Pros
This office pulls in some great projects, thanks to our charismatic business development team and track record of beautiful design. There are some very talented and hard-working people here. Our marketing and business strategy are top-notch, the extroverted people here tell great stories and win clients and the more introverted people are incredibly talented designers and architects, it's a pretty good partnership.
Cons
The firm has a vision, unfortunately, a rather short-sighted one. The talented people that started the firm spend next to no time training new people, and when new staff don't perform as expected, they are blamed and let go. (Interestingly, there are a few pretty incompetent people here too but because they are 'favorites' of upper management, they remain here, despite making pretty critical errors on projects that would normally get someone fired). Not surprisingly, there is a rather high turnover rate here, and we have to keep hiring new people, making for low office morale and an awkward, stratified, social atmosphere. Some of the most talented people here have strategically put in their time, used this office as a stepping stone, and left. In time, as the management gets older, there won't be a legacy left to pass on to anyone because they don't cultivate it from within. If culture comes from the top-down, the firm's principal, however charismatic and fast-talking, is a text-book narcissist, yells unprofessionally at and belittles staff, audibly makes his executive assistant book spa treatments, expensive flights, personal training, and other luxury activities, and bring him lunch and dinner to the office and serve him like he's an Israeli king in front of everyone. He claims to be writing his next book on "fractals in architecture" but I don't think he really understands what fractals are. If he's reading this now, I think 'modular' or 'pixelated' is what he's actually describing---but those terms have already been overused and in trying to sell his flying dormers as something new, 'fractal' sounds fun, new, and quasi-techy/scientific.