If you listen in on conversations around the government contracting community about in-sourcing, “opportunity” isn’t a word you’ll hear often.  Still, Bill Goodson of Autodesk says he sees in-sourcing as an “…opportunity to help government clients become more efficient and knowledgeable.”  Bill has good reason to be optimistic – his public sector business is one of the fastest growth areas at Autodesk, and he sees major opportunities in helping agencies “go green” with Autodesk’s ubiquitous design software.  Some salient quotes:

• “We’ve made a significant investment in making sure that our customers have the ability to operate either remotely in a single environment and be able to share content.  This dovetails nicely into cloud computing.”
• “We’re in every market that you can imagine…[including] every single agency in the federal community.”
• “…we think that for every dollar that the government invests in Autodesk that there will be a seven times reward on the commercial side of our business.”

ExecutiveBiz:  What are Autodesk’s core competencies?

Bill Goodson:  Autodesk is a world leader in 2D and 3D design engineering and entertainment software.  We help our customers visualize their ideas before they realize it.  By helping customers imagine their products (ranging from little bluetooth accessories to skyscrapers),we give people the opportunity to picture these and experience their products digitally before they start building.  You can save a lot of money and time in doing that.  Something that Autodesk is probably not known for is that we play an important role in the media and entertainment world. A fun fact is that Autodesk has received 14 Academy Awards for best visual effects.  When you go to the movies and see The Lord of the Rings or other major blockbuster movies with a lot of visual effects, there is a high probability that Autodesk is behind them.  Another thing that we try to do is to make sure that we continue to draw some of the best, brightest and most talented creative people in the industry.  Relative to the government side of the business, in the past, there has been  a need for spending around rework. This adds to cost and delays in construction.  We help people in transportation to better plan how they are going to build roads, so they can  understand where all of the utility lines are, and to make sure that they take into consideration all of those things before you actually build the roads.  If we can help on the front end of the design side we’re looking at huge savings for our customers.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is your ratio of government to commercial clients?

Bill Goodson:  I am responsible for the public sector business and it is one of the fastest growth areas for us at Autodesk.  We’ve been growing at a double digit rate over the last couple of years and we attribute that growth to three key areas which tie in very nicely with the stimulus packages: transportation (such as roads and highways), more sustainable design for energy efficient buildings, and renovating and repairing the aging infrastructure surrounding water and waste water.  Those are big focus areas for job creation and for new opportunities within the government community. We look for almost a 7:1 ratio for government to commercial clients: we think that for every dollar that the government invests in Autodesk that there will be a seven times reward on the commercial side of our business.

ExecutiveBiz:  Who are some of your biggest clients?

Bill Goodson:  We’re in every market that you can imagine.  We’re in every single agency in the federal community; some of our largest customers are in the DOD community, the Air Force, the Navy and the Army.  We’re also prevalent in the federal civilian agencies as well.  As part of our responsibility we have a state and local community; we are really focused on the transportation side of the business in that particular phase of our market.

ExecutiveBiz:  How is competitive insourcing affecting your business?

Bill Goodson:  We see in-sourcing as an opportunity to help our customers become more efficient and knowledgeable, even if they may not be engineers and may not really understand a lot of the technology.  One of the mandates from the new administration is to renovate 75% of the government’s buildings for greater energy efficiency.  Designers are looking for easy-to-use tools, and Autodesk offers a very robust suite of off-the-shelf software packages that allow them to model these ideas on a computer in three dimensions so they can examine the project and ask “how can we get this to be more energy efficient?” and “where do we have potential leakage that we need to control?”  A lot of people are struggling right now with “what does going green mean?”  How do I get there?  What kinds of tools are available?  This is a focus area we’ve been pursuing for a long time.

ExecutiveBiz:  How will Autodesk keep growing in this difficult economic climate?

Bill Goodson:  The economic climate is not going to change any time soon, but right now we’re looking at different ways to grow, including focusing on our core competencies and listening to what our customers are saying, and one of our unique programs, by giving back to the community.  One way that we are doing that is through the Autodesk Assistance Program.  A lot of people have lost jobs in this particular market, and now they need update their skills.  The Autodesk Assistance Program offers free training and software to help them become more proficient, and learn new job skills that get them back into the marketplace.  It’s been a very, very effective and popular program that we’ve rolled out nationwide.

ExecutiveBiz:  How will Autodesk take advantage of new federal cloud computing initiatives like Apps.gov?

Bill Goodson:  That’s an emerging solution enabling to share content throughout the community and not having to have individual licenses.  We’ve made a significant investment in making sure that our customers have the ability to operate either remotely in a single environment and be able to share content.  This dovetails nicely into cloud computing.  It lets you take advantage of the ability to share software resources across a very wide community.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is your biggest challenge in business today?

Bill Goodson:  This is probably one of the biggest economic challenges that any of us have faced in our working careers.  We are taking a look and saying what we can do as well as what we need to do.  For us it is about focusing on what we do best and it’s not getting distracted or opportunist but being very intentional and focused on what we do.  We are going to continue to be focusing on our thought leadership, design, engineering and entertainment.  This is also an opportunity for us to really engage with our customers and our prospects and understand what emerging trends that they see and making sure that we are aligning properly.

ExecutiveBiz:  How would you describe your management style?

Bill Goodson:  I’m focused on people, communications and execution.  You are only as good as the people that you surround yourself with.  I put a lot of emphasis on attracting and retaining some of the finest people and I’m really privileged to work with some of the best people in the industry supporting me.  From a communications perspective I have an obligation to provide clear direction on where we are going, what we are going to focus on and what we need to do to achieve success.  I’m a huge believer in teamwork and also that we have a healthy balance of fun, hard work and focus.  At the end of the day, it’s all about execution.  We like to say that we’re not in the best efforts business, we’re in the best results business.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is something most people don’t know about you?

Bill Goodson:  I grew up most of my life overseas and had the opportunity to go to school in Argentina.  While I was there, I’ve always enjoyed sports – I think most people that know me well know that I have a competitive spirit and probably associate me with tennis or golf.  In high school I had the opportunity to learn ping pong.  Believe it or not it was a pretty heavily sought after sport in South America when I was going to high school.  I had the opportunity to travel all across the countries in South America to compete and represent our high school.  I don’t think people associate me with a ping pong champion in South America.

Tags: Autodesk, Bill Goodson
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