netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Adobe Systems Incorporated ( /əˈdoʊbiː/ ə-DOH-bee) (NASDAQ: ADBE) is an American computer software company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA. The company has historically focused upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more-recent foray towards rich Internet application software development.
Adobe was founded in December 1982[2] by John Warnock and Charles Geschke, who established the company after leaving Xerox PARC in order to develop and sell the PostScript page description language. In 1985, Apple Computer licensed PostScript for use in its LaserWriter printers, which helped spark the desktop publishing revolution. The company name Adobe comes from Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California, which ran behind the house of one of the company's founders.[2] Adobe acquired its former competitor, Macromedia, in December 2005, which added newer software products and platforms such as Coldfusion, Dreamweaver, Flash and Flex to its product portfolio.
As of August 2009, Adobe Systems has 7,564 employees,[2] about 40% of whom work in San Jose. Adobe also has major development operations in Orlando, FL; Seattle, WA; San Francisco, CA; Orem, UT; Ottawa, Ontario; Minneapolis, MN; Waltham, MA; San Luis Obispo, CA; Hamburg, Germany; Noida, India; Bengaluru, India; Bucharest, Romania; Beijing, China.
"There are in my mind four acceptable styles of leadership and in the perfect situation you need to know which style you're using and why…One is directive style. Another is a persuasive or selling style. The third is a collaborative style. And the fourth is a delegation style. And for the most evolved subordinates and teams you're primarily going to work between a participative and a delegation style."
— Lew Frankfort, Chairman and CEO, Coach, Inc.
"Our key goal in the leadership has to be about painting a picture which describes how they participate in the evolution of the company."
"We're a company that's very keen on making sure that we give people the information that they need to do their jobs. And one of our leadership styles, the cultural style in the company is very much — as opposed to need to know, it's give them the information and trust that they will (a) protect it wisely and (b) use it wisely."
— Shantanu Narayen, President and Chief Operating Officer, Adobe Systems Inc.
Today's top executives have developed a unique approach to leadership, and a richer and broader set of leadership skills than ever before. They are a new breed of champions, pioneers and change agents, with the courage and vision to power through challenges and spot new opportunities for success. Many are rewriting the rules of engagement in their industries. And some are redefining the perception of their companies by their involvement in the leadership discussion on sociopolitical issues such as education, health care, foreign policy and climate change. Hear what the leaders of BusinessWeek 50 companies feel on their changing leadership role, and how these new skills and values play a critical role in driving high performance.
Watch highlights covering:
Styles of Leadership
Applying these styles to the respective teams in place
Importance of brand to tomorrow's customers
Q. What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?
A. I really honed a lot of my leadership skills and style at Apple. I worked for Apple for many years, and I had a mentor, Gursharan Sidhu, from whom I learned just a tremendous amount.
I think two leadership lessons really stand out for me. He forced me to think about doing things that I did not think were possible. Challenging individuals by setting goals and then letting them use their ingenuity to accomplish them is something that I hope I can pass on as part of my leadership style. If you set a common vision and then get really scary-smart people, they do things that amaze you.
The other aspect of being a good manager has always been getting gratification from what others do, because the higher you get in management, frankly, the less you do yourself.
Q. How do you make sure goals are calibrated properly?
A. I like to say that if you can connect all the dots between what you see today and where you want to go, then it’s probably not ambitious enough or aspirational enough. On the other hand, if people look at it and say there is no way that’s going to happen, then it’s probably a little too much. So it’s a balance.
Q. Any other things that you learned from your time at Apple?
A. Well, the other thing at Apple was that you really believed you were going to change the world. I think that if you do great work it can have just a tremendous and profound impact on society. I think it’s something that really can be very motivating.
Q. How are you trying to shift the culture at Adobe?
A. One of the things we have tried to do in the last couple of years is introduce this notion of general managers — you equip people with the responsibility to make the decisions that are required to drive their businesses. We’ve said to them, “Go run your business, make the decisions and make the trade-offs.” Some of them will be hugely successful and some of them will stumble, and I think that’s O.K. Creating a culture where you allow people to take risks and grow their careers, I think, is important.
We’ve also created this notion of “seeds,” to bring the venture capital culture into Adobe, to allow people who have a creative idea to run with it, but in the structure of a larger company.
Q. How does that work?
A. The person who runs the seed is actually called an “entrepreneur in residence.” The way you budget for seeds is you don’t do the traditional, “O.K., how many engineers do you need and how many product marketing people do you need?” You say, “O.K., here’s a first round of funding, and tell me what your metrics are.” And if you accomplish those metrics, and if we still think we want to go from seed funding to first-round and second-round funding, then we’ll put more money into it.
Q. Talk about how you build a team.
A. My big belief in management is that people don’t change. You know, I’m highly unlikely at this age to fundamentally change what I am as a human being, and so my management philosophy also tends to be that if I can complement people’s strengths by surrounding them with people who can complement their areas of weakness, that’s probably a better recipe for success than trying to say, “O.K., you need to change.”
If somebody is really all about creative ideas and driving the vision, then expecting them to be very organized and compulsive is probably not a winning proposition.
Q. What are you looking for when you hire?
A. For me, the biggest predictors of success are raw intelligence and a passion for what you do. And I try to look for people who are going to have tremendous passion for being here, as opposed to this being just another job.
As I’m looking for people at very senior levels, I also look for whether they share the fundamental values of the company. Unless people really internalize and believe in the core values of the company, they’re highly unlikely to be successful.
Q. Do you have favorite interview questions?
A. Well, my first question is always, “Tell me what you think this job is all about.” And I think just allowing them to speak about what they want to do, and what they think the job is about, is actually very useful, because it sheds light on what they think they want to do in the company. I typically also end an interview with asking them how they can make a difference.
And when I’m interviewing somebody who I plan to hire, I spend at least three or four sessions with them because you want them to also get a good sense of what the company is about.
Q. What feedback do you get from your direct reports?
A. I am actually very comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty, and I believe that allows for more inquiry, which I personally like. I’ve gotten feedback at times, saying that being more declarative in some instances about what I think, is important.
One of my fundamental beliefs of management is that you accomplish great things by surfacing ideas that everybody has, and cutting off a conversation doesn’t accomplish that. But there’s a balance, because if you let a conversation go on too long, you could miss windows of opportunity.
Corner Office
Every Sunday, Adam Bryant talks with top executives about the challenges of leading and managing.
More ‘Corner Office’ Columns »
Subscribe to Corner Office via RSS »
Add to Portfolio
Adobe Systems Inc
Apple Inc
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Q. Anything different about the way you run meetings?
A. One of the ways I am trying to change my own management style is in the quarterly business reviews. I’m trying to focus more on getting people who are presenting to discuss their insights, and to lead the discussion of what they want to accomplish, and where the business is working, and where the business is not working, and what they are worried about — as opposed to sharing reams and reams of data and then expecting us to make pronouncements about the right thing to do. Because, frankly, they’re closer to the business. And the more you can get them to feel ownership for the decisions, I think the more successful you are.
You certainly give them your input, you certainly coach and guide them, you channel them into areas that you believe they need to think about. But that’s one way in which I’m trying to change as we grow this next generation of general managers. I want them to feel like the business review is their opportunity to talk about where the business is going well, where the business is not going as well, and what’s keeping them up at night so that I can help them, as opposed to them feeling like they’re under the microscope, and all they have to do is show you they’re on top of the data, which I think is a meaningless exercise.
Q. Any particular techniques for managing your time, the crush of e-mail?
A. I try to go to sleep every night, wherever I am in the world, with fewer than 10 e-mails in my in-box. I try never to read an e-mail twice, so I delete it when I’m done. One of my philosophies is I respond as soon as I can, and if it’s important enough and I’ve deleted it, it’ll come back. And I say 10 only because sometimes there are attachments that require a little bit more effort, and so you don’t want to be flippant, either. But for ones that are F.Y.I., you know, I just delete them.
I have another philosophy, which is, unless I am the sole person on the “to” line, I don’t feel the need to respond.
Q. Why take the extra step of deleting it?
A. I think it just feels cleaner. It feels like I’ve dealt with it.
Q. What do you think business school should teach more of, or less of?
A. I think business schools need to focus more on a cross-functional curriculum to help aspiring managers think about things not from the perspective of finance or marketing, or accounting, but cross-functionally. The second thing I would say is leadership and really talking about how you equip people to think and learn and adapt. I think that’s really more reflective of how successful somebody is going to be, as opposed to a mastery of a specific piece of work in one of those functional disciplines.
Q. So leadership can be taught?
A. Well, I believe that sharing experiences and enabling people to reflect on what’s important to them and how they would react is certainly a way for individuals to be able to think about what’s important to them and how they hone their leadership style.
Q. Is there a question you ask other executives to get insights into how they manage and lead?
A. I ask people to tell me the hardest issue that they have faced and how they worked around it, and how they think about it. I think that in dealing with adversity and dealing with challenges, you learn a lot more about how individuals react. I have a number of friends who run public companies. I tend to ask them about the tough times that they have faced and what they have done. You learn a lot from what others have gone through. You also realize that you’re not alone when you experience some of those challenges yourself.
Q. How do you think about failure?
A. You know, there is no such thing as failure. You’re always learning. You gain experience. I have looked back at aspects of my career where somebody might look at it and say, you know, that start-up was not successful, and I look at it and I say, “I learned how to build a team, how to raise money, how to sell a vision, how to create a product.” It was a great steppingstone for me.
Adobe was founded in December 1982[2] by John Warnock and Charles Geschke, who established the company after leaving Xerox PARC in order to develop and sell the PostScript page description language. In 1985, Apple Computer licensed PostScript for use in its LaserWriter printers, which helped spark the desktop publishing revolution. The company name Adobe comes from Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California, which ran behind the house of one of the company's founders.[2] Adobe acquired its former competitor, Macromedia, in December 2005, which added newer software products and platforms such as Coldfusion, Dreamweaver, Flash and Flex to its product portfolio.
As of August 2009, Adobe Systems has 7,564 employees,[2] about 40% of whom work in San Jose. Adobe also has major development operations in Orlando, FL; Seattle, WA; San Francisco, CA; Orem, UT; Ottawa, Ontario; Minneapolis, MN; Waltham, MA; San Luis Obispo, CA; Hamburg, Germany; Noida, India; Bengaluru, India; Bucharest, Romania; Beijing, China.
"There are in my mind four acceptable styles of leadership and in the perfect situation you need to know which style you're using and why…One is directive style. Another is a persuasive or selling style. The third is a collaborative style. And the fourth is a delegation style. And for the most evolved subordinates and teams you're primarily going to work between a participative and a delegation style."
— Lew Frankfort, Chairman and CEO, Coach, Inc.
"Our key goal in the leadership has to be about painting a picture which describes how they participate in the evolution of the company."
"We're a company that's very keen on making sure that we give people the information that they need to do their jobs. And one of our leadership styles, the cultural style in the company is very much — as opposed to need to know, it's give them the information and trust that they will (a) protect it wisely and (b) use it wisely."
— Shantanu Narayen, President and Chief Operating Officer, Adobe Systems Inc.
Today's top executives have developed a unique approach to leadership, and a richer and broader set of leadership skills than ever before. They are a new breed of champions, pioneers and change agents, with the courage and vision to power through challenges and spot new opportunities for success. Many are rewriting the rules of engagement in their industries. And some are redefining the perception of their companies by their involvement in the leadership discussion on sociopolitical issues such as education, health care, foreign policy and climate change. Hear what the leaders of BusinessWeek 50 companies feel on their changing leadership role, and how these new skills and values play a critical role in driving high performance.
Watch highlights covering:
Styles of Leadership
Applying these styles to the respective teams in place
Importance of brand to tomorrow's customers
Q. What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?
A. I really honed a lot of my leadership skills and style at Apple. I worked for Apple for many years, and I had a mentor, Gursharan Sidhu, from whom I learned just a tremendous amount.
I think two leadership lessons really stand out for me. He forced me to think about doing things that I did not think were possible. Challenging individuals by setting goals and then letting them use their ingenuity to accomplish them is something that I hope I can pass on as part of my leadership style. If you set a common vision and then get really scary-smart people, they do things that amaze you.
The other aspect of being a good manager has always been getting gratification from what others do, because the higher you get in management, frankly, the less you do yourself.
Q. How do you make sure goals are calibrated properly?
A. I like to say that if you can connect all the dots between what you see today and where you want to go, then it’s probably not ambitious enough or aspirational enough. On the other hand, if people look at it and say there is no way that’s going to happen, then it’s probably a little too much. So it’s a balance.
Q. Any other things that you learned from your time at Apple?
A. Well, the other thing at Apple was that you really believed you were going to change the world. I think that if you do great work it can have just a tremendous and profound impact on society. I think it’s something that really can be very motivating.
Q. How are you trying to shift the culture at Adobe?
A. One of the things we have tried to do in the last couple of years is introduce this notion of general managers — you equip people with the responsibility to make the decisions that are required to drive their businesses. We’ve said to them, “Go run your business, make the decisions and make the trade-offs.” Some of them will be hugely successful and some of them will stumble, and I think that’s O.K. Creating a culture where you allow people to take risks and grow their careers, I think, is important.
We’ve also created this notion of “seeds,” to bring the venture capital culture into Adobe, to allow people who have a creative idea to run with it, but in the structure of a larger company.
Q. How does that work?
A. The person who runs the seed is actually called an “entrepreneur in residence.” The way you budget for seeds is you don’t do the traditional, “O.K., how many engineers do you need and how many product marketing people do you need?” You say, “O.K., here’s a first round of funding, and tell me what your metrics are.” And if you accomplish those metrics, and if we still think we want to go from seed funding to first-round and second-round funding, then we’ll put more money into it.
Q. Talk about how you build a team.
A. My big belief in management is that people don’t change. You know, I’m highly unlikely at this age to fundamentally change what I am as a human being, and so my management philosophy also tends to be that if I can complement people’s strengths by surrounding them with people who can complement their areas of weakness, that’s probably a better recipe for success than trying to say, “O.K., you need to change.”
If somebody is really all about creative ideas and driving the vision, then expecting them to be very organized and compulsive is probably not a winning proposition.
Q. What are you looking for when you hire?
A. For me, the biggest predictors of success are raw intelligence and a passion for what you do. And I try to look for people who are going to have tremendous passion for being here, as opposed to this being just another job.
As I’m looking for people at very senior levels, I also look for whether they share the fundamental values of the company. Unless people really internalize and believe in the core values of the company, they’re highly unlikely to be successful.
Q. Do you have favorite interview questions?
A. Well, my first question is always, “Tell me what you think this job is all about.” And I think just allowing them to speak about what they want to do, and what they think the job is about, is actually very useful, because it sheds light on what they think they want to do in the company. I typically also end an interview with asking them how they can make a difference.
And when I’m interviewing somebody who I plan to hire, I spend at least three or four sessions with them because you want them to also get a good sense of what the company is about.
Q. What feedback do you get from your direct reports?
A. I am actually very comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty, and I believe that allows for more inquiry, which I personally like. I’ve gotten feedback at times, saying that being more declarative in some instances about what I think, is important.
One of my fundamental beliefs of management is that you accomplish great things by surfacing ideas that everybody has, and cutting off a conversation doesn’t accomplish that. But there’s a balance, because if you let a conversation go on too long, you could miss windows of opportunity.
Corner Office
Every Sunday, Adam Bryant talks with top executives about the challenges of leading and managing.
More ‘Corner Office’ Columns »
Subscribe to Corner Office via RSS »
Add to Portfolio
Adobe Systems Inc
Apple Inc
Go to your Portfolio »
Q. Anything different about the way you run meetings?
A. One of the ways I am trying to change my own management style is in the quarterly business reviews. I’m trying to focus more on getting people who are presenting to discuss their insights, and to lead the discussion of what they want to accomplish, and where the business is working, and where the business is not working, and what they are worried about — as opposed to sharing reams and reams of data and then expecting us to make pronouncements about the right thing to do. Because, frankly, they’re closer to the business. And the more you can get them to feel ownership for the decisions, I think the more successful you are.
You certainly give them your input, you certainly coach and guide them, you channel them into areas that you believe they need to think about. But that’s one way in which I’m trying to change as we grow this next generation of general managers. I want them to feel like the business review is their opportunity to talk about where the business is going well, where the business is not going as well, and what’s keeping them up at night so that I can help them, as opposed to them feeling like they’re under the microscope, and all they have to do is show you they’re on top of the data, which I think is a meaningless exercise.
Q. Any particular techniques for managing your time, the crush of e-mail?
A. I try to go to sleep every night, wherever I am in the world, with fewer than 10 e-mails in my in-box. I try never to read an e-mail twice, so I delete it when I’m done. One of my philosophies is I respond as soon as I can, and if it’s important enough and I’ve deleted it, it’ll come back. And I say 10 only because sometimes there are attachments that require a little bit more effort, and so you don’t want to be flippant, either. But for ones that are F.Y.I., you know, I just delete them.
I have another philosophy, which is, unless I am the sole person on the “to” line, I don’t feel the need to respond.
Q. Why take the extra step of deleting it?
A. I think it just feels cleaner. It feels like I’ve dealt with it.
Q. What do you think business school should teach more of, or less of?
A. I think business schools need to focus more on a cross-functional curriculum to help aspiring managers think about things not from the perspective of finance or marketing, or accounting, but cross-functionally. The second thing I would say is leadership and really talking about how you equip people to think and learn and adapt. I think that’s really more reflective of how successful somebody is going to be, as opposed to a mastery of a specific piece of work in one of those functional disciplines.
Q. So leadership can be taught?
A. Well, I believe that sharing experiences and enabling people to reflect on what’s important to them and how they would react is certainly a way for individuals to be able to think about what’s important to them and how they hone their leadership style.
Q. Is there a question you ask other executives to get insights into how they manage and lead?
A. I ask people to tell me the hardest issue that they have faced and how they worked around it, and how they think about it. I think that in dealing with adversity and dealing with challenges, you learn a lot more about how individuals react. I have a number of friends who run public companies. I tend to ask them about the tough times that they have faced and what they have done. You learn a lot from what others have gone through. You also realize that you’re not alone when you experience some of those challenges yourself.
Q. How do you think about failure?
A. You know, there is no such thing as failure. You’re always learning. You gain experience. I have looked back at aspects of my career where somebody might look at it and say, you know, that start-up was not successful, and I look at it and I say, “I learned how to build a team, how to raise money, how to sell a vision, how to create a product.” It was a great steppingstone for me.