Pros

The stock is potentially worth a lot due to patent lawsuits. There are a lot of talented, pleasant, and fun individual contributors. TiVo generally has a fairly good life work balance, flexible work hours, and makes an interesting product. The top management is doing well at getting business deals and has some vision.

Cons

The middle management, particularly for engineering, is completely incompetent, terrible at planning (and getting worse), and has no idea what the word efficiency means. For a 400-ish person company the management chain can get to be 7+ people deep, which is insane. A lot of the technology is 10 years behind the times and built in-house (poorly). Off-shore contracting is run with inadequate oversight. Modernization attempts have been particularly poorly planned and run. Morale is low; this is not seen as a concern.

Advice to Senior Management

Personally, I'd bring in a consulting firm with an aim to remove about half to three quarters of the middle management. I'd also change the bonus structure and technical leadership oversight to incentivize medium/longer-term planning and actions.

Pros

Well known in DVR - consumer electronics field. Casual and friendly working environment. Cross-function career development for employees. Flexible hours. Nice Perks.

Cons

Traffic to commute though 237. Employees don't get free TiVo service. Don't see many new products introduced lately. Business model need to re-invent.

Advice to Senior Management

Business model need to be re-visited. Competion is tough and the law-suit can not be the main key to business success. Broadcast and Broadband convergency is the answer.

Pros

Free digital video recorder if you agree to do weekly "home work" assignments on beta software.
TiVo is a well-known brand and it is nice to not have to explain what the company is when you tell people you work there (but then they tell you what they want changed or fixed and you have no ability to do that sadly)

Cons

Management is not concerned with the individual employees - note the layoffs last year with no warning and skimpy severance. Management asking employees to take on even more work with no help.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the employees in mind - it's about more than just the bottom line and the lawsuits about patents. Need to be honest and open with your staff if you want them to stay there and be happy. And stop with all the excessive parties - enough with all the alcohol at events.

Pros

Great place to work; super smart people (at least it used to be); industry changing products. Pretty much non-political; fair advancement and opportunities existed when I was there.

Cons

unclear business model / plan; difficult to see TiVo ever becoming huge; likely aquisition at some point?

Advice to Senior Management

Keep employees motivated and engaged; keep equity high for employees while the biz model gets worked out.

Pros

Great funtions: BBQs, Holiday parties, ice-cream socials, holloween and cook-off events etc..

Cons

There's no accountability to results or perforamnce. Honest feedback is rare.

Advice to Senior Management

Their pay should equate to the overall performance of the company.

Pros

I think the people working at TiVo are some of the most dedicated coworkers I have worked with. TiVo goes to great lengths to provide a fun and engaging work environment. We have free Ice cream parties, beer busts and lots of food, every holiday is celebrated and the summer carnival are just a few of some of the great things TiVo does for it's employees and their families. My times for work have always been flexible, and I am able to work from home at least one day a week. My supervisor recognizes the hours and effort I put in on a weekly basis, and often allows me comp-time for days off.

Cons

I work a lot of hours, commuting from Santa Cruz sucks. Would be nice to have a satellite office in Scotts Valley. Frequently the job requires me to be up past midnight and even til 2 and 3 in the morning - when this happens on a weekly basis it is really tough. I do enjoy working from home the day after, but the late night will throw off your body clock so its not very healthy to do it frequently. Most of my work deals with the most visible parts of our company's image so it requires much flexibility and attention to detail.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't over-discount the product!! Too many side promotions dilute the value of the product. Stay on track with licensing and partnerships.

Pros

Laid back work environment, if you like abbreviated work weeks and working from home, this is the place for you. A lot of parties.

Cons

No accountability because very few show up - there is no sense of building for the greater good. A lot of pompous over qualified employees runing around patting themselves on the back, worrying about their work life balance and numerous other buzz words and cliches. People managers with no training or expectations can make a dismal work environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Run a business like a business, be practical and humble.

Pros

Empowerment, great coworkers, fun environment, challenging projects

Cons

Less perks than larger valley tech companies, tough competitive environment, crummy corporate location

Advice to Senior Management

Focus and make decisions faster

Pros

Innovative product, but that's about it. Aside from the innovative product, which I admit is the best thing invented for TV, it's really hard to say anything more that's positive about the company.

Cons

Management from Senior level and downward are mediocre, want to be managers, who lack all the basics skills of "managing". They show high favoritism to those who brown nose and show high incompetency when it comes to recognizing those who truly contribute to the success of the organization.

Advice to Senior Management

Take courses in management to understand the role of a manager and understand what people management skills consist of, outside of brown-nosing. Sr. management is highly over-rated and many have been promoted up the ladder far to quickly and easily, simply because they were brown nosers. Few really did the work and often times pushed work onto those who did do the work, but took every credit for it.

Pros

We make a cool product and people get excited when you tell them where you work. We try to subscribe to the "Work hard, play hard" policy. We have a PS3 and Rock Band, as well as foosball and regular "beer bashes".

Cons

We are understaffed and constantly and crazily trying to meet deadlines without fixing old problems first. The stress level and pressure continue to grow. Unfortunately, we don't get much time to "play hard" because we're too exhausted.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate with each other!