As much as I found this hard to believe its true. Of all the companies out there being hit by the recession it seems that even industry giant, Adobe Systems is not immune. Adobe will be laying off an estimated 680 staff, or 9% of its work force in an effort to reduce cost.

Now personally I am an Adobe enthusiast and have defended many of their decisions as a company in the past, but I don’t think I can stand by this. The recession is a temporary problem, as a company I believe they would rally more support and increase profits by lowering the pricing of bundle products like Creative Suite 4 to meet with the economic needs of consumers and companies alike. Furthermore by refusing to layoff employees they would be eligible for the assistance the government is offering to companies that retain or expand their workforces to deal with the unemployment crisis.

This is what gets me, the fact that we live in an age where people have stopped making providing a quality product and service and making it available to most of their consumers, their first priority, it seems that everything is profit margins, and shareholders. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some naive idealist who fails to grasp the importance of the bottom line. However when I started working a kid at the mall in retail I learned that I could outsell the older more experienced employees 3 times over by not thinking about what I want and need and focusing on giving others what they need and want. As a result I got referrals and repeat business and huge commissions. If you put people first, they will come to you before going anywhere else, you can only build loyalty by showing people you value them; when did building brand loyalty NOT help profits? When did building employee loyalty NOT increase productivity?

When companies like Adobe stop looking at people and only start looking at the numbers, things start going downhill, and honestly I’ve always felt Adobe was well above this. They’ve been one of the most innovative companies of our age, and a pillar in the educational community and introducing media arts into school systems.

Furthermore these  job cuts will be made worldwide. Adobe also reduced the workforce at Omniture, which it has just acquired.  This is meant to bring Adobe’s costs in line with its 2010 budget. Personally I feel it shows something resembling a lack of faith, I find that disturbing coming from Adobe.

They have amazing products that are industry stables. They can expand this market by developing lower cost consumer products that reach a broader and younger audience, much like they’ve done with Premier and Photoshop Elements. Combining this with an effort to really introduce younger users to their products they are creating a client base in the future for their professional grade products, and increasing the value of the creative industry in the process. By also lowering the prices for upgrades to their products I honestly believe they will reduce loss to bootlegging and yet again establish more brand loyalty.

Personally I find it really surprising that this new round of  layoffs has been announced considering Adobe announced a previous round of layoffs just last December, when it said it would cut 600 jobs worldwide to reduce costs. Stating that the recession had been causing slow sales of its Creative Suite 4 software.

In reality I believe that the slow sales of its Creatives Suite 4 software were primarily caused by pragmatic business decisions on the part of consumers. Lets face the facts. If you were not getting Production Studio Premium or Master Collection, there was little incentive to upgrade to CS4 over CS3, the best improvements were to Flash, Encore, Premier, AfterEffects, and Soundbooth, as well as Photoshop Extended. Ultimately most businesses and individuals already utilizing mostly Design Suite Premium CS3 or any of its individual products would gain very little regarding their day to day work from investing in and upgrade at this time. Those using Production Studio Premium or Flash would however benefit dramatically from the new features.

There is a change that the current economic situation at Adobe Systems may delay the release of Creative Suite 5 next year, a version of the product that I believe from what we have been seeing will actually be more than worth it to upgrade to or buy outright. We can only hope that as the economy continues to improve little by little, that Adobe will try to see its way through and not fall the way of companies past and take a long term hit to deal with a short term loss.

I for one believe that Adobe Systems can pull this one out if they don’t let themselves be seduced by the Dark Side. Lets all hope for the best. I’d love to hear what all of you think of this situation and your thoughts on what should happen.

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Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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