Family run business -- business decisions revolve around people, and more than a few folks are 'sacred' ie they continue to make poor decisions that not only waste company money, but provide a huge opportunity cost to progress in ways that the company needs to move. The only reasons those folks continue to exist is due to nepotism, or loyalty to those who've been there for a long time. Maybe that is great for those that work at Samtec long term, but I'd argue if you are an ambitious potential new employee, run very fast away from this company.
Insularity -- from a business standpoint, the company continues to perform well, so it can be hard to transition from good to great. However, the biggest challenge the company faces is complacency, and the biggest sin they commit is insularity. This is true from an organizational standpoint, where in the white collar roles, there is such a huge amount of lack of coordination in any decision making, and information silos that lead to some pretty terrible decision making.
However, the insularity runs deeper, and the primary reason for it is that there is a confusion about why the company has been successful, and what it will take to bring more success. The world has moved pretty significantly, and without new blood to move the company in a necessary direction, these problems will fester and kill the golden goose.
Finally, every company has folks that are very two-faced, so Samtec is not unique in that regard. However, there are some deep integrity issues with a few folks in leadership that I would warn others that things don't appear as they seem. I experienced pretty extreme whiplash from folks who I thought of as deep mentors, who turned out to be in fact very terrible people.
