Ellucian used to be a pleasant place to work. Most teams enjoyed working together, enjoyed their bosses, and supported the vision the company was presenting. Sometime in the last year and a half, that has all changed. The culture took a 180. On the heels of the CEO who was placed going into 2018, most executive leaders have been replaced. Unfortunately, across most of the company, they have been replaced with leaders who have been described as ego-driven and narcissists, who seem to think their thoughts on what should be done are the only thing that matter. Because of this, much of the culture of friendliness and professionalism has gone out the window, replaced by a fear of bringing up any questions or ideas, and an inability to do your job the way you know how because you feel like you must get approval on every detail. Or worse, a feeling of “why bother”.
Marketing just happens to be the most recent department affected by this. The CMO position is a revolving door, being replaced after an average tenure of 12 months. The previous CMO only lasted 8 months before he realized Ellucian was not what he expected and left. He was replaced with zero input from anyone in marketing (again), and while the new CMO looks good on paper, she fits the mold of some other recent hires. She came in with pre-defined notions, did not want to hear about how the department works and has no real desire to meet people on the marketing team below her direct reports, therefore many of us either never even met her for two to three months. Her opinions seem to be just handed down as directives, and very little else matters. If you question something, she has responded with things like “I don’t have to justify anything to you.” Both she and the CEO start fires based on their whims, fan the flames, and then expect their employees to walk through those flames to accomplish tasks (not goals) in support of those whims. The CMO seems to like "yes" people, and does not want to hear facts or any differing opinion on how to make things better. She hasn't a clue that 95% of the marketing department is looking to leave. Maybe her opinion is that she will be better off if the entire team leaves and she can replace them with new employees who don't know any better than to fancy her opinions. People who have been at Ellucian for many years already left. Unfortunately the CMO is replacing them with people lacking in knowledge, but people who will do what they are told.
The company is the dated 800 pound gorilla in a fledgling space, that is slowly being taken over by more forward-thinking companies like Workday. A pretty office doesn’t change that. The “new” version of their flagship product looked like it was from 2005 when it was launched three years ago. They can't figure out their cloud strategy 15 years after cloud became a thing. And the firm that owns Ellucian is itching to try to offload them.
Take a pass on this company for the next two years, if not indefinitely.
