Micro-manage to the nth degree. No employee empowerment, deviate from established policies and pay the price. Panic mentality for short term revenue shortfalls, act like the company will implode when goals are not met in the short term, despite the fact that they make all kinds of profit. Their business is somewhat cyclical, but they seem from a management perspective to not understand at all local market conditions, economic factors, or competition. Budgets are bloated and in many cases have no relationship to reality. Learning curve is long, but the expectations related to results are hurried. The owners of the company (the Lake family, have owned it since inception) watch every penny like it is their last. Scrooge was a big spender compared to these guys. Corporate HQ has an "us versus them" mentality, and suck revenue from the Branches at a ridiculous rate. Metrics (goals/expectations) can actually conflict with each other, i.e. what's good for one employee's metric can be bad for another's. Branch Manager bonuses are all or nothing, you can hit 4 out of 5 goals and get nothing. Paperwork requirements are astronomical.. Little administrative help. Company is run way too lean. Credit requirements are outrageously high for customers, with little flexibility. Microsoft would have a hard time getting credit approval from this group.
