Pros
- generally great, smart people - opportunities (outside of sales and marketing roles) to sink teeth into great projects - does a better job than most tutoring companies of treating their instructors with respect - overall, does a good job delivering on promised value to customers (in the test prep market, at least)
Cons
- constantly changing, with no demonstrated capability for managing change well - tries to employ management and marketing tactics (such as agile PM methods, marketing through social networks) commonly utilized by more successful companies, but never really fully commits resources to these efforts, which contribute to frequent failure - middle management (director-level field employees) are gnerally dismissive or unskilled at management, which is in part a function of poor organization, and in part a function of a work culture that values talking about work rather than working - continued loss of market share in Kaplan's graduate programs makes many positions related to that market tenuous - has a tendency to promote/tolerate self-aggrandizement in employees