Re: Pinnacle
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Julian Luttrell : <personal opinion>

Mike,

I suspect that Pinnacle, as an organisation, is suffering a lot from a combination of
a growth through disparate acquisitions
b cultural differences between divisions
c trying to aggressively carve a long term market position at a time when the industry is turning itself upside down.


"That may be true, Julian. But they've exhibited this behavior for over 7 years now. Somewhere in there they could have learned a little bit about caring for customers."

I've been in their position and it is always a matter of choice for the Board of Directors and Upper Management.

About 7 years ago, when Avid was their largest customer, everything was rosy. Then Avid (and Media) got into trouble because they thought the broadcast market would grow forever. The orders for the Pinnacle OEM hardware products started to dry up and, as you say, they started looking for an out.

Hardware products have great gross revenues but when times get tough, the gross revenues really take a hit. They were a captive of their OEM customers.

So become independent of the OEM. But one cannot sell hardware without software in the consumer market and they didn't have much of a software capability. Good software takes longer than hardware to develop. And then they needed to develop a customer base who prefers their software.

If revenues drop, so do the Upper Managers. So what to do?

"Wait! I know! Let's buy some customers!"

Instead of saying to themselves, "we have a great and profitable, if smaller business here," management and the Board decided to buy their way out of trouble.

After all, if you are always in the middle of acquisitions and integrating those organizations into yours, you cannot be blamed if the increasing revenue does not lead to increasing profits, can you?

I've been in companies that tried that approach. It so very rarely works that one would think Stanford B school would start teaching students to avoid that path.

What they (and to be honest, other companies) count on is fast market expansion in the uneducated user sector. Then they present an ever-changing product target that obsoletes yesterday's product before the consumer really understands that it doesn't work. If the consumer want's it to work, then they have to buy something that is supported today!"

<Soapbox/off>

We are saying the same thing:)

I'm not defending them in any way - sorry if my post came across that way. I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about Pinnacle, and want to air it often:)

Julian

PS to give them their due - the colour correction filter in Edition is now spankin' - it's a shame it's wired into Edition...

I guess I never knew how lucky I was to be using Final Cut Pro! (Premiere also works fine, just more comfy w/FCP having spent many more hours at it) I guess you don't think I should buy Pinnacle!

:-)

Hey, I found a great new use for cheap XLR cables! Because trying to re-solder the flimsy wires back onto the connection points only results in the plastic insulators melting or breaking, you can save time by lopping off the plugs and heaving them in the dumpster, then taking the now-unterminated cables outside and using them as ropes to tie down your tarps on your outdoor machinery. I just covered my tractor and wood chipper that way! Hee hee!

Hey, Westport never has bad weather! Or are you afraid the colors will fade? :-)))

Well, today it does...the auto body shops'll be plenty busy after this!

Yeah, I'm worried that Martha Stewart will write me a citation for faded tractor paint. Actually, I really don't like sitting down on a tractor seat full of water...stupid John Deere design. I have already had to replace the seat cover once.

All things considered, I'd rather be in Vallejo today.