After years of mismanagement, the company is now in an irrecoverable tailspin. The market is changing too quickly and the technology product is a failure. I learned a lot of what not to do:
-Promote and hire people whose only skills are speaking well and pulling the wool over their managers eyes.
-Value big promises from those trying to get ahead rather than listening to others that speak reality. "Oooo, 20 years ago you were a 2nd author on a book about outdated technology, you must know everything now".
-Fire anyone that threatens your position rather than allowing them to make the company better.
-Put people in charge of departments that have no idea what they are really doing (in HR and Technology primarily).
-Live in an ivory tower and manage from the top down.
-Constantly change plans and direction when your ivory tower thinking doesn't pan out.
-Grasp on to the old ways and broken business models for dear life.
-Solve problems by bringing on career managers that cannot do anything but create an endless bureaucracy and time suck just so that executives have a false sense of confidence on visibility and control.
-Micromanage your employees.
-Pay salaries way below market and use the excuse "We're an education company" as if that will suddenly attract and retain talent.
-Acquire companies and then destroy them with your toxic culture.
-Write positive reviews on Glassdoor to offset all the negatives ones instead of actually addressing problems.