Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily news and commentary show, hosted by Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the Cloud.
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In this Cloud Wars Minute, Bob Evans details how Workday turned up the intensity on the back of Q4, with the company’s co-CEO Carl Eschenbach setting out to turn the company into one of the “largest and most profitable” software companies in the world.
Highlights
00:38 — Workday announced its Q4 earnings results earlier this week. After listening to the earnings call, Bob noted that there has been a “change of personality” for the company.
00:55 — With new co-CEO Carl Eschenbach, Workday is “cranking up the intensity a little bit,” says Bob, noting that Workday is being more assertive about having earned the right to be a premier software company.
01:19 — Workday is in the range of about a $7 billion annual run rate and has spoken about its desire to become a $10 billion company. But in his first earnings call, Eschenbach very bluntly stated that Workday wants to be one of the “largest and most profitable” software companies in the world.
01:40 — Eschenbach also noted on the earnings call that in Q4, Workday earned seven new Fortune 500 accounts and 11 new Global 2000 accounts. Of the seven Fortune 500 accounts, three customers migrated to Workday from Oracle and SAP cloud applications.
02:12 — On the international side, “international represents 50% of Workday’s total adjustable market, but only 25% of Workday’s revenue.”
02:40 — Doug Robinson, who is co-President and Head of Global Sales at Workday, noted that Eschenbach told the sales team that they need “more giddy-up.” Robinson provided details on the earnings call about the ways that Eschenbach has increased the energy and intensity, remarking that it is a “great thing.”
03:09 — Eschenbach joined Workday two months ago as co-CEO alongside Aneel Bhusri. The company has planned that a year from now, Bhusri will step out of his role as co-CEO, taking over as Executive Chairman of the board and Eschenbach will become the sole CEO.
