made some good money, but had one major problem: They sent me mainly into Candada (Alberta, British Columbia) and Utah or Colorado. Didn't keep their promise to send me home (to La Jolla) for the weekend. Week after week I was out selling their services with that strange Executive Analyst business model, but instead of a flight home they gave me another assignment and kept me where I was. With 2 pairs of socks and 2 shirts. Dreadful. Finally I had it and quit. Never looked back.
23 - Michael Otto
Mr. Mack,
I worked for GSM from 1978 to 1987 and again from late 2006 to 2008. A lot had changed. It was no longer the old GSM I enjoyed working for the first time. I do remember Mr. Sielsky very well.
When is your book coming out?
Michael Otto