Side Effect’s Kim Davidson on CGenie’s survey results, Autodesk co-founder John Walker’s words

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CGenie interviews Kim Davidson, President and CEO of Side Effects Software on the company's outstanding customer satisfaction results at CGenie's survey. Worth checking out, Side Effects are certainly doing some things right. This should come as no surprise, those who have been around for a while may remember the kind of policies Autodesk was founded on and grew up with, one need only recall Autodesk co-founder John Walker's words: "Everything we've done, all we've achieved, and all we hope to do in the future is made possible by the customer who buys Autodesk products. (...) What the hell is an end-user anyway? The last guy on a dull needle? I suggest that we ditch this yuppie-babble and call the people whose dollars and trust support our company by the old-fashioned term of respect they are due. Customers. They deserve the very best we can do for them. Little else matters very much." Check out his remarks at a 1987 company meeting as well as at a 1990 company meeting. In fact, the whole book on the history of Autodesk called "The Autodesk File" by John Walker makes for some very interesting reading.