More often than not 1st line managers themselves are clueless about what works and what not. 2nd level on-wards are merely place holders acting busy, spending almost entire time in useless meetings, status collection and bi-directional email forwards. If you've noticed, none of the improvement inputs/feedback come from 1st line and above. This situation is especially prevalent in low cost centers - every group / every department. Unless positions OP mentioned above are thoroughly cleansed, there is no hope of becoming technology company again.
This was originally a post on another thread, but @Wh3De0O-1kin made a good point, so I made it a thread.