The company I work for, Infusion is a developer-centric company. When I first met the owner I could tell right away how much he valued ability and intelligence. Infusion's strategy has always been to find the smartest people and grow them into leaders. Another developer-centric company is ThoughtWorks. The owner of the company, Roy Singham founded ThoughtWorks to disprove some of the myths that businesses had of intellectuals. My favorite is the following:

"Intellectuals must be run by B students since intellectuals are idealist and only greedy B students are pragmatic enough to make real decisions"

Not sure if I would consider myself an A student but I have seen in many companies this type of thinking. I find many companies who aren't developer-centric feel that technical people can't interact with customers or learn anything about business. I have been throwing around some ideas in my head and wanted to write down the criteria for developer-centric company.

• Developers are not tightly managed and complete their tasks with minimal manager interaction.
• Developers are viewed as professionals who are self-motivated and take pride in their work. They are not watched over.
• The company is always looking to hire smart people with the right attitude. They feel hiring the right people is fundamental to the success of the company.
• Developers are looked to provide business insight in addition to their technical contributions.
• Performance and ability is preferred over seniority or politics.
• Project managers are views as facilitators not controllers.