Former employee here, watching from a safe distance as yet another CRO “explores new opportunities” after barely enough time to find the toilets. It’s hard to shake the feeling the place is a rudderless ship, steered by a private equity firm that’s just waiting for the bottom-line number to hit “cash out and run.”
The go-to-market strategy lurches from idea to idea, the tech stack talks about integration more than it actually does it, and the UK local government customers who built the house are now awkwardly standing on the outside with their noses pressed against the windows. Meanwhile, revenue is busy playing whack‑a‑mole with the ideal customer profile, which seemed to change direction every time another “character‑building” quarter limped over the line.
Reams of undervalued and unrecognised talent have streamed out the door to competitors or entirely new industries, while others have been gently “helped” to the exit by an HR team with about as much grip on UK and NI employment law as van Gogh had on reality near the end.
To be fair, there is still some brilliant talent left, but most of them have either quietly checked out while waiting for something better, or are so battered by constant strategy U‑turns they no longer know if they’re coming, going, or being reorged. The place runs exactly the way the PE backers want, so advice feels redundant, but if you need a short-term gig before the next parent company sweeps through to keep the revenue and the brand and “optimise” everything else (a fate the CEO cheerfully bragged about with a previous acquisition in one of the last all‑hands I attended), this could be just the stopgap for you.
