Good company, but very political, resistant to change, and Sr. Exec team isolated
Pros
Strong business model, years of successful operations, plenty of opportunity, and a good place to grow if you're politically savvy and not frustrated by a lack of corporate agility. Innovation seems to be getting new focus; an encouraging sign.
Cons
Corporate office highly political, with power in back-channel relationships growing out of their small-town roots and a lot of longtime (often related) employees. Lots of passive-aggressiveness and hidden agendas. There are great people there, too, but that environment makes it easy for sharks and snakes to flourish, and hard to navigate for newcomers. Fast growth led to huge corporate office teams and gross inefficiencies in execution, making even tactical change very slow and costly. Little value seen in planning beyond 12-18 months, so not very effective at strategic change. Sr. Executives isolated behind access-controlled doors on restricted floor; mostly meet and talk only with each other and their direct reports. This limited their information and skewed their perspective, fed the negative political culture, and undermined decision quality.
