Accuray Reviews

Pros

- Mission is to develop new ways to deliver radiotherapy and radio surgery
- As an FSE the job is home based
- Excellent pay and benefits

Cons

- On the tomotherapy side of bussiness there are lingering reliability issues
- Reluctancy from management to address reliability issues
- Need better schematic diagrams

Advice to Senior Management

Stop beating around the bush and truly address the reliability issues that have been in the tomotherapy line forever. It wears everybody... When accuray bought tomotherapy it seemed to us that accuray had a better vision... but now it seems as if accuray is migrating to the tomotherapy formula of doing more of the same (recycled parts, not address issues just replace parts, assemblies that can be fixed are replaced i.e. a detector leak instead of refilling the detector it is replaced $$ + 20 hours work x 2 fse's each) instead of the other way around.

Pros

Incredible people to work with, very smart and dedicated

Cons

Management has made a fetish out of moving fast

Advice to Senior Management

Slow down and balance

Pros

a lot of smart and friendly people

Cons

work load is high; compensation less than efforts

Advice to Senior Management

you need to be aggressive

Pros

CK is a great product that saves lives and is making a tangible difference. Incredibly smart people who are dedicated to their jobs and are fighting an uphill battle with the deck stacked against them.

Cons

Everything you need to know about the company can be found on the Yahoo Finance Message Board. At first, you think it's just one disgruntled employee or stockholder. Then, as you read, you come to realize there are so many people and so many comments about outlandish behavior that something is amiss. It all starts at the top, and it is a tragedy to see an extraordinary technological lead frittered away by poor leadership.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring in new management or sell out to a company with deeper pockets. It's past reform time.

Pros

Great product and people are passionate about it. The company has a unique market niche that has worked well for them historically. The company does a good job listening to their customers and it has paid off. Excellent R&D group. Also, generally middle level management has historically been very good. Additionally, most people are friendly and helpful.

Cons

Culture over the last year or two has evolved away from a pleasant typical medical device culture to be that more typical of Silicon Valley software companies. Thus balanced life is hard to achieve and people are generally not treated as well as before. Frequent reorganizations since their sales went flat have harmed morale. They have lost a significant number of very seasoned senior and middle level management and replaced them with less experienced individuals. Communication by management could be better.

Advice to Senior Management

Clean out the C-level suite and start over. Current management did a respectable job until sometime after the company went public. The frequent reorganizations imply management has lost their clear vision. They need to develop a long-term plan that they can clearly communicate to employees and investors and stick with it. If they cannot then the company is a likely takeover candidate. The company still has good long-term potential as an organization, but the question is can current management bring the company to the next level? Can leadership leverage and develop the people they have to achieve more, or will they continue to seek their salvation by finding the "perfect" employee?

Pros

Working for a company that provides a truly disruptive, game-changing technology that makes a real impact on cancer patients' lives (How many jobs can you say that about?). People are intelligent and really passionate about the company, its customers, and patient care.

Cons

Company's grown significantly, is now a publicly traded company with fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders, and yet is still being managed like a startup; there is a serious lack of process and protocol for many key operational areas that you think would be a no brainer for a company of Accuray's age and size. Everyone I think has their heart in the right place, but I'm not sure there's a clear strategic vision nor proper management in place to realize that vision.

Advice to Senior Management

The company has had its up and downs, but its undeniable that the CyberKnife is a fantastic technology and one that truly can benefit cancer patients. Upper management needs to realize that while they were successful in taking the company public and their dream of making radiosurgery a treatment option for cancer patients is a noble one, new management might be needed to take the company to the next level and make that dream a reality.

Pros

The technology is good, people are open and friendly. Their service organization stands out as one of the most level headed management teams I have seen. Sales and Marketing are a joke. Engineering has a lot of good people just mismanaged due to the absence of a real product roadmap. Manufacturing is still in the early 1900's.

Cons

C-Level management is detached from employee base. Communication is poor to non-existent. Highly hierarchical culture where VP Level and above employees behave like they can get away with murder and almost always do. Extremely top heavy, when I left (Fall 2008) there was 1 executive (director level and above) for every 4 employees at the manager level and below. Lack of fundamental processes (Product LIfeCycle Management, for example) make things that would normally be fairly straightforward elsewhere in a valley, exercises in futility. Many many layers of highly ineffective controls perpetuate an illusion of "things are OK." The company operates without a strategic plan and it acts like an unguided missile.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize that the people who took the company public cannot manage it as a public company and will inevitably fail. The company needs to bring in professional managers and replace the people currently at the C-Level (CFO already gone, good start) and VP Level. Mid level management is actually OK, just too many of them.

Pros

The compensation and benefits are good for this industry. Bonuses are low, maybe because sometimes stock grants and options are given to better performing employees. The atmosphere is relaxed, yet professional. The quality of people is exceptional and people are friendly. Mid level management is very good. Employees are passionate about our product.

Cons

Corporate communication can sometimes be poor. Verbal communication is at a minimum. People like to communicate via email too often. Accuray performs in a very competitive marketplace. Small company finding it's way in a large market. Perspective customers have a lot of barriers to get past (CON, construction, contract contingencies). Poor stock performance makes employees question upper managements ability to lead the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall communication must improve with employees.