So many people are in the CEO's family or close friends. There are also favourites that get promoted for no reason. The majority of them are useless. The CEO seems to be a smart man, but he is also dumb: he is too smart to see how dumb he is. He is a bully who thinks the best way to lead is to have your people afraid of you so that they try hard to please him. If you do not understand, you are stupid and put down by the CEO. He thinks he is the only one that knows anything. The company has been successful in spite of itself, really. Founded in 1997 this company should be at least 3x the size it is now, but despite saying that he wants to grow the company, he has continually ignored the advice on how to do so. This goes back to the narcissistic tendencies of the CEO: if he did not think of it the idea sucks. That is not leadership. Combining this with the above sociopathic nature of being a bully, does not make a great work environment.
