Autodesk Inc. today promoted COO Carl Bass to president and CEO, succeeding Carol Bartz, who after 14 years will become executive chairman of the CAD software giant.
The transition, effective May 1, does not signal a change in the direction and strategy of the San Rafael, CA company, according to both executives, who briefed analysts and media in a conference call this morning. The $1.5 billion company grew 30% last fiscal year and expects to increase its revenues by 20% this fiscal year, according to officials. (Click here for coverage of Autodesk's fiscal third-quarter results.)
The company issued its fiscal fourth quarter 2006 guidance last week, projecting revenues of between $405 million and $415 million. Moreover, it is marching ahead on an aggressive acquisition path; just last week the company completed its purchase of industrial design company Alias for $197 million.
Having guided Autodesk to a leadership position in the PC design software space, Bartz, citing personal reasons -- mainly spending more time with her family -- decided the time had come to pass the baton. "I also think that Carl is just ready," she said during the conference call. "The board and I have been working with Carl in his role as COO ... he's ready to go, and I'm ready to play a little more."
It won't be all play, however, as Bartz will be focusing her time on expanding Autodesk's presence in emerging markets such as China, India. and Eastern Europe, as well as developing strong ties with key customers, partners, and investors.
Bass, on the other hand, who over the past 10 years at Autodesk has held a variety of roles including chief strategy officer, CTO, and executive vice president of emerging business, will continue to build on the company's existing businesses: manufacturing, infrastructure, buildings, and media and entertainment.
Manufacturing is the largest market opportunity for the company at the moment given the pace and amount of change taking place. Within that space, Autodesk faces numerous challenges. "The first is the competitive pressure on all manufacturing. The pressure to compete more effectively and to do so on a cost-competitive basis has people looking at ways to bring better products to market quicker," Bass said in an interview with Managing Automation.
"Second; globalization ... has been accelerating -- how a company designs in one part of world and manufactures in another," he continued. "And third is computing. You have hardware and software sold at one-tenth of the price it used to sell for and it is more capable, so people can build more cost effectively. The things going on with network connectivity, CPUs, and software, like our Inventor product, enables companies to compete more effectively."
The only problem may be that the opportunity exists not only for Autodesk, but also its key competitors including UGS, PTC, and Dassault Systems. A new study to be released next month by Manufacturing Insights, a research unit within International Data Corp., asked systems integrators and manufacturers across a variety of industry sectors whether there were any significant differences in CAD and PLM tools.
"The one conclusion I was able to draw is that there is a perception that there is not much of a significant difference between different PLM and CAD providers," said Joe Barkai, program director, product lifecycle strategies at Manufacturing Insights. "And any functional differences are not that significant in terms of making investment in one vs. the other. So the tool vendors will have to work much harder to show value."
Bass said he's up for the challenge, noting the Autodesk differentiation, which revolves around the notion of "democratizing technology." Autodesk, he said, sells "to the mainstream market at affordable prices and [does so] in a way that people get quick return on investment."