Working hard to shore up its business relationships with shareholders, discontent customers and technology partners, Avid Technology announced changes in its organizational structure and management team last week. The company is embarking on a new corporate strategy designed to “meet the continuously evolving needs of the marketplace.”
In a letter to customers, Gary Greenfield, Avid’s CEO, pledged to be more “open” with its technology; to refresh product lines more frequently; to better listen to customers; and to build products with “with differentiated performance, at the right price.”
He wrote that in speaking with customers and business partners, the message was clear: Avid needs to do a better job of listening to our customers and developing solutions that truly meet their needs. Greenfield said Avid will become more open, offering greater interoperability between Avid systems and third-party products.
To address this and other shortcomings, the company has combined all sales, marketing and service into a single department called customer operations, to be headed by Kirk Arnold. Other new departments now include new business units focusing on video (representing all professional and consumer video lines) and audio (Digidesign, M-Audio and Sibelius), as well as customer success (service and support), administrative operators and corporate development.
David Lebolt, former general manager of the audio group, was named Avid’s new chief technology officer. Current sales and support contacts remain unchanged. Greenfield added that Avid is committed to providing customers with the solutions that “inspire passion, unleash creativity and realize dreams in a digital world.”
