PaymentGuy was informed by former ClickandBuy insiders that Founder and former CEO of ClickandBuy who recently stepped down as CEO was in fact pressured by the ClickandBuy Board to step down after a lengthly battle that divided the company and resulted in many executives, senior managers and key employees leaving.
One insider writes about the battles between Mr. Stangl and the Board;
"... quarrels that started afterwards between the board and the investors. Leading to the "kindergarten" like events end of last year. During this "fight" the company was very much paralized. Most of the people were just simply amazed about the name-and-shame campaign between the board and Mr. Stangl - leading to two camps inside the company. One following Mr. Stangl and the second one opposing him."
Another insider describes the tense atmosphere this tension between Founder Stangl and investors produced and the effect on company morale;
"This was pepped up with a few new execs that didn't fit into the company culture (mostly the VP HR and the new CTO). Add Alix Partners that had the assignment from the investors to assess the board, but not the balls to tell them the inaptitude of some of the board members. A perfect recipe for disaster."
Explaining the impact the battle between Mr. Stangle and Board on employee and management turnover, one insider says; "I've talked to most ex-execs about their reasons. Mostly (the reason why they left) it was the distressing situation inside of the board mangled with the disability to work. Furthermore some of the key execs that were role models inside the company started leaving and this lead to the situation that most were afraid of being the "last one" stuck inside of this madhouse."
Finally, this former insider concludes that Stangl and the Board reunited in an insincere attempt to improve the internal situation and public image;
"The situation deteriorated by both fire-sale attempts failing, leaving the remaining execs with no fantasy about a short-term change. Imho the worst situation at all, was the "re-unification" of Mr. Stangl and the board as such. Both camps were making propaganda, that they will never ever work together again, and both camps were exploiting the employees by saying that they were the key value of the company. In the meantime nearly every single employee was filing a law-suit against the company because of the inability of the HR department. At the end of the day the board is still in place with the same actors. I think you can imagine the effect on the morale. The only thing that this "kindergarten" produced where horrendous costs. The so called "re-structuring costs" iled up to several millions, leaving the company in a delicate financial situation. This of course is completely denied - even when asked by employees."
To be continued ....
