Anagnost: Autodesk made no major strategic decisions during six-month co-CEO period
Andrew Anagnost · How a high school dropout became the CEO of Autodesk (with Andrew Anagnost) · Sep 10, 2026 · at 12:35
Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost recounts the operational paralysis that occurred when the board placed him in an interim co-CEO arrangement in 2017.
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“For six months, no major strategic decisions were made at the company.”
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“I go home every night thinking I do something that's useful to the world. I don't go home thinking I screwed up teenagers' minds. I don't go home thinking I screwed up the whole publishing industry. I don't go home with any of those feelings. I go home feeling…”
Anagnost says former CEO Carl Bass strained Autodesk by not pruning projects
“Carl, on the other hand, would create hundreds of these. He'd let them pop up everywhere. To the point that it would stress the company's ability to execute. Carl's style was much more let a thousand flowers bloom and maybe never prune a single flower.”
Anagnost: Co-CEO structure works much better at small companies than large ones
“It works much better at smaller companies than it would ever work at a large company, right?”