A company that values programming over its business won't stay around long (see the recent front page submission called something like "your stack is not your product"). Sales is what covers payroll.

However a company that values programming over managing will prosper more than a company that values managing more than programming. Just enough management that everybody knows they're working on the right thing is best for all (including the managers).

Process for its own sake (I'm looking particularly at cargo-culting "agile" astronauts) sucks the life out of everybody involved.

Valve. They're kind of dysfunctional from what I hear.

Isn't google the canonical example?

I've been a manager at Google. It is not the canonical example