Focus is the primary issue here, with a compounding challenge that upper management is disconnected and does not understand or consider what is actually required to accomplish what they are asking of their staff.
The CEO's vision comes at a price. Staff is pulled in many directions with little support or authority from the COO down (unless it has to do w/sales). Upper management has gotten into the mode of managing around tasks given directly to employees by the CEO. This creates confusion and major moral issues. Most really good employees have begun to burn out or have left. This has caused a shortage of workers and most the managers do not truly understand what skills are required to do the job (because of turnover here also) so new folks hired are either not qualified or are so confused what their job really is that they cannot be successful.
To further degrade what could otherwise be a great company, the stated focus is to become a leading technical services company. Yet the COO has only a sales focus and background and has no interest in "techie stuff". While the CEO is focused on the latest vision / project, the COO provides only direct leadership and guidance to sales. The challenge is that the organization with the most turnover of late and is in the worst state of disrepair is the services/technical organization.
Employee morale is at an all-time low, and there are employees (good ones) that have not had raises in over 4 years. So lack of focus, no clarity of purpose, no sense of accomplishment, and disrespectful treatment of employees has led to a dreadful atmosphere. At least from the workers view. Management continues to bury their head in the sand and report to the CEO "thumbs up"