If the existing codebase and development practices are poor, you hire people who are excited to remake them, and you get rid of existing people who fight agains

If the existing codebase and development practices are poor, you hire people who are excited to remake them, and you get rid of existing people who fight against this. Or you hire/retain only mediocre developers and muddle along forever with mediocre software. (Which I think is really what many companies do, though they won't say so.) If execs don't support fair compensation, hours, benefits, psychological safety, physical safety (sexual assault is a thing...), and such, you don't hire. You watch the company burn.