Where do I start?
- Nepotism/cronyism. Too many family members promoting family members over more qualified people. And if you aren't partying or buddies with the right executive team member, you aren't going very far. At least the previous president and her family are gone. That's a start. Nepotism is a violation of corporate policy for most companies.
- Fear-based culture. Everyone feels their job is in constant jeopardy. I've never worked anywhere before where people were constantly worried whether or not they will have a job next week. It's not uncommon to ask someone, "How are you doing?" and get the answer "Well, I still have a job."
- Very inexperienced, weak executive leadership team. People in positions that don't have the necessary experience or education to manage the organization. They lack professionalism and education to be running their departments for a company as large as Overstock. This is not a start-up anymore, Patrick. Hire some executives from OUTSIDE the company with experience running a larger eCommerce company and know what it takes to succeed in such a competitive environment.
- Unwillingness or inability of executive leadership to put together a real strategic vision. This company is very reactionary under the guise of being "agile." When in reality, they just don't know what they want to be when they grow up. They just react to what their competitors do and make knee-jerk decisions. There is no true future vision, and the current President does not have the education or experience to make this a world-class company.
- Hire, hire, hire ... Fire, fire, fire approach to staffing. IT was in a rapid hiring frenzy just a year ago, then suddenly people got laid off in 2 major rounds. Another example of extremely poor executive leadership with a very reactionary approach to management.
- IT side is in complete disarray and getting worse. Newly appointed leadership is the worst possible to lead software development and product. Software Engineering leadership is incompetent at best, and completely lacks leadership qualities required to build a high-performing, highly motivated development team. And promoting family members above other more qualified development managers was completely inappropriate.
- Patrick seems to be a very poor judge of people's capabilities and puts too much trust in individuals he likes or suck up to him. He is like the "Emperor's New Clothes." He can't see what is really happening beneath him. He can't see past whatever story he is being told by these people he trusts so blindly. His trust of the people he keeps putting in the President role is mind-boggling. Neither the current nor past President have the necessary professional experience to be running a $2 billion annual revenue company.
