#1 Run by a private equity firm board of "bean counters" with no long term interest in the Mackie brand.
#2 A weak non-technical risk-adverse executive management team that continually falls back on recycling existing product lines into slightly newer models with higher price tags.
#3 Layoffs are routine along with turnover of newer employees. The company once fired a handful of engineers and were forced to hire them back as contractors right away as decision making flip flopped.
#4 All product design and technical engineering is overseen by the Marketing Team. All technical support and product maintenance is managed by thowe same people. Under this structure, innovation has stagnated using closed processes with unrealistic goals and undesirable outcomes rooted in fantasy and poor design choices.
#5 Enginnering teams are continually understaffed and demoralized working on several products at a time with priorities changing on a regular basis.
#6 No investment in tools, training or personal development.
#7 Mackie used to own two buildings in Woodinville with a total of 170,000 sq.ft. of office and manufacturing space. The Engineering office has since been relocated and downsized into a tiny satellite office with little room for growth. Workstations are cramped, equipment is old.
#8 Numerous complications from working with LOUD's office in China lacking strong engineering leadership or experinced senior engineers.
#9 No follow through after major product releases. Management continually jumps ship to "the next big thing" leaving developers and customers with lengthy intervals between releases. See #5.
#10 No one ever filled Greg Mackie's shoes after he left in 2004...