This “Marvel” helped a powerhouse pivot to a “sticky” business model. Learn more about him here!

For this article, we’ll talk about one of the key people who helped Adobe become the creative industry juggernaut it is today.

Continue reading to learn how this “Marvel” helped the company transition to a “sticky” business model that helped it remain profitable and widely sought after.

This “Marvel” helped a powerhouse pivot to a “sticky” business model. Learn more about him here!

Adobe  has established itself as a powerhouse in the creative industry through software solutions like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro.

These solutions have become the go-to for designers, photographers, and anyone else working in the creative field.

Adobe is also a household name in the financial market and the Software as a Service (SaaS) space due to its ability to deliver shareholder value.

That said, this dominance is not just due to the quality of Adobe’s products but also the pivot it underwent more than a decade ago.

You see, prior to 2013, Adobe distributed its software to users by having the latter pay for lifetime licenses to continue using the company’s software.

Intervals for software upgrades would come in cycles of a year or two, and each time this happened, users could pay to upgrade or choose to keep using the software version they already had.

That is, until  Mark Garrett, then-chief financial officer (CFO) of Adobe pivoted towards a different business model that would lay the groundwork for the company’s current success.

Garrett, after having obtained his bachelor of arts degree from  Boston University  in 1979, entered the world of business when he worked for  IBM  in the same year. By the time he left the company in 2002, he had held various executive and management positions.

In 1986, he obtained his Master of Business Administration with a focus on Organizational Behavior from  Marist University.

After leaving IBM, Garrett went on to serve as the chief financial officer and executive vice president of  Documentum, which was sold to  EMC Corporation.

After the sale, he served as chief financial officer and senior vice president of  EMC Software Group, a subsidiary of EMC Corporation from 2002 to 2007.

By 2007, Garrett joined Adobe to become its executive vice president and chief financial officer. When he joined the software giant, he had more than 25 years of financial management experience in the technology sector, which helped him immensely during his tenure that lasted until 2018.

As chief financial officer, Garrett made a name for himself by helping Adobe transform its business into a cloud-based subscription model.

In 2013, the company abandoned its perpetual license business model in favor of a “Creative Cloud” where users had to pay monthly or annual fees to maintain access to the company’s software solutions.

While this shift was met with some skepticism from Wall Street and consumers, it helped Adobe turbocharge its revenues after a decline in net income in the short term.

More importantly, this shift laid the groundwork for Adobe’s ability to generate revenue, which stands at over USD 21 billion as of 2024. Additionally, the software giant’s market cap stands at over USD 160 billion as of June 2025.

Even though Garrett retired from Adobe in 2018, the success of the shift he helped achieve cannot be denied.

Also, since his retirement from the software giant, Garrett has served as a board member for various tech companies like  Cisco  and  GoDaddy.

So, what are the keys to his success?

• Willingness to make radical decisions.
  
  In an interview, Garrett said the decision to pivot to a subscription model was sparked by the global recession of 2008.
  
  During a conversation with Adobe’s CEO, he said the company cannot turn to layoffs whenever revenue takes a dip.
  
  The solution?
  
  Avoid the revenue dips entirely by shifting to a subscription model that enabled Adobe to enjoy recurring revenues.
  
  This was a radical and unpopular decision at the time because the shift would lead (which actually happened) to short-term revenue dips. It also led to lower customer retention rates because the move wasn’t popular to a sizable segment of customers.
  
  
• Practicing transparency.
  
  During the shift to a subscription-based business model, Garrett said Adobe practiced transparent communications to shareholders because the company’s restructuring would lead to changes investors might not understand from the get-go.
  
  This level of transparency not only applied to shareholders but also to employees, board members, partners, executives, and other stakeholders.
  
  According to Garrett, transparency was needed so everyone involved in the shift could understand what he and the rest of the company were doing and why they were doing it.
  
  

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Clearly, Garrett’s success cannot be overstated enough.

His decades-long career has shown his ability to thrive in multiple leadership roles.

However, what truly defines Garrett’s success is his ability to pull off a pivot when the company he worked with truly needed it.

Even though Adobe’s pivot to a subscription-based business model was met with doubt and negativity, he pushed on because he knew this was what was needed for the company to thrive.

So, if you’re looking for inspiration, Garrett’s story is definitely worth keeping in mind and taking inspiration from!

You never know, his story just might be what you need to supercharge your career or business!

Hope you’ve found this week’s topic interesting and helpful.

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Stay tuned for next Monday’s Marketing Marvels!

Imagine walking into a boardroom where everyone’s suits look pressed, but their ideas feel flat…

Learn more about  Tony Stark/Iron Man  in next week’s article!