Pros

Good benefts, health insurance, time off, bonuses, well-developed HR program.

Cons

Management is becoming driven from the top down. Lower managers are trying to produce numbers for upper management. By so doing, they are driving employees to produce numbers. The customers are starting to lose out as a result. You can't take time for the customer because it will hurt your metrics. The training is great at first, but after 3 months they default on seeing and providing the real ongoing training needs. It starts to be a game of producing numbers because the upper management has decided that these numbers mean the company is going to profit. It gets to the point where lower management is resorting to dishonest means to try and produce the numbers. If something is important, but it isn't part of the numbers that the lower managers are trying to produce, it will be neglected because the lower managers are trying so hard to produce the numbers they can't afford to consider anything else.

Advice to Senior Management

Business success is not just this years financial statements. You need to concentrate on building intangible values at the grass roots. Don't try and drive lower management so hard to produce metrics. It is driving away the best employees. When Sage took over best software there was a grass-roots value system that kept the best employees. Move from producing metrics to producing long-term values that are intangible. If you keep focusing on metrics and neglect the unmeasurable values like honesty, character, and creativity at the grass roots level you will improve this year's income statement, but you will destroy the company entirely in 10 years.