'There is rapid growth of our business here'

-Dr Jack Gao, VP, APac Emerging Geo

What is
the vision behind the formation of the Emerging Geo Steering Committee?

Our chairman, president, and CEO, Carol Bartz realized that the potential
for our growth was in new and emerging geographies. The reason we have formed
the new APac Emerging Geo, which encompasses India and the Greater China region
is because of the rapid growth of our business here. There has been a
dramatically high growth in this region and we need to focus our attention on a
special strategy to suit the requirements of this market. We have an emerging
markets steering committee, which consists of Autodesk's chairman and CEO,
Carol Bartz; COO, Carl Bass; senior VP-worldwide sales, Ken Bado, and myself.

What's
the update on your R&D plans in India and your business model?

We currently have a team of 46 people doing development for us at Symphony
Services at Bangalore. There is a very strong connect between the US, China, and
India. We have an R&D team of 200 people in China. We have R&D in the US
as well. Similarly, we will also ramp up our India development center to
strengthen the arrangement. We have a two-tier business model in India. We
interact directly with our customers and also work through our channel partner.
Ingram Micro is our main distributor and we have a network of over 40 reseller
partners. With the width of market that is accessible to us, we need to have a
wide network to reach all our customers.

Any
infrastructuring building that you would like to focus on?

Autodesk is focused on four major verticals-manufacturing, infrastructure,
building, and media & entertainment. We are active in all four segments here
in India and see a great potential for growth in these segments, especially with
the current business ecosystem and with India becoming a very critical global
business destination.

Minu Sirsalewala