- Management preaches innovation to employees, but is not interested unless there is zero associated cost.
- Many factories use decades-old equipment, which limits the ability to innovate and improve the product.
- Promotions are heavily influenced by inter-office politics.
- Very heavy job rotation among management and employees. This results in a reduction of deep knowledge of the product. It also results in additional resources spent getting employees and managers up-to-speed in their new departments.
- Middle management is out of the office ~30-40% of the time, often on boondoggles. This often makes it difficult to get a decision/approval. It also foments resentment among the employees.
- Too many meetings and reports.
- Information Technology is understaffed/underfunded. As a result, new employees wait up to a week to get setup with a computer. Broken equipment can take months to replace unless expedited by management. Common software, such as Microsoft Office is 2+ generations behind what is currently available.
- Senior management is filled by people with no tire industry experience. They have experience with commodities such as facial tissues and breakfast cereal, and they are treating tires the same way.
