Corbis Reviews

Pros

Great product -- some of the world's best images
Good compensation (if you make sales targets)
Decent benefits
Tends to attract creative, interesting people

Cons

I was in the LA office -- there was some downsizing and the office didn't have the exciting vibe of some of the bigger offices. It felt like it was on the side a bit.
The stock photography industry is in decline. Made it harder to make targets (and money) each year.

Advice to Senior Management

Look for opportunities outside photography.
Don't forget the LA office -- lots of good people there. You are too Seattle-centric there. You need to be more about LA or NY if you want to be a more recognized media company.

Pros

Great team members, many opportunities for promotion if you work hard, competitive compensation / benefits package, inspiring one of a kind content, creative environment

Cons

Very consensus driven, Needs a better 401K match

Advice to Senior Management

Trust and Empower your talent, Focus on building a winning culture

Pros

People
Real nice imagery
Downtown office in seattle
Bill Gates Owner - Good thing in Seattle

Cons

Layoff many times in a year - always worried about job
VP's are very Junior and have no vision. Just followers of Upper Management - Worried about their job. Though good people
No investment
Unfair promotions and organization. Does not value work - but more value to relationships

Advice to Senior Management

Sell Corbis to Getty

Pros

Intelligent colleagues, great benefits packages, beautiful and relevant photography, the existence of numerous offices outside the United States gives relevant global perspective on stock photography usage trends.

Cons

Corporate direction often clashed with customers' needs, major layoffs 1-2 times every year, inconsistent rewards for job performance, stagnant career paths.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide consistent recognition and rewards for annual job performance, listen to the needs of editorial clients (not just advertising/commercial clients), provide opportunities for colleagues to learn other jobs in the company, provide mentoring at all levels.

Pros

Good benefits include fitness and education reimbursement. Good medical benefits. Time off is flexible and if you get selected there are good management training programs.

Cons

Leadership is not inspirational at all. The business plan is constantly changing directions and staff can never feel very secure in their jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

Stick with a plan. Be more open with your staff about the good and the bad things that are going on.

Pros

Respect for staff
Strong support from Owner
Compensation and benefits better than average in general

Cons

Low job satisfaction
No clear direction and follow through by top management

Pros

Work-life balance, excellent knowledgeable employees, good pay and benefits.
Digital Media is a cool and contemporary industry and subject matter is very interesting to work with and leverage technology for

Cons

Company touts egalitarian workplace values, and preaches employee retention measures then re-orgs almost annually, losing all credibility. The employees are dispirited and no longer trust management.
Corbis is always chasing the shiny object and never follows through on any concrete, innovative idea. They lack innovation and so they turn to cost cutting as their method for prosperity. It is sad, all those talented people in a company that cant lead then anywhere,

Advice to Senior Management

Sell the company to someone that can run it. After 20 + years, Corbis is yet to be profitable.
Corbis needs results or new leadership.
Stop treating employees as costs to be eliminated before the last of your talent walks out the door

Pros

Outside of upper management, the employees are some of the best in their field. Unfortunately they don't stay long.
Great free coffee machine, if it stays given all the cuts taking place.

Cons

Employee cuts are determined by payscale. Long term and highest paid are let go. Employees are not valued by upper management. Upper management style is to manage by intimidation. Corporate structure model has no board/executives. CEO/COO run company by dictatorship.

Advice to Senior Management

Realize "YOU" are the reason the company is not profitable and has retention issues.
A company will never be "World Class" with sub par upper management.
Would you continue to run the company as you are if Bill Gates had an office beside yours?

Pros

Decent benefits for a small company, however reduced over the last few years.

Cons

The tech investment is over, it's back in to the cutbacks again.

Pros

can get your arms around the company and yet still has all the complexity and challenges of companies much larger
staff seems to have passion for delivering good work
location is good and casual
hope that Bill Gates will infuse vision

Cons

senior management focused on dialing for dollars and not effective e-commerce and execellent product delivery
broken administrative processes and supporting technoogies (finance, HR, legal) add hugh overhead
short on strategy long on changing shotgun tactics
little trust between senior management and staff

Advice to Senior Management

you cannot save your way to profitability
given our size - focus on doing fewer things with excellence as opposed to doing many things poorly
make it a priority to retain employees as they are the greatest asset
become more transparent in all aspects of our business