Adobe Has Run Out of Allies

Jaron Schneider for PetaPixel: Adobe’s business model, led by now-outgoing CEO Shantanu Narayen, kept following the money. Individual users are good, but big business contracts are better. Why settle for $50 a month from a photographer in Indiana when it could get a multi-million dollar contract from a corporation in Los Angeles? Adobe started to shift its focus to enticing those corporate customers to the detriment of its connection to the customers that gave it success to begin with. In order to better serve the interests of corporate clients, its media team changed. It ditched its long-time public relations firm that was extremely successful at connecting the business to working artists, for one that was better at getting Adobe featured in the magazines and trade publications CEOs read. It stopped putting its product managers and engineers in media briefings and public events, instead replacing them with team managers who had never used the software. It put media-trained executives…