Kimball plans job cuts at Jasper headquarters

Previously Employed wrote:

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Incompetence in some departments goes way beyond bad decisions and things like lying to corporate about operational expense of equipment.
In the department I worked in, management is fully aware of the incompetence of those in the department but the department manager is charming and likable.
Management if fully aware of this incompetence and they chose to keep the individuals who protect their backs and keep up the fiscal lies over good competent people.
When (not if) these buffoons have an accident people are likely to get hurt. If that happens I will be the first to testify to their embracing incompetence people who do so to kiss the floor of those who walk on it.

It is tremendously frustrating to work for a charismatic character who doesn't know what the **** they are doing and expect you to go along with the go and pony show.

Day Trader wrote:

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I worked at Kimball. I was let go because I opposed wrong and illegal activity. The "Guiding Principals" were preached but not followed in my department. In fact any opposition to that which seemed wrong or not within the regulations was seen as not being a team player. When the managers were lying about equipment cost, to say anything to the contrary got you threats of losing your job.
Not rolling my on my principals over to support their "Guiding Principals" cost me my job. Kimballs "Guiding Principals" means don't upset our meal ticket and do as you asked to do right or wrong.
It also means I have no loyalty to them once gone. Others were jealous of the management. Behind closed doors they had nothing but spite for what the upper management was being paid and what they were not being paid but get them out with the executives and all smiles and back rubs they were.
One thing I was shown however was the SECURITIES and EXCHANGE COMMISSION was trying to enact laws making the reporting of executive pay easier to understand for investors.
This proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission was fought by James Thyen and a copy is available online at (close all the spaces):
w w w .sec . gov/rules/proposed/s70306/jcth yen7566. pdf
This IS the smoking gun! James Thyen SIGNED THIS DOCUMENT! This says Thyen wants to keep his income and the families income as hidden as possible from those WHO OWN THE COMPANY IN PUBLIC!!
All this so the Thyen family (several in upper management) can CONTINUE to HOARD buttloads of money!
This is what happens when you worry about money more then competent managers!

There is QUITE A STORY in Thyen signing documents showing he would rather HIDE HIS PAY then fully disclose it to those who purchase stock or those who are the actual owners of Kimball!!!!!!!!

Specific or tailored professional groups are a small community within a company and within the community of professionals. Some of the professionals at Kimball have gained a very poor reputation not only within their group at Kimball. Within their group of peers outside of Kimball some of these professionals have gained a very poor and un-respected reputation!

This is dragging down the reputation of Kimball as a whole.

Folks, don't get your hopes up for a good quarterly report. I can tell you that driving by the parking lots does not give me much of a feeling that things are turning around for the company as a whole.

Electronics had some contracts roll off recently, auto is week state-side, and the PR machine can't find anything to brag about. The furniture plants that used to have full parking lots are still sparse and many Fridays they are empty. Rumor mill has that a couple contracts of size have been inked, but if history is an indicator they probably bought the jobs to make the backlog look good and the income statement will get hit hard "due to pricing pressure and input cost increases." Get a new excuse.

Time to be honest and Jim say "we can't sell the product for what it costs us to make it because we are inefficient and have bloated corporate egos to feed.

Big Jim needs the money and he and the rest of the croanies only have a couple years left to suck the company dry before retirement.

Then we hire a crew of people who don't know how to build and sell furniture or electronics. We let those people go a couple years ago because some bean counters in the G.O. said they were to hard to change and too old.

Let's move to Asia, Poland, Mexico and really make poor decisions and over-manage them from Jasper. Then we will con designers and purchasing agents to buy products that we can't deliver on time and blame it on the supply chain. All this we will do as we are ready to head into a really bad economic time and we react way too late and burn up our safety net of cash. No worries! Obama has our best interest in mind. Not to mention a congress that doesn't even know what they believe until they find out what the other side believes and they will take the opposite stance.........

Oh crap folks, your stock is going to be worthless in several years and we are on a path of destruction. I better write me a bonus check while the bank will still cash it." Poor Jim. This is a pathetic story I created but it is more truth than you have been sharing the last 15 years.

This used to be a great company for the community and we all rallied around them. Then they lost focus and gave up on those who brought them to the table. This is not the company Arnie and friends created and put their lives into making.

9 to 5 every day wrote:

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You don't have to look far for very interesting discussions about Kimball. Search topics such as:
"kimball int court"
"kimball int incompetent management"
"kimball int yahoo screwed"
those will lead you into some very interesting discussions!

When a company works harder to protect themselves then to build a company with good, talented and intelligent people,...

When Kimball International throws away good people out of protecting gross incompetence and greed,,,, they get to sleep in the bed they created.

The bed is one of a national discussion of their many failures and practices. Kimball a company where the "Guiding Principals" means "PROTECT THE INSIDERS OR ELSE!"

Kimball is a PUBLIC company. When Kimball throws away people out of selfish incompetent protection.....The WORLD has a right to know about it. Suddenly everything they do becomes under a microscope for all to know.

Previously Employed wrote:

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When (not if) these buffoons have an accident people are likely to get hurt. If that happens I will be the first to testify to their embracing incompetence people who do so to kiss the floor of those who walk on it.

Ask the management of the cruise ship Costa Concordia if they thought the captain was incompetent? He was such a cool guy!
Accidents are no accidents and no one takes responsibility till the fatalities start stacking up!

Kimball in a downward spiral. Those in the hot seat are leaving town every chance they get.

Reading a Kimball Profile Jim Thyen made $810,000 last year.

But this is what he want's stock holders to see. It took digging to see that the stock options and bonuses raises his income to nearly $2,000,000 per year and quite a bit more in past years based on the image of the economy.

As the national discussion of tax rates for stock being half of standard income, this makes this one of the most egregious forms of theft.

To try to hide this income from stockholder is Bernie Madoff stuff!

What you you do with $2,000,000 ever year i you were able to steal it legally?

Kimball is a textbook example of how not to manage the company from middle management to senior management. There are a couple older dedicated managers that still know how to make money and know the company and know the customer. Executive management is weak and incompetent. I agree with earlier posts and they also why do they have furniture mixed with electronics? Not a cohesive mix!

Doug Habig had the foresight to see technology being big business. Too bad implementation the last 20 years has been disappointing at best.

They cannot rule a factory in Poland, Taiwan, or Mexico from the hill. Furniture has been a joke and made worse by a poor economy. Their problem is more internal then macroeconomic.**** were they thinking when they moved away from the plants that brought them into the game.

How many of us know talent that was let go because of being too old. They haven't made $50,000,000 a year since that decision.

When you have lost confidence in those who keep you safe and secure....it becomes hard to sleep at night!

What happens when CEO's are more interested in $$ then the company. I remember a number of years ago Kimball paying out $250,000 in personal injury when a chair fell apart and hurt a guy.

Nothings changed; not the quality or the way the company is run.

Arney would be sad!

With this kind of management, more people will get hurt; in more ways then one.

Report after report list Kimball as a stock to dump.

http://quicken.intuit.com/investing/stock-quo...

Performed well consistently? Fail
Avoids excess debt? Fail
Converting sales to profits? Fail
Shareholder's money handled rationally? Neutral
Increased shareholder value? Neutral
Consistently increased owner earnings? Fail
Sells at 25% discount to intrinsic value? Fail

Failure after failure after failure. And you wonder why their stock is a FRACTION of what it used to be!

When Kimball sold the last piano they ever made....out of the showroom.......the show case of where the company came from and who they were..........for cash..........the writing is on the wall for this company!

In late 2010 Jim was cited for doing 72mph. It is one of several speeding tickets he has been cited for... but one of the few he was unable to get out of due to his position in the community.

Can you drive as fast as you darn well please? Do you live in a society where most rules don't apply to you?

Here is the latest list of major Funds who DUMPED Kimball's stock in 2011. It is one reason Kimball's stock which was at one time knocking on the door of $25 is now in the swamps at under $10:

Perritt Capital Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Donald Smith & Co sold on Dec. 31, 2011
GSA Capital Partners sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Financial Counselors sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Bridgeway Capital Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Royce & Associates sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Natixis Asset Management Advisors sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Two Sigma Advisers sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Fifth Third Ban sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Renaissance Technologies sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Millennium Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Frank Russell Company sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Jacobs Levy Equity Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Teachers Advisors sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Knight Capital sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Oxford Asset Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
TIAA-CREF Investment Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Virginia Retirement System sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Charles Schwab Investment Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
CalPERS sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Inves sold on Dec. 31, 2011
ALLIANCEBERNSTEIN sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Brandywine Global Investment Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Manulife Asset Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
ING Investment Management Co Address: 10 State House Square sold on Dec. 31, 2011
GOLDMAN SACHS sold on Dec. 31, 2011
STATE STREET CORPORATION sold on Dec. 31, 2011
RHUMBLINE ADVISERS sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Public Employees' Retirement Association of Colorado sold on Dec. 31, 2011
T. Rowe Price Associates sold on Dec. 31, 2011
OTR - Nominee Name for The State Teachers Retirement Board of Ohio sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Bank of America Corporation sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Parametric Portfolio Associates sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Geode Capital Management sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Two Sigma Investments sold on Dec. 31, 2011
QS Investors sold on Dec. 31, 2011
Barclays sold on Dec. 31, 2011
DePrince Race & Zollo sold on Sept. 30, 2011
Spark LP/DE sold on Sept. 30, 2011
PanAgora Asset Management sold on Sept. 30, 2011
Thomas Stevens, CFA" sold on Sept. 30, 2011
UBS AG sold on Sept. 30, 2011
CITADEL ADVISORS sold on Sept. 30, 2011
Royal Bank of Canada sold on Sept. 30, 2011
Vanguard sold on Sept. 30, 2011
Wells Fargo & Company sold on Sept. 30, 2011
Ameriprise Financial sold on June 30, 2011
Johnson Investment Counsel sold on June 30, 2011
OppenheimerFunds sold on June 30, 2011
Technical Financial Services sold on June 30, 2011
Credit Suisse AG sold on June 30, 2011

Suffice to say, when this many funds drop you, no one wants you!

9 to 5 every day wrote:

<quoted text>
You don't have to look far for very interesting discussions about Kimball. Search topics such as:
"kimball int court"
"kimball int incompetent management"
"kimball int yahoo screwed"
those will lead you into some very interesting discussions!

I came acrost a refference to Kimball and netjets. Whos netjets?

I know the charter department at Kimball leases it’s jets to a national charter outfit like Netjets. I thought it was a different name but maybe not.

I have a friend at the hanger who says they had this arrangement to try to find other income but over time they realized they were loosing their **** over the deal. They made it look profitable on the books but that there were so many expenses not added into the corporate recording that they had to bury as general expenses.

As explained to me, when ran through a global charter company people who do not know you they don’t treat your stuff like you would. If you go in your bosses jet I think you would be careful not to touch much or spill much. You charter a limo or some one else’s jet to go to a party, football game, family gig with a bunch of bratty kids how do you think the planes wear when they are done. Oh gawd, where did Johny's candy bar go?

It is like loaning your brand new car to a scuzzy stranger who lives next door, who still stores it in your garage, who still uses your water hose and soap to wash it, only to have it returned with 50,000 miles on it, dirty, transmission slipping, tires worn out, funny smell,...

Sure he paid for gas but it is not the same car it was when it left and it still needs a ton of maintenance not to mention a 100 other things it cost you. You can only imagine having jets how much goes on to keep them going.

Reporting showed it break even and if you said anything otherwise it was clear you would no longer have your job; but that’s the corporate environment right! You walk a fine line between what is true, legal, and what your boss demands and you turn a blind eye to that which gets you fired. That’s just the corporate way;...but everyone at the hanger knows better.

What is the latest with Steelcase furniture buying out Kimball. I understand their plan is to do away with many departments here.

People don't like what they see in Kimball. The stock is a fraction of what it used to be. Management is selling assets to keep their high salaries. Major mutual funds are dumping them.

Now out, net sales DOWN 4% DESPITE furniture rising 15%:

http://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodwo...

Not good news for a desperate company in desperate times with such a poor reputation.

Maybe when Steelcase buys them and liquidates duplicate divisions, offloads the electrical segments they will be able to make use of the furniture manufacturing.

Until then the management has to bleed it dray as long as possible.