The thing that I picked up from the article wasn't so much that there was hacky managerial solutions, but that there was gaping operational holes in the company. This meant that the hacky solutions never got fixed.
A lot of early-stage companies have been known to engage in grey-area practices to hit that growth factor. Reddit, for instance, faked a bunch of early users to make it look like people were using it. But if it came out today that a large percentage of Reddit's users were faked, it'd be a huge blow to the company.
This becomes even more critical if you're dealing with any government/regulatory body- you're legally bound to fill these gaps before "plausible deniability" can't be used.
A lot of early-stage companies have been known to engage in grey-area practices to hit that growth factor. Reddit, for instance, faked a bunch of early users to make it look like people were using it. But if it came out today that a large percentage of Reddit's users were faked, it'd be a huge blow to the company.
This becomes even more critical if you're dealing with any government/regulatory body- you're legally bound to fill these gaps before "plausible deniability" can't be used.