Akamai reviews

Marketing is a disaster right now. New leadership took over a year ago and has since fired majority of middle-management and many of the individual contributors, replacing with cronies from previous company. New team is focused on playing defense and making excuses for underperformance rather than making any improvements. Morale is low low low -- Those not fired either have quit, are actively looking, or waiting for sev package from next round of firings. I'm in the third camp. One thing all three camps have in common is that we're all "checked out," made all the easier by the fact that leadership is often out of office.

The very tragic truth of Akamai is that they lost their "Steve Jobs" or "Jeff Bezos" in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. His name was Danny Lewin and he was the true visionary and heart behind the company. The other co-founder, Tom Leighton, is just a really smart guy (former professor at MIT) who is now only a figurehead. Running the company now is a cadre of moderately-effective suits who have some managerial skill, but wouldn't know innovation and leadership if it bit them in the ass. The core technology developed and commercialized by Lewin and Leighton (et al) in the late 90s was/is strong and solves very real problems inherent in the way the Internet was built. The thing is, you could have put a chimpanzee in charge of Akamai with that technology and he'd look like a genius a few years later. There was almost no way to fail. And this is where the main cultural problem with Akamai lies: The guys who were given the golden goose think they are badasses when, in reality, they're just average joes.The upper management of the sales structure is a boys' club of undeserving millionaires inwardly insecure about their abilities and therefore manipulative and highly political. Sagan's internal communication always seemed dismissive and even sarcastic, as if talking to the rank-and-file were a chore. This culture has trickled down to the bottom and now infects the whole company. Kiss ass and tear others down for a few years? Great, you get a promotion! Work hard and be loyal? Don't kid yourself. Nobody at Akamai cares. You see, Akamai has reached the top of its growth curve and is now faced with a double-whammy. (1) The CDN marketplace is becoming more and more commodotized. Telling customers you can provide the 8th "nine" of performance when competitors are at 1/4 of the price is not a winning strategy. And developing ticky-tack add-on products to pad the bottom line will only get you so far. (2) They seem incapable of pivoting into a new growth area. How did that foray into advertising work out? Ooooh, well what about the acquisition of Velocitude? Yikes. Why should you believe me? You don't have to. They hired a new president in late 2010 and he left after a year. There are no obvious lights at the end of Akamai's tunnel and he knew it. Why does this matter to you, the prospective applicant? Because you'll probably be coming in at the bottom of the ladder and there is NO MOVEMENT anymore. Without growth, there will be no one coming in underneath you and since the promotion opportunities are based on time served, you'll be last in line. If you want a good paycheck, join Akamai. If you want career growth, look elsewhere.