ACCESS Systems Americas – “Frustrating. The management is disconnected and cost-obsessed. We create zero value.”

Pros

There are a lot of good people who try really hard at the individual contributor and mid-management levels. The pay is solid and the benefits are pretty good.

Cons

The most senior management (in Japan) are nothing but an obstacle. They have no business in Silicon Valley. They are unimaginative, cost-obsessed, and incredibly reactionary. They respond to major senior management failures by laying off low level workers and keeping the people who made the dumb decisions. I think if the shareholders knew how terribly the place is run, and how low morale is, they would be angry.

Advice to Senior Management

If you are going to be a product company (and successfully transition from a service company), you must do product development and focus on quality and innovation. Don't be timid. Don't insist on a level of ROI that no one else in the industry enjoys, especially before you develop any product at all.

The management has to love what they are creating, and right now, they don't. Management takes an adversarial role, as if they were investors. It is bizarre. If you can't understand the product, you can't lead its development. Find a new product or retire, but don't be an adversary to your own employees.