Fast Growth - Good Values - Poor People Skills
Pros
Academy Mortgage is a family-owned, privately-held business which prides itself on putting customers first. They are willing to innovate and are hyper-focused on growth through the acquisition of branch offices throughout the US. It is a values-based company which truly wants to do the right thing for the communities they serve. They try to maintain a small town, "mom and pop" culture, while giving employees an enterprise-level experience. They are well-intentioned, and mindful. Academy Mortgage does a great job at attracting the best mortgage experts in the industry with strong comp plans and a bottom-up support structure. Management styles vary widely across branch offices, and while the corporate office is under the constant watch of executive leadership, each department's feel is totally different from the next, due to interdepartmental rivalries, heavy expectations, and poor priority management.
Cons
While Academy Mortgage means well, because of the speed of their "grow the business" initiative, the pressing regulatory requirements, and poor decision-making dissemination from the Cheif Executive down, the overriding culture is more like, "Get in; sit down; shut up, and hold on". Being a family-owned business, and the chief executive the son-in-law of its original founder, Adam Kessler, the CEO, was given too much authority too quickly; and with little experience and a white-knuckle grip on authority over prioritization and decision-making, he has struggled to confidently give authority to his executive team. He is not a bad person, or even a bad leader, but he simply does not trust his hires, and that lack of trust causes a severe lack syndrome across all the levels below him. He prioritizes without appropriate data; commands without measuring the possible ripple effect; and plays favorites which lends itself to constant jostling for face time and attention from the leadership teams. What should be a "I want to do what's best for the company" mentality, quickly turns into a "I want to do what's most obvious to Adam" mentality, and as a result everyone feels the strain of a middle-child's plight for attention. It causes bitter resource struggles; over-taxation on worker bees; and a total exacerbation of middle management who can't win with either their employees or their sponsoring C-level. The company has done well, because Adam is a good man who, I believe, does the best he can for all. But my experience with him tells me that he has not yet grown comfortable in the shoes he's been given, and wrestles to release power when appropriate. Academy is a good company. Just be prepared for conflicting priorities, poorly executed vision, and plenly of intra and interdepartmental tension. Oh, and change - more change than a typical "clock-in, clock-out" employee can handle.
