Macromedia
Richard Bullwinkle mooned Macromedia on exit (not Zalman Stern as some think).
~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2019-02-04 |
Macromedia was one of Adobe's arch rivals -- and the idea of buying them caused terror in the smaller company. Naturally, they felt like the evil empire was taking over. Since they were much more clique'ish, and felt besieged, they actually seemed to work together more at making sure their own got promoted, and their culture dominated.
You could tell the difference in many managers whether they were Adobe or Macromedia not only based on where they worked (SF or San Jose), but how they worked. Macromedia tells:
- If they went around the rules (or ignored them)
- If they did management by walking around and spontaneous meetings (usually in SF)
- If they hated bureaucracy, and process... even good ones
- If they promoted people (or laid off) based on if they'd come from Macromedia or not
... and so on....
Not all things were bad. They were more nimble... could be very customer focus. Had the "just ship it" attitude of get it out there and start making money on it. It was a bit of a reverse acquisition like when Apple acquired NeXT, and a few years later, all of Apple's management were NeXTies. But not all the changes were for the better. If you had a Macromedia person and an Adobe person evaluating a product shoot out, the Macromedia product would win... not necessarily based on merits, but because the Macromedia person could not allow any other option to happen, no matter how inferior their product was (they usually weren't).
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Tags: Adobe
