Over the last few years I've come to notice a few entrenched ideas that, large consulting companies in particular, seem to be unable to deviate from. These ideas specifically relate to how to get the most out of your technical, particularly security, staff, but I'm sure they apply in other contexts too. I'm certainly no expert and these are just my observations, and while I did notice a steady stream of clever people leaving my $previous_employer, including myself (not clever, just leaving) I had some time to muse on the reasons. I'd love to hear comments from people who have/are running their own tech companies.