Metro moment for Hyderabad’s own boy

Hyderabad: It began as small talk on a Metro ride from Tarnaka to Ameerpet — nine stations, about 25 minutes. Someone was checking social media newsfeed on their phone: Shantanu Narayen stepped down from Adobe after nearly two decades at the helm of one of Silicon Valley’s most recognised software companies. The man next to him leaned over to see the screen. By the next couple of stops, three people were talking about it. That is how Hyderabad processes its own. Narayen grew up here, studied at the Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet, and probably spent enough evenings over Irani chai and Osmania biscuits growing up in Vijaynagar Colony, studying Engineering degree in electronics and communication engineering in Osmania University.

From there he left for the US and eventually Silicon Valley, where he took charge of Adobe and held the top job for nearly 20 years, guiding the company through one of the most significant transformations in tech world. The city never stopped quietly claiming him.“Think about it,” said Rohan Reddy, a techie in his 30s, scrolling through his phone as the Metro rattled past Mettuguda. “He studied in the same city and he ran one of the biggest software companies in the world.” His friend/colleague nodded. “It’s like Satya Nadella. When people from here end up running companies like Microsoft and Adobe, you can’t help feeling proud.” Nobody was being dramatic about it, the pride seemed understated.

Long before the word ‘startup’ had become the national hobby of every engineering college dropout, Narayen co-founded Pictra, the world’s first digital photo-sharing website. He joined Adobe in 1998 and became CEO in 2007.Under his leadership, Adobe moved from boxed software to cloud services — Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Experience Cloud, reshaping the company for a new era. Adobe’s employees’ base grew to 30,000 from 3,000, while annual revenue skyrocketed from under $1 bn to over $25 bn. Brilliant for a boy from Hyderabad who once thought he might become a journalist, a sailor or even a cricketer. Long before Silicon Valley, Narayen was editing the Eagle magazine at HPS, debating on stage and acting in school plays.