Autodesk 2008 Annual Report Download - page 37

The Compensation Committee also has authority to obtain independent advice and assistance from internal
or external legal, accounting, or other advisers.
Benchmarking of Compensation
To ensure that our executive compensation practices, including base salaries, target incentive awards, and
equity grants are competitive and appropriate to our objective of key executive attraction and retention, the
Compensation Committee uses the independent third-party executive compensation surveys mentioned above
that report on the compensation practices of a group of companies in our industry as well as competitors for
executive talent (collectively, our “peer group”).
Our peer group is reviewed and updated each year to ensure that the comparisons are meaningful. Several
factors are considered in selecting our peer group, including industry, products and services offered, revenue
level, geographic location, and competitors for executive talent in our labor markets. For fiscal year 2008 three
companies were removed from our fiscal year 2007 peer group: Seibel and Veritas (both purchased or acquired
by larger companies) and Google (deemed too large of a company with executive compensation programs not
appropriately comparable to our programs).
The Compensation Committee uses the compensation information about the pay practices of our peer group
and the information provided by our outside compensation consultants to assist it in its decisions about overall
compensation, the elements of compensation, the amount of each element of compensation and relative
compensation among our executives.
For fiscal year 2008, the companies in this peer group are listed below. These companies all have
headquarters located in the San Francisco Bay Area with the exception of BMC Software, with headquarters in
Houston, Texas.
Adobe Systems Intuit
BEA Systems Network Appliance
BMC Software Symantec
Cadence Design Synopsys
eBay Yahoo
Electronic Arts
Elements of Executive Compensation Programs
Autodesk’s executive compensation program has three major components: (1) base salary, (2) short-term
cash incentives, and (3) long-term equity incentives. The Company also provides a comprehensive benefits
program and under certain circumstances termination protection. These programs are designed to attract, retain,
and motivate highly effective executives to achieve our business goals and improve stockholder value by linking
compensation to our overall strategic and financial performance. Although the amount and mix of each of these
three components generally are determined by objective assessment, the Committee retains and exercises
judgment and subjective assessments in its ultimate compensation decisions.
Base Salary
Our base salary component provides fixed annual cash compensation set at a competitive level that
recognizes the scope, responsibility, and skills required of the position. Each of our executive positions is
assigned to an executive salary grade level and associated pay range based on an internal assessment of each
position’s impact and scope of responsibility. The midpoints of the salary ranges are developed to reflect the
increasing scope of responsibility at progressively higher executive levels and to remain competitive within our
peer group. The midpoint of each range generally falls in the middle range of pay for similar jobs within our peer
group. In general, executives who are new or less experienced in their role will be paid lower in the range than an
executive who has demonstrated proven performance in their role for many years, is highly proficient in the skills
required for their role and applies those skills to very high levels of achievement.
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