First of all, the CEO and other executives don’t have the first clue about how to build a strategy, much less execute on one. Their strategy for running this company is based on hope, knee jerk reactions and how to seal the next deal coming through the door, most of which they seem to lose lately. When they do win a deal, everyone has to drop what they’re doing in order to keep it. This causes unrelentless chaos rippling throughout the organization and a perpetual environment of finger pointing and “not my job” & CYA attitudes, even at the VP levels. The CEO’s inferiority shines through as he measures success based on who he knows rather than sales revenue or deal counts. This is evident in 15-years of stagnant growth while others have gone public and sold for billions in that same timeframe.
The development team attempts to practice Agile and Marketing tries to practice Pragmatic but the CTO is stuck in this 80s mentality of satisfying customer requirements based on who screams the loudest. Teams are constantly storming because resources are routinely re-allocated to the next fire instead of focusing on sprints and market driven releases. Missed deliverables are regular because they are constantly having to backfill development turnover.
To succeed here you have to be submissive, desperate and stroke the leader’s ego. I thought I knew what I was getting into when I signed on but felt unclean when I was done. Expecting a 4 or 5 star review now in 3....2....1......
