How does a company with so much potential go down? - Anonymous employee Staffbase Employee Review

Staffbase followed an aggressive growth plan expanding simultaneously in the USA, UK, and Europe setting unrealistic revenue targets. During the first weeks, management was raving about the office’s outstanding success when in reality there were minimal deals coming in, while marketing was non-existent. Does Staffbase have a strong product and strong marketing to sustain such a growth plan? The answer is no. Unfortunately, Staffbase had a clear lack of strategic thinking, not taking into consideration the localization of the product, an excellent product for the traditional German market, but hard to sell outside of Germany. Management: Staffbase fell in the trap of familliocracy implementing a strategy of nepotism, especially in managerial positions. Most of the management know each other from past working experiences. Why is this a negative thing for the rest of the team though? Because they form their own little bubble. Combined with their poor people skills and inexperience, they create an elite group that no one else is allowed to join and the outsiders are unwelcome. This has a tremendous impact on the team’s culture because there is no freedom of speech. Managers are unable to remain impartial, providing evidence of clear favoritism on every level. Putting all the above together has led to a toxic environment. Is this communicated to Germany? No.
 Managers that belong to this “Elite group”, filter very carefully what is being communicated to the upper management. HR: A very important department to keep the core of the organization together. Employees that work in this department is essential to have knowledge of employee psychology and organizational function. Staffbase’s HR or People experience department consists mostly of inexperienced people that have nothing to do with the above background. This has a catastrophic impact especially when it comes to a company with various satellite offices and a vast amount of cultural diversity. Investing in People: Staffbase is proud of the training possibilities that it offers - sales enablement comes in mind. The on-boarding at Staffbase works like this. Get thrown a ton of material to read and try to figure out stuff on your own. After the onboarding, there is no training or any form of support either. The question is why can’t managers help their teams? And by help I mean, coaching, sharing their experiences, and give practical advice. The answer is because they are not knowledgeable enough, except when it comes to admin work i.e. Salesforce. Management’s feedback is far from professional, putting the blame entirely on the employee without offering any useful support. What is happening now? The company is burning cash, some offices were never meant to perform so firings begin. The problem with that is that it is not done in a respectful manner. The employees are blamed entirely and a company that promotes the value of “taking ownership” now fires people without “taking ownership” of their part at all. Could things be different with an experienced and ethical management team? Perhaps.