National Instruments reviews

Company culture is changing after acquisition.

...Ritu Favre and her inept team. When Emerson acquired NI in 2023, Ritu was inexplicably named president. Why? Her technical understanding is non-existent, her business decisions have drained $250 million in revenue and caused layoffs, and her leadership style has all the charisma and substance of a cardboard box. She’s the quintessential corporate placeholder—spewing empty platitudes like “we need to execute and win” without any tangible plan or vision. NI doesn’t need buzzwords. It needs innovation. Yet under Ritu, new product development is constantly stifled, and priorities shift with every new industry fad (Artificial Intelligence in T&M! Sound familiar?). Building meaningful products for customers is impossible in such chaos. Blame the acquisition? Sure, Emerson’s focus on process over innovation inevitably breeds dysfunction. But Ritu’s role demands the courage to push back against conformity, to carve out space for NI’s success. Instead, she folded on even basic issues like remote work. The 4/1 policy Emerson forced down doesn’t even make sense for many NI offices, but Ritu lacked the backbone to stand her ground. The result? A demoralized company with no clear strategy. This isn’t just anecdotal—less than 50% of employees expressed confidence in NI’s direction during a recent engagement survey. And Ritu’s response? Gaslighting. “You just didn’t understand the question.” The leadership team mirrors her failings perfectly: a clique of greed-driven opportunists more focused on their bonuses than the company’s survival. When faced with solutions to critical issues threatening revenue, customer loyalty, and employee stability, their first reaction isn’t “how can we fix this?” but “what’s in it for me?” And to top it all off, the pay is below market value.