Owners definitely play favorites with staff. If you fall out of favor with them for any reason, it will be career limiting. No strategy behind company's growth. A lot of questionable work was sold on the back of some great work done in the early days. As brand became recognized and demand increased, company hired a lot of new staff members, many who were severely under qualified to do the work. This had a cascading effect through the company, eventually leading to projects going south and a huge exodus of many of the best people.