- Employees. CB4 boasts they continually improve the conditions of their employees and that it’s striving to become an employer of the year by winning various awards from places like Inc.com and builtinnyc.com among others. But If you look at LinkedIn data, the medium tenure hasn’t changed since 2009. This means people don’t stay with the company longer, so CB4’s claims of any ‘positive’ changes are not working.
- Customers. Not great advocacy from customers. If you check out their case studies page online, you will notice that majority of the case studies they were able to secure were small, regional convenience stores. By the way, about 5 of these case studies are irrelevant as some of them are no longer CB4’s customers.
- Product. Currently, CB4’s main and only focus is for brick and mortar retailers. Physical retail space is a tough market to be in this digital age. Each year globally more and more people change their buying habits to online as it offers more convenience, safety and saves them time. Many brands leverage rich interactive online experiences that replace those that retail spaces used to offer so there’s less and less incentive to go to the physical store. In my opinion, if CB4 doesn’t rethink its core product offering and re-orient itself to start thinking about shifting global behavior patterns it won’t survive for long.
- Finances. The company doesn’t seem to be financially solid. Any small changes in the market or a loss of a customer almost certainly is going to send a shock wave throughout the entire company. So be ready to navigate in rocky waters if you decide to work there.
Other things worth mentioning:
- Drives image of inclusion and diversity but more of a marketing ploy than a practiced culture. See their leadership page. There are no BIPOC or female VPs as of (April 2021).
- Politics and top-down hierarchy.
- They make people sign vicious and inhuman one-way NDAs and separation agreements. People basically waive any rights to speak up. Don’t be surprised to see so many positive reviews and so little negative ones for that exact reason.
