www.nickhodge.com

Big mer­gers are the way of the IT industry. Small guys get big­ger, and yet are swal­lowed by the lar­ger fish. People make lots of money, and drive their Fer­raris around the twin coasts of the US. Then it goes around again.

Mer­gers of two com­pan­ies, such as Mac­ro­media and Adobe, from the out­side seem a “join­ing of likes”. A mar­riage made in heaven. The per­cep­tion that the com­pan­ies were very alike is external only.  I doubt since the acquis­i­tion that Adobe exec­ut­ives sleep bet­ter at night.

We are see­ing the internal cul­tural dif­fer­ence exposed extern­ally: the smart auntie Adobe of Pho­toshop, InDes­ign, Illustrator’s fame and friendly atti­tude being smashed by the boys-club, leather booted Mac­ro­media cow­boys.

This is prob­ably one major reason why I am no longer at Adobe. For­get­ting who your cus­tom­ers are has to be the first big strategy of big com­pan­ies aim­ing to be smal­ler. As a cus­tomer of Adobe, and with many friends who still work there — I would be saddened to see this strategy work­ing. [edit: I would be, not am]

I am at Microsoft as they recog­nise that for­get­ting your cus­tomer is a sin that must never be committed.

So, as an Adobe user (daily), share­holder: tone it down, talk to cus­tom­ers and don’t for­get cus­tomer base.