PLM Perspective
Change is the most powerful force in nature and one that all of us in industry have had to face with increasing frequency. I remember a colleague noting that once upon a time a business' mission was to set a path, be first up the mountain, establish ownership, then savor and defend the view. Now, he says, it is more like putting a kayak into whitewater, paddling constantly to gain an inch or a meter and hoping you see the big wave coming before it swamps you.
That comment does reflect the degree of change and pressure many businesses have faced over recent years. Some companies do get stuck in the rapids or swamped by a wave, but others learn from the challenges and the pressure sparks a degree of innovative thinking that would never have happened on the safety of dry land.
Our customers' success depends on their staying agile, innovative and adaptive to change. Our goal, always, is to help our clients transform their businesses so they can gain value from change and so they can be change leaders, not followers. It is our business goal as well.
As we change over to our new name, brand and more autonomous business model of UGS PLM Solutions, we have the exciting opportunity to be more flexible, more focused and more responsive to the changing needs of our customers and our industry. We can follow our own vision, our own strategic roadmap and our own tactics. We can change on our own terms. Already, we have seen the momentum of our business accelerate as we move down this path.
Going into 2004 -- a key transitional year for our company -- we have the wind at our backs from a strong second half performance in 2003. In the fourth quarter of last year, earnings for which were just reported last week, we showed 14 percent revenue growth over the same period a year earlier. In addition, for the fourth quarter, we reported a 67 percent growth in operating profit over the same period a year earlier.
When you combine our fourth quarter revenue performance with our results in the third quarter of last year, we achieved 13 percent year-over-year revenue growth, giving us what we believe to be solid momentum to build on.
Overall for 2003, UGS PLM Solutions reported a 4 percent revenue growth over the prior year, and better than 20 percent growth in operating profit over the prior year. How did we do this in a tough economy? Our second-half revenue growth contributed, as did our disciplined cost controls throughout the year. But so did our ability to continue to transform ourselves, and to always understand that change is the one constant we must not just accept, but embrace -- all on behalf of our customers.
So as we introduce UGS PLM Solutions and the PLM market to potential investors and tell them our story, we have had a unique opportunity to reflect on the transformation we are going through and how change has only enhanced our vision and purpose, not to mention our performance.
We have had the opportunity to integrate the products and cultures that came together to form the PLM Solutions organization in 2001 and to mature into a stronger, more focused entity.
Back then we set aggressive goals for the advancements we're delivering today: a strong unified NX product that supersedes the value of all our previous offerings; knowledge driven product engineering tools that radically reduce time to market; an enterprise PLM backbone that supports the most comprehensive and collaborative set of product lifecycle tools in the industry; a new standard for openness that allows our customers and partners the flexibility to implement the best PLM solutions to support their own unique needs.
We have used change as motivation to set new goals, but we have not let it deter us from delivery and the result is that our clients can trust us to do what we say we are going to do -- and to do it well. Now, as we move forward with more self-determination and independence, our goals can become even more aggressive and our vision more focused. But our commitment to delivering the world's best value in PLM solutions -- solutions that help our clients change their businesses for the better -- is the one thing that will never change.
PLM Perspective - February 2004 Main Page.
