I picked up Keith Richards' new book recently while killing time in an airport. One thing that stuck out is a passage about how Keith always has a grin on his face…like he knows something you don't.
I think that from now until AU I will perpetually have that same look on my face!
In my last post “What's Business Critical to You?” I commented on our Everything Changes website. It clearly got a few of you talking about what we are working on. Most of the speculation I’ve seen from others thus far is interesting – and in some cases humorous – although that’s only because I know some things you don’t.
Now here is where my job (if I want to keep it) gets difficult. I could lay down some blanket statement about "it's so much more or different than that", but don’t the companies in this industry do that all the time? Besides, I could say how different things really will be, but haven’t we all been conditioned to expect the letdown? I see it all the time…Same problem, same solution, with a different look, a new marketing spin, or hyping nothing more than a new name as if it’s a revolutionary shift in thinking. Am I right?
A recent announcement from one of our peers in our Manufacturing market, while entertaining with its intro, was met with some level of excitement, but as expected ended with the inevitable let down. They claimed to have solved the 3D interoperability problem... between their *own* products. Great. As if customers are going to get overly excited about the CAD industry solving its own problems. Yeah! Your own products work better... together... each word escaping your mind with the slowing pace of yet another let down.
Now I'm not going to say that Autodesk hasn't done the same at times. Hell, it's my job to be the loudest, most vocal pitchman in the industry, right? And I'd like to think we've had some good times along the way. I mean who can forget my Allen Iverson video intro, or my Pulp Fiction tribute...?
This is exactly why I say my job is currently a little difficult.
A) I’m bound by confidentiality not to say what we’re up to, and
B) I can’t just say that what it is we’re up to will change everything without sounding like I and all the others have before.
So, I won't even go there.
All I can really tell you is that after AU you will likely view Autodesk differently. This isn’t about just providing customers with boxes of software, or pushing data files to some legacy toolset, but redeployed in some re-branded cloud. That would certainly result in the kind of let down the others have conditioned you to expect. This is about our commitment to providing customers with innovative, ground breaking solutions, designed to improve the way they work. This is about delivering on promises others have made – but have failed to deliver.
-Rob
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