Inside WeWork's leaked all-staff meeting: The embattled company's path to profitability will focus on 6 pillars, and 4 men were named to executive roles

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• WeWork chairman Marcelo Claure addressed employees at an all-staff meeting on Friday morning after major layoffs on Thursday.
• He said focusing on six key areas, including selling new products and pitching WeWork in a different way, will help the business grow profitably.
• WeWork also named four men to executive roles: chief transformation officer, interim chief marketing officer, chief product and experience officer, and chief people officer.
• Claure said that in the future, WeWork will add more women to the executive team and to its all-male board.
• For more WeWork stories, click here.

"It's been three long weeks" since WeWork chairman Marcelo Claure's last staff-wide address, he told employees at WeWork's all-hands meeting Friday, where he outlined a path forward for the embattled office company.

In those three weeks, WeWork started layoffs, announced plans to outsource 1,000 facilities employees, and fired staff for abusing vendor policies, among other changes, as executives work to stabilize the company after a tumultuous fall.

Now, Claure told employees it's time to move forward. He outlined how the company will do that through focusing on six pillars, and he named four men, including two from SoftBank, to executive roles.

And, marking a departure from founder Adam Neumann's vision for WeWork as a technology company, Claure repeatedly emphasized the company's real-estate characteristics.

"We are starting to disrupt the legacy real-estate office space," said one of his slides. "We are in the midst of giving birth to a new category ... We are the world's No. 1 coworking and space-as-a-service platform."

WeWork has big growth plans, according to sources familiar with the matter: it's going to double locations in the next 10 months, thanks to an ambitious growth plan started by Neumann before he was ousted in September. The company will be in 1,200 buildings next year, and predicts more than 1 million members.

In slides presented by Claure to employees during the meeting, WeWork's financial goals are adjusted EBITDA positive in 2021; cashflow positive in 2023; and to be a profitable company.

Six pillars of focus

Claure addressed the company wearing a black WeWork t-shirt, sport coat, and pants, the only color coming from a pair of powder-blue sneakers, according to an image from the meeting viewed by Business Insider.

He laid out six "pillars" for WeWork as it moves forward:

1. Member and employee experience: Claure emphasized the experience "as the core differentiator" and explained how the company would support community teams - in-building staff that serve tenants, called "members" in WeWork parlance.
2. Be the partner of choice: to members, brokers, businesses, and landlords. For brokers, WeWork will now highlight costs per employee, instead of costs per square foot.
3. Focus on core business, building-by-building: Claure wants each building to be profitable. Later on, the company will introduce dynamic pricing to adjust to changes in supply and demand.
4. Expand geographically "in a smart & profitable way": WeWork plans to focus on its top 12 markets, which include New York and London. In the next 16 largest markets, the company will explore management and revenue-sharing agreements, which will see WeWork share responsibility with third parties. In Asia Pacific, the company will continue expanding its joint ventures, and for emerging markets, franchising will be a focus in the future.
5. Monetize spaces and sell products: New products could include city and global memberships. WeWork will also think through options for making more money out of buildings, including by renting conference rooms and spaces for events. Services include design components like soundproofing and storage; technology includes "premium internet," virtual private networks, and cybersecurity; and business services like HR, insurance, legal, and tax help.
6. "Operate with a cash-conscious-owner mentality": WeWork will "be a more accountable organization," with discipline and clear roles.

Leadership changes

WeWork's co-CEOs - Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham - are staying in their roles. At Friday's meeting, Claure named four men to new senior roles.

He also noted that the company will focus on diversity in the future. At multiple staff meetings, employees have criticized the company for lack of diversity at the top. Claure said WeWork plans to name women to its all-male board.

These are the new roles:

• Chief transformation officer: Mike Bucy, who's tasked with making sure WeWork executes its six pillars. He comes from SoftBank, which he joined in 2018 after he was a partner at McKinsey.
• Interim chief marketing and communications officer: Maurice Levy, who's the chairman of ad and communications agency Publicis Group. Levy briefly addressed staff on Friday, wearing, like Claure, all black, according to an image viewed by Business Insider.
• Chief product & experience officer: Ralf Wenzel, who is a managing partner at SoftBank and has "proven CEO-caliber leadership," per Claure. Wenzel spoke to employees wearing a black WeWork "do what you love" shirt, according to an image viewed by Business Insider.
• Chief people officer: Matt Jahansouz, who was promoted internally. He joined WeWork in February after nearly nine years in HR roles at Goldman Sachs.

The company has one vacancy on its organization chart: chief financial officer and head of real estate.

Compensation changes

In other HR plans, Claure outlined a new compensation structure, with a base salary, merit increases, and a cash bonus program. Multiple sources told Business Insider that WeWork lacked a formal compensation plan, with bonuses seemingly more dependent on relationships than on performance.

The new cash bonus plan will take into account the customer net promoter score, the company's financials, and an employee promoter score.

At the last all-hands meeting, Claure said WeWork would "put dashboards together so we can all see how we're performing in a daily, weekly, monthly basis and we're going to share that we're going to have a culture of total transparency."

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