Watching an acquirer ruin your company
&gt; As soon as Sphero completed the acquisition, bringing Kelsus in as an app developer, two things happened: 1) Sphero told us they needed fully revamped iOS and Android apps six months later with no schedule wiggle room. 2) Sphero spent the first two of those six months organizing a team on their side and hashing out requirements for the new apps.<p>This exact pattern has preceded every mismanagement disaster I&#x27;ve ever seen:<p>1) Management gives an unreasonable deadline to developers before defining the deliverables. Clock starts ticking.<p>2) Management then fails to settle on the requirements for months and&#x2F;or continuously moves the goalposts while people are trying to work, turning an unreasonable deadline into an impossible deadline<p>3) Developers start realizing that they&#x27;re going to receive the blame when impossible deadline isn&#x27;t achieved, despite not having any control in the matter. They start leaving for new jobs, and the death spiral begins.<p>It&#x27;s the universal pattern of a management team that doesn&#x27;t know how to do anything other than make demands and then apply pressure. Unless you can get someone in charge who has real leadership and planning skills, it&#x27;s not recoverable.