Accuray – “Accuray - a good idea longing to become a real company”

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.