Five restructurings. Four managers. Three directors. Zero strategic direction.
Since CMO Menaka Gopinath joined PMI, we've witnessed a masterclass in value destruction. The formula: Take people crushing it in their roles, move them to jobs they can't do. Repeat quarterly. Call it "transformation."
CEO Pierre Le Manh has failed at the one job that matters—delivering the new PMP certification. Thousands of credential holders are stuck waiting for PMP+AI+Agile modernized requirements while competitors eat our lunch. This isn't disruption. It's dereliction.
Here's the kicker: PMI is a membership organization meant to serve professionals worldwide. But Pierre runs it like private equity. Costs get slashed, the mission gets forgotten, members become revenue streams. Meanwhile, resources seem misallocated.
Pierre shows up to marketing all-hands reminding us we're lucky to have jobs in this market. He insists he's "not friends" with Gopinath—a denial nobody requested that only raises eyebrows. Together they've created a leadership structure that makes typical corporate dysfunction look organized.
Marketing can't execute basics. Global regions? Abandoned. Field marketing? Ghost town. Local markets? On their own. The revolving door spins so fast we've achieved negative institutional knowledge. Gopinath restructures faster than she can hire, then fires people for failing at jobs that mutate daily.
Her management style? Give explicit instructions capped with "make it cool." Cool remains undefined. When teams present work, she denies giving that direction and questions their marketing competence.
The math: Entire marketing team job-hunting after hours. Stress levels impacting health and wellbeing. A department transformed from growth engine to cautionary tale.
One year job-hunting confirms their single truth: Yes, the market sucks.
Here's what's actually happening: A membership organization that should obsess over member value instead treats its educational mission like a cost center. While Scrum Alliance and other certification bodies innovate, PMI perfects the art of organizational chaos.
This isn't a red flag. It's a five-alarm fire.
PMI has become the worst of both worlds—private equity mindset without the returns, non-profit structure without the mission. Two executives treating a member organization like they own the place.
The credential holders deserve better. The members deserve better. The profession deserves better.
Run. Don't walk.
