Pros
Draper is essentially two companies in one. The Trident program is half the lab and its own company, and all other programs are the stepchildren who fight for scraps. This non-Trident half of the lab is essentially a bunch of loosely coupled fiefdoms. This initially is great for a self-starter, as you can create your own fiefdom, and the bar is set very low for internal competition. Also, management is so focused on bureaucratic functions that as long as you pass along some beans to count you can keep them preoccupied for a while.
Cons
The reason all of these fiefdoms are allowed to exist...terrible middle and upper management. Most of these folks have been at the lab their entire career or much of it. The environment that has been created at Draper over the past 15 years should be made the subject of a case study of the Peter Principle. The majority of these managers are actually engineers and scientists who have risen to the level of their incompetence as managers, and then stagnate and remain at this level for years.