Battelle idolizes hierarchy. It claims to be in the business of innovation but is just the opposite. Everyone feels the need to have permission to do anything, and managers are risk averse.
There is no vision. There is no leadership. Just management.
Battelle is a throwback to the modernists of the enlightenment. Management believes that they are smarter than everyone else, and that the organization can be managed like operating a steam engine. They ignore productivity advancements, for example their use of IT is a joke. They can't even operate a library system or even write an efficient app for submitting electronic timecards. Their cost-cutting efforts have incurred higher costs, as mid-level managers do as their told, with no understanding as to why. So they apply the direction incorrectly. Advancements in organization are just as thoroughly ignored. Senior management seems to believe it's running one of Gordon Battelle's refineries.
Finally there is panic among senior leadership, as they effectively put their eggs in one basket under Kohrt: government contracting. As gov't work decreases, so will Battelle's revenue. They have no courage to pursue commercial R&D, and no insight how to do it effectively anyway. They won't hire true innovators and producers b/c those people don't follow management blindly.
