Pros
Job Security - A good place to work for a steady paycheck, but little else.
Cons
High Pressure, low growth business in a mature industry that is facing stiff competition from low-cost countries. There is little or no opportunity for real advancement for serious professionals. There are highly talented middle-managers who are marginalized and have no opportunity to advance themselves, regardless of their performance or capability. Top management roles are reserved for French nationals, whether in China, US, or anywhere else. High value and highly competent local talent is usually exploited and subordinated to bosses recruited from the outside, who know less than the incumbent managers, are often incompetent, and who have institutionalized micro-management. Incumbents at the VP level have no chance to move up into a top management role - so for ambitious professionals it is a dead-end 'career.' French Parent company management looks to subordinates to find direction, rather than in setting direction, and high-performers are 'rewarded' by 'being able to keep their jobs'. Parent company management is dishonest when recruiting for division and middle-management professionals - promises are made and rarely kept; once a senior executive is seduced into leaving their current position to join Hutchinson.....the role is changed, the authority is subverted, and the game is substantially changed.....in other words, French parent company management is dishonest and cannot be trusted. No management pay-raise has ever exceeded the published "cost of living index." 2012 Management bonuses were cut in half after the best financial performing year of the past decade, with no valid reason given, and it is clear that the intent is to phase out performance bonuses altogether. As a matrix-organization - business unit underperformance and failure is usually blamed on middle-managers or division heads, who have no authority to affect anything; while those with authority do not take risks or invest in real growth initiatives. They are focused on micro-managing 'human resources' rather than advancing real talent, and 'shooting the messenger' of any bad news is typical; so communication is compromised. Top management is confrontational, arrogant, condescending, abrasive, and disrespectful of mid-level professionals. Parent company top management has no clue about assessing division managerial competency or capability, and makes decisions on 'gut feel,' usually promoting the least competent to the highest positions of authority.