Autodesk 2010 Annual Report Download - page 123

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The discussion in our MD&A contains trend analyses and other forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Forward-looking statements are any statements that look to future events and consist of, among other things, our
business strategies, anticipated future operating results, the impact of our restructuring activities, the impact of
acquisitions and investment activities, the effect of fluctuations in exchange rates on our financial results, the
impact of economic volatility and geopolitical activities in certain countries, particularly emerging economy
countries, and the resulting effect on our financial results, and our ability to successfully expand adoption of our
horizontal design products, our vertical design products and model-based design products. In addition, forward-
looking statements also consist of statements involving expectations regarding product acceptance, continuation
of our stock repurchase program, and short-term and long-term cash requirements, as well as, statements
involving trend analyses and statements including such words as “may,” “believe,” “could,” “anticipate,”
“would,” “might,” “plan,” “expect,” and similar expressions or the negative of these terms or other
comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on
Form 10-K and are subject to business and economic risks. As such, our actual results could differ materially
from those set forth in the forward-looking statements as a result of the factors set forth above in Item 1A, “Risk
Factors,” and in our other reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no
obligation to update the forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after
the date on which they were made.
Strategy
Our goal is to be the world’s leading design, engineering, and entertainment software and services company
for the architecture, engineering and construction, manufacturing, and digital media and entertainment markets.
Worldwide business trends such as globalization, sustainability, investment in infrastructure, and the increasing
desire to keep data digital, are creating pressure on our customers to improve innovation while enhancing
productivity. We enable customer innovation by delivering the broadest portfolio of products and services for the
digital design, visualization, and simulation of real-world project performance. Our products help our customers
increase efficiency and productivity while solving business challenges. Our customers are seeking differentiation
through design, and we believe our products provide them with a competitive advantage to succeed in this
environment.
To achieve our goal, we believe that we can capitalize on our competitive advantages, including our ability
to make technology available to mainstream markets. By innovating in existing technology categories, we bring
powerful design products to volume markets. Our products are designed to be easy to learn and use and to
provide customers low cost of deployment, low total cost of ownership and rapid return on their investment. In
addition, our software architecture allows for extensibility and integration with other products. We believe that
our technological leadership, brand recognition, breadth of product line and large installed base positions us well
for longer-term growth.
We believe that our large global network of distributors and resellers, third-party developers, customers and
students is also a competitive advantage. These relationships provide us with a broad reach into volume markets.
Our distributor and reseller network is extensive and provides our customers with global resources for the
purchase and support of our products as well as resources for effective and cost-efficient training services. We
believe that our network of channel partners positions us well for longer-term growth. In addition, we have a
significant number of registered third-party developers that create products that operate with our software
products, further extending our reach into volume markets. Users trained on our products are broadly available
from both educational institutions and the existing workforce providing us with a student community of next-
generation professional users and reducing the cost of training for our customers. To train the next generation of
users, we offer education programs, including classroom support, standardized curricula, instructor development,
and specially priced software-purchasing options.
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