Savi Technology Reviews in Mountain View, CA

Pros

Some good people there and the benefits are decent. If you have a clear understanding that is documented up front, one can get some good experience there.

Cons

Since the aquisition by Lockheed, Savi has struggled to find its place and has lost its small company feel. Also, the technology has fallen behind and is no longer exciting.

Pros

It's a job for now.

Cons

In September the Savi executive leadership cut the last of the muscle out of the company to make the books look appealing to prospective VCs. All of our tribal engineering knowledge is gone. All of the product management capability is gone. We have no product road map nor any real ability to produce one. Our ability to innovate is severely hampered because we lack the resources with the proper experience. Pretty much every major business process is broken or no longer followed. Because of the lack of history, people and process, everyone is in firefighting mode. Executive values are suspect and morale is very low. The general consensus is that the guys at the top have no clue what they are doing technologically and are only out for themselves. Anyone thinking of buying this company should look very close. Buyer Beware.

Advice to Senior Management

To LM Management - Your first mistake was putting a salesman in as CEO in 2006. You didn't learn from that mistake and put another salesman in charge with the current CEO in 2011. Everyone in Silicon Valley knows you should never put a salesman in charge of a technology company.

Pros

Great people
Great products
Good teamwork on the line

Cons

A once great company run aground by poor leadership at the top
A dysfunctional sales organization that can't close deals
WIth a RIF every year since 2008 and another looming for 2011, doesn't look promising
Until they fix the leadership issues it is best to keep moving and don't look back.

Advice to Senior Management

LM needs to get in and take charge if they want to retain any of the value that remains in this company.

Pros

Free snacks and sodas
Great People
Above average salary
Flexible hours/work from home

Cons

Constant reorganization
No clear plan from upper management.
Management does not consider the humanity of employees, one would never know when arriving for work if this is the day they would be layed off. Management seemed to relish this power over employees and in turn it fostered a culture of paranoia. Ca. is supposed to notify employees of impending layoffs, I don't know how Savi gets away with this.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider the humanity of their employees.

Pros

Interdepartmental growth opportunities, competitive salary, and free sodas.

Cons

Downhill decline due to heavy reliance on Government spending and lack of commercial marketability led to significant loss in revenue. This directly impacted the company's ability to hire quality people who could offer new, innovative ways of achieving the same goal.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't let your good people walk away... retain those that offer significant contribution to overall company and culture.

Pros

Great "tribal" knowledge.

Very focused on low power/long battery life product design.

No shortcuts re. product quality/reliability (DoD influence does have a positive effect...)

Great physical environment, Caltrain/Lightrail access.

Compensation & benefits, even after a recent lay-off (Feb. '11) still have a 401k match, whereas most firms "yanked" that in the recent "Great Reccession."

No day-to-day influence of "Big Brother" Lockheed (tho increased Lockheed oversight of "purse strings" now in place, so that could well change...).

Cons

Extremely political- most I've seen in a 35 year career! CYA is the guiding principle...

Feel like the only person in the company with actual experience re. 3rd party (i.e., ODM/OEM/JDM) type product development/rebranding, whereas pretty common the past decade, or two, in the Valley.

Still very "vertical" organization; "matrix" project teams and sense of common goals is fairly lacking.

Advice to Senior Management

Considering current headcount, a much flatter organization is needed. Try to instill a sense of urgency/"Can Do" attitude to offset surprisingly "comfortable" and complacent attitude of so many of the remaining workforce. CEO search could lead to a "light at the end of a tunnel"

Pros

Great talented individuals; Working with top companies in the world on developing solutions; leading edge technologies;

Cons

Early stage start-up;burned thru funding before critical product release; Growth resulted in process & communication breakdowns. Company could not sustain thru long sales cycles.

Advice to Senior Management

It was good to work there; while there's always a chicken-and-egg cycle with sales-and-product; it may have been good to initially focus on a niche market and monetize it before trying to go for the whole enchilada.

Pros

Nice work environment.
Nice people with good working attitude.

Cons

More than usual corporate re-organization.
Very political.

Advice to Senior Management

Be focus.

Pros

Savi Technology Inc. is a small part of the bigger Lockheed Martin Company. Working at Savi is fun because of all the nice people over there and being small makes you mingle with almost everybody in the company. Everybody are willing to share knowledge and work across teams.

Cons

No Vision Coverage. No stocks or ESPP.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more transparent to Senior Managers and Directors.

Pros

DoD business stable and healthy margins. Nice building in good location. Technology is fairly interesting, although company hasn't really been on the innovation train lately.

Cons

Lockheed Martin management style and Savi culture fundamentally incompatible. Very political, lots of backstabbing, high turnover in certain functions. Competition gaining on Savi. Lockheed introducing mind-boggling bureaucracy.

Advice to Senior Management

Too many levels of hierarchy (Savi Group). Spread into too many business units, only two of which are significant revenue and margin contributors.