Thanks for visiting The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here Christoph Eschenbach’s visits to the Houston Symphony have come to mean that it’s Anton Bruckner Time The conductor’s recent returns to the orchestra he once led have featured Bruckner’s Symphonies No Saturday night’s reprise of the Fourth at Jones Hall belonged to a bigger picture Eschenbach is leading an international  Bruckner symphony cycle The event servesas a double celebration of his own 85th birthday—which arrives Feb 20—and the bicentennial of a composer whose music has long been one of his specialties which will yield audio and video recordings will match each work with a different orchestra Bruckner’s Fourth comprised Saturday’s entire program and Eschenbach and company brought much the same power and eloquence to the work that they did in 2019 But this performance was no mere repetition One key difference is that both the orchestra and the work reaped the benefits of modifications made to Jones Hall over the past few summers A new stage shell and changes to the auditorium’s side walls projecting the orchestra’s playing into the hall with greater richness and presence The cellos and double basses evidently have gotten a particular boost That amped up the grandeur of Bruckner’s trademark climaxes which  sounded even more rooted in the depths of the earth But the renovation also paid dividends at the quieter end of the spectrum In the yearning melody that opens the slow movement the cellos sang out with a warmth and resonance that they hadn’t possessed previously The performance was similar to that of 2019 in its broad outlines—the steady momentum the dance-tune buoyancy balancing out the majesty But vivid details made it all the more fresh and telling In the horn solo that launches the symphony principal William Vermeulen gave the upward leaps a vaulting quality that made them eager and assertive As the rest of the orchestra took up the motif helping set off the music’s first sonic groundswell Eschenbach and the orchestra made a potent difference between grand the strings’ drive and assertiveness redoubled the electricity: Even plucked strings added bite The strings barely murmured at the start of the slow movement gliding through their accompaniment to the cello tune And after Bruckner’s ruminations ran their course Eschenbach brought out the middle section’s lilt without losing the overall flow And even though the woodwinds stumbled briefly around the middle of the finale Eschenbach kept the momentum going through all the contrasts between turbulence as Eschenbach singled out players to receive the audience’s applause he even waded back to the double basses to shake hands When he finally stepped back onto the podium for a solo bow the musicians shuffled their feet in the traditional orchestral salute and the audience’s burst of applause and cheers had nearly the impact of a brassy Bruckner climax The Houston Symphony will repeat the program 2 p.m. Sunday at Jones Hall. houstonsymphony.org Posted Jan 12, 2025 at 10:48 pm by Allan Brain I’m impressed with the renovations to the hall–they finally fixed the restroom situation at least on one side and the seating is much improved with the center aisles This was a fine concert although I would have liked to see the tympanist also singled out as he was outstanding in the concerts I have attended with our regular conductor I don’t think I have ever seen him single out sections or individual players XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" former Houston Symphony music director Christoph Eschenbach conducted a program consisting of a single work– Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No is being recorded for medici.tv to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth and the upcoming 85th birthday of Eschenbach on February 20 This performance is part of Eschenbach’s season-long Bruckner Cycle in which he will conduct all nine Bruckner symphonies with nine orchestras around the world The Houston Symphony is the only participating U.S The combination of Christoph Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony has a rarefied history of exceptional performances built on a foundation of mutual admiration Eschenbach ended his eleven-year tenure 25 years ago having brought the Houston Symphony to higher artistic levels he has served as music director for several major orchestras but none with the chemistry he enjoyed while in Houston Houston Symphony musicians who know and love Eschenbach cherish his concert appearances a former orchestra member flew halfway around the world to play these concerts Eschenbach conducted Bruckner’s Symphony No 8 in what was the greatest Houston Symphony performance I had ever heard this evening’s concert was a notch below that lofty standard Eschenbach moved a bit slower crossing the stage The range of tone colors and expression were all there Rarely did his arms go higher than his shoulders an action that had been a trademark of his conducting He seldom looked at the score except to turn pages for the next movement His conducting style was more collaborative than authoritative Bruckner’s symphonies are not about the destination but the journey Eschenbach’s genius lies in his ability to transform abrupt harmonic changes and pauses between thematic material into a cohesive flow of musical ideas Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony features solo French horn throughout and is considered the most difficult French horn part in the repertoire due to its wide pitch range and continual playing It is not unreasonable to assume that Eschenbach chose the Houston Symphony to perform and record this particular symphony due to the artistry of principal French horn William VerMeulen That choice was rewarded with stellar playing each phrase was thoughtfully shaped and expertly executed The excellent French horn section joined him throughout sounding especially impressive in the idiomatic third movement hunting scene The “Romantic” symphony has an unusually prominent viola part the violas are the sole strings to join clarinets The second movement features Bruckner’s longest melody and which the violas played with expressive and delicate poetry That movement opened with the celli playing a tonally rich song without words They provided several folksy and gemütlich second-theme melodies throughout the symphony A key component of Bruckner’s symphonies is his use of the brass section in climaxes With first trumpet Mark Hughes taking the lead producing voluminous but never coarse sounds All combinations—trumpets with trombones and tuba French horns with trombones—were outstanding Timpanist Leonardo Soto continues to impress with his precise and incisive playing The Jones Hall audience gave Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony a standing ovation lasting several minutes it was enough time for Eschenbach to slowly move from section to section Distribution of the resulting video should enhance the orchestra’s international reputation Lawrence Wheeler was a music professor for 44 years He has served as principal viola with the Pittsburgh Symphony and guest principal with the Dallas and Houston symphonies Lawrence string quartets and the Mirecourt Trio His concert reviews have been published online on The Classical Review and Slipped Disc In the Chicago music scene of the 1990s Christoph Eschenbach was often the yang to Daniel Barenboim’s yin.  One would hear the latter conductor’s mercurial performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during the fall season and then experience fast and tensile CSO concerts under Eschenbach at Ravinia (where he was music director from 1995-2003) Eschenbach returned to Chicago to lead a Fleisch und Kartoffeln Austro-German program Friday afternoon (There was no Thursday night concert this week due to Rosh Hashanah.) Following up on their Chicago bow on the same stage in January duo-pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen made their CSO debut in Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos K.365,  in 1779 as a vehicle for himself and his beloved sister duo keyboard concertos tend to fall into a square and predictable trading off of phrases Mozart varies the playbook deliciously with subtle and unpredictable curveballs in the duo writing along with a typically rich fount of melody The Jussens played with striking polish and facility in the opening Allegro echoing each other’s phrasing and dynamics and trading off lines so fluently that without the visual element one wouldn’t even know when the other pianist had picked up the leading part played the primo part (stage left) with Classical poise and polished restraint; Arthur tackled the secondo role in a more forceful and at times theatrical fashion—often with a head-swinging obbligato—yet was no less musical or idiomatic the Dutch siblings’ playing was graceful and simpatico if not quite plumbing the full expressive potential of Mozart’s slow movement The Jussens were at their finest in the concluding Rondo throwing off Mozart’s challenges with seamless teamwork and stylish elan Eschenbach and the CSO musicians lent their keyboard colleagues equally refined and characterful support There was clearly an easy musical rapport between Eschenbach and the Jussens and it was a heartening visual to see the collegial young pianists insist that the 84-year-old conductor join them in their bows Repeated curtain calls elicited an encore of Igor Roma’s Strausseinander This diverting confection for two pianos breezily mixes themes from Johann Strauss Jr.’s operetta Die Fledermaus into a 176-key mashup The Jussens made the most of the anarchic bravura as well as the bluesy middle section The concert led off with “Dreaming by the Fireside,” the second Interlude from Richard Strauss’s Intermezzo the interludes are more memorable than the vocal sections of this talky opera Eschenbach drew radiant string playing in this lovely music building inexorably to a majestic peak and then descending to a serene coda Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony (No 6) closed the concert.  Eschenbach’s Beethoven in his younger years leaned toward the fast and relentless— a brisk marathon training run through the forest with a close eye on one’s time.  the German conductor’s Sixth breathes a more grazioso spirit this “Pastoral” allowed listeners to unhurriedly enjoy Beethoven’s day in the country Eschenbach took an expansive view of the opening movement—all repeats observed—underlining the subtle scoring and harmonic developments in a way that kept one’s attention even in this familiar music In the ensuing “Scene by the Brook,” the principal woodwinds delivered apt gracious charm not least in the avian cadenza near the end of the movement.  William Welter’s liquid oboe playing illuminated the rustic village musicians in the third movement and Eschenbach led a storm that was imposing and effective without being overly cataclysmic Perhaps the conductor’s emphatic style missed some of the benedictory glow of the finale but the excellent ensemble playing nicely rounded off this warm and generous Beethoven performance The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. cso.org Posted Oct 06, 2024 at 3:14 pm by Mary Goetsch Is there a name for the particular baton Eschenbach used its being hollow with two parallel sides to it looked like a double-bass bow having two wooden sides to it (no horsehair) – just wondered and realized the CSO can play without the maestro beating in the meter Muti at times would rest from beating time and let the orchestra play on their own Posted Oct 06, 2024 at 11:17 pm by Vonnie Lorber What was the duo piano encore on Sunday October 6 Posted Oct 07, 2024 at 5:27 pm by Ann Raven I want to say how much I loved the whole afternoon with Maestro Eschenbach the Jussen brothers and our spectacular orchestra Welcome to this exclusive interview with Carl Eschenbach, CEO of Workday, part of the Cloud Wars Top 10 CEO Outlook 2025 series Eschenbach shares with Bob Evans his excitement for the upcoming year and discusses how rapid advancements in AI technology are reshaping industries and unlocking new levels of productivity while also bringing up issues of ethical implementation and data security Eschenbach explains that there’s been a shift from experimental AI to practical implementation The shift means that “customers are going to look to go to trusted partners partners they have an existing relationship with partners that they know have a highly curated set of data.” Workday has such a curated data set there’s now a need for ROI and total cost of ownership analysis in AI investments Customers are looking to do “more with less.” They want to consolidate point solutions onto more comprehensive platforms like Workday Eschenbach provides examples of AI use cases such as job description automation and recruiter agents showcasing the tangible ROI and productivity gains in HR and finance Integrating AI with existing talent helps drive business benefits Workday’s success stems from its technology, large client base, and on-time delivery. “Our customers have greater than a 95% on-time delivery of the Workday platform and on budget,” Eschenbach points out “We know how to deploy this at scale across the biggest companies in the world which gives us a leg up versus our competition have very complex data sets and environments and can’t implement at the speed and pace and at the dollar value that a Workday can.” Other Workday attributes include its platform’s open architecture as well as its strong company culture and high levels of employee engagement AI Agent & Copilot Summit is an AI-first event to define opportunities, impact, and outcomes with Microsoft Copilot and agents. Building on its 2025 success, the 2026 event takes place March 17-19 in San Diego. Get more details. Eschenbach reports significant growth in the partner community and its impact on business 10% of our new business in New ACV [annual contract value] last quarter came from our partners Our partners are having a meaningful impact on our business We have grown our partner community by five times in 18 months.” He speaks about the focus on selling through hyperscalers and forming strategic partnerships as well as the potential in international markets and continued investments in new sectors “We’re opening up the aperture,” Escenbach says “We’re thinking about AI in multiple ways.” Curated data is essential for AI tools Eschenbach discusses the Workday platform’s integration with Slack and Microsoft to enable agent-to-agent communication underscoring that data is important in powering AI tools and delivering customer benefits In the face of the potential impact of global macro situations there’s a need to stay focused on innovation.”We focus on innovation and we focus on each other here inside the building and our workmates and we continue to support our partner ecosystem on a global basis So while there are some concerns out there Eschenbach concludes by expressing gratitude for his colleagues at Workday and global partners for their trust and collaboration He touches again upon the rapid innovation at Workday and their increasing investment in the platform as a key part of the future of AI Ask Cloud Wars AI Agent about this analysis Schedule a discovery meeting to see if we can help achieve your goals Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans actively analyzes the Cloud and AI categories through video reports and interviews with the Cloud and AI market’s leaders and innovators He’s also the creator of the Cloud Wars Top 10 a ranking and ongoing analysis of the world's most influential tech companies driving digital business and the digital economy Bob is recognized as a world-class strategic communicator focused on emerging business strategy   Contact Bob Evans ... Join Today The Cancer Letter The leading source for information on the issues that shape oncology since 1973 In an oral history conducted by FDA in September 2013 von Eschenbach recounted his eight-month stint in a dual role as both FDA acting commissioner and NCI director.  von Eschenbach walks through his childhood in south Philly and his journey from Philadelphia to Texas for a year-long fellowship at MD Anderson where he thought his four young children could temporarily “play cowboy.” Twenty-six years later and his children consider themselves Texans focused on von Eschenbach’s first-hand account of his attempt to lead two government entities at the same time: FDA and NCI Commissioner Crawford was going to announce his resignation and that’s a whole interesting conversational story unto itself.  [the resignation of FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford] was announced and my appointment as acting director was announced then director of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] and by Monday morning Secretary Leavitt and I showed up at the FDA headquarters at Parklawn and I met all of you as your acting commissioner and then I’d come over to FDA mid-morning and stay till late afternoon and leave and then go back to NCI and stay till whatever time it took at night It was not intended to be a permanent transformation as much as I had an appreciation and awareness of the institution what I didn’t have was an understanding and appreciation of the stress and the incredible duress that the institution was under it’s impossible not to love it; it’s impossible not to love it Von Eschenbach faced scrutiny from lawmakers and advocates about potential conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment which can be tracked in The Cancer Letter’s coverage at the time “This dual responsibility—which exists despite Dr von Eschenbach’s pledge to give up his ‘day to day’ duties at NCI—opens the door to unacceptable conflicts of interest,” the three House members wrote in the letter dated Oct “FDA and NCI each have critical and independent roles in the drug safety system,” said the letter signed by Reps John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) of the House Energy and Commerce Committee “Having the same person at the helm of the NCI and the FDA violates the independent safeguards build into this system There is no justification for merging these distinct roles.” The letter represents the first open challenge to von Eschenbach’s efforts to address the conflicts of commitment and conflicts of interest Others on Capitol Hill—on both sides of the aisle—have expressed similar reservations but are waiting for the Administration to make its next move Critics point out that von Eschenbach now heads the agency that regulates clinical trials sponsored by his institute and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt saying that von Eschenbach’s attempts to address potential conflicts have been “inadequate.” The Cancer Leadership Council sent a letter to President Bush stating that “the absence of permanent qualified leadership at the two agencies is a cause for concern.” The council comprised of patient advocacy groups and professional societies urged Bush to “make appointment of a permanent FDA commissioner and permanent NCI director a priority” for the administration I would never have been able to have looked myself in the mirror if I had left you all in that lurch would be like walking past someone in the street who’d gotten hit by a car And so for the three years that I knew the rest of my time in the Administration I made the commitment I’d stick it out to the very end It was the gold standard of the 20th century But what was obvious at that 2006 birthday was that the world around the FDA had radically changed and was radically changing And a lot of that had to do with the fact that it was so resource constrained; it had no energy to change; it had no freedom to change; it had no elasticity; it had no growth zone Von Eschenbach is now the president of Samaritan Health Initiatives Inc. a health care policy consultancy he founded have been hidden following the Trump administration’s order to purge government websites containing anything related to DEI or gender The PDFs with transcriptions of the interviews are still online but the central FDA landing page which formerly directed users to the agency’s collection of oral histories has been removed.  A partial list of scientists and officials who participated in FDA’s oral history project can be found in a previous issue (The Cancer Letter, Feb. 28 Read von Eschenbach’s full oral history on the Cancer History Project This column features the latest posts to the Cancer History Project by our growing list of contributors.  collaborative resource intended to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act and designed to continue in perpetuity The objective is to assemble a robust collection of historical documents and make them freely available.  Access to the Cancer History Project is open to the public at CancerHistoryProject.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at @CancerHistProj, or follow our podcast Is your institution a contributor to the Cancer History Project Eligible institutions include cancer centers To apply to become a contributor, please contact admin@cancerhistoryproject.com. How City of Hope is using AI to improve surgical outcomes In The Headlines: Private funding can’t replace federal funding—but it can help OK Cancel Site license subscribers:Log in with your IP | Register a sponsored account This article first appeared in The CEO Signal. Request an invitation Two weeks after he told 1,750 employees they were being laid off in the interest of “prioritizing innovation investments like AI,” Carl Eschenbach is not buying the idea that artificial intelligence will replace vast swaths of the workforce “I don’t think it’s going to destroy jobs at all,” Workday’s CEO says in an interview from its headquarters in Pleasanton “This is about augmenting humans in the workforce and driving a step function change in human productivity through the use of technology.” a supplier of workforce management software that competes with the likes of SAP and Oracle and carries a near-$70 billion market valuation has stated its belief that the future of work will be “human-centric” — even as it pitches clients that they should bring AI agents into their workforces as “digital employees” using the same onboarding process as any new recruit first logging into their HR system who remains a venture partner at Sequoia Capital more than two years after moving from a board seat to an executive role at Workday says his years working with startups taught him “there’s nothing more important than people.” His decision to cut Workday’s own headcount by 8.5% followed similar cuts by other tech companies including rival Salesforce just days earlier But it was not about replacing humans with their digital successors he insists: it was a matter of aligning resources to strategic priorities Workday needs to step up investment in the technology reshaping every workplace because there’s an opportunity to provide clients with a “single platform for all labor Most restructurings are about cutting costs and Eschenbach has promised investors in recent earnings calls that Workday will push to expand its profit margins But he says these cuts were principally about “driving innovation” and taking advantage of the “tectonic shift” AI represents he predicts Workday may have more people on its payroll than before the layoffs but they will be increasingly focused on its AI priorities “We’re going to just be smart about where we hire our employees in the future,” Eschenbach says pointing to markets where human employees typically demand lower salaries than in California Workday opened offices in Costa Rica not long ago he notes; it has roughly 2,000 people in Ireland; and in India Eschenbach sees AI “freeing up” employees from mundane daily tasks ushering in a new era of productivity in which people’s skills will be more valued than their educational pedigrees and football teams at this northeast Pennsylvania high school had the chance to attend a four-year college on a wrestling scholarship he chose a two-year electronics technician diploma to help launch a career that took him through tech groups like Lucent Technology will be critical to “reskilling” employees to work more thoughtfully and improve relationships between managers and their direct reports “Some people call them soft skills; I think they’re human skills.” If digital agents are just a new form of labor they will need the same level of governance and controls as any employee There are no such hoops for AI agents to jump through They don’t have governance around them… That creates massive risk.” It is a sales pitch as much as a theoretical point: earlier this month he launched the Workday Agent System of Record a set of tools to help clients such as Accenture and Amazon Web Services manage their AI agents alongside their human workforce “Everyone talks about this agentic world,” he says they’re also nervous about the potential sprawl of agents in the enterprise and not being controlled.” Eschenbach sees companies moving past a period of AI experimentation and committing more serious investment this year The demand for AI agents among its 10,000-plus enterprise customers is “tremendous,” he says But his optimism comes with a note of caution “When it comes to quantifying the return on the investment that people have made [in AI] it hasn’t been there as much as people had anticipated,” he says “but they’re going to be smarter about the ROI that they can expect they might not invest as heavily as they once thought they would.” Questions about whether Workday’s own investments would drive stronger revenue growth prompted Morgan Stanley analysts this week to lower their price target from $330 to $275 High hopes for AI spending have powered Big Tech valuations since Eschenbach became Workday’s co-CEO in December 2022 but investors are waiting to see stronger returns from companies such as Workday whose stock is down more than 10% in the year since he took sole charge One customer clamping down on spending is the US government where Workday has talked of a potential $2 billion market opportunity if it can update the aging systems federal agencies use to manage their people and budgets Workday has invested in chasing federal contracts over the past 18 months winning over the US Department of Energy and the Defense Intelligence Agency and telling analysts that more than 80% of Washington’s HR management and enterprise systems have yet to move to the cloud The newly created Department of Government Efficiency has set out to slash federal spending but Eschenbach said he saw no risk to that opportunity from the Elon Musk-fronted group it could be “beneficial” to his company “if something like DOGE is enforced in the right way.” “If you want to drive efficiencies in the government one of the things is to get off of the antique platforms you have today and move them to a modern architecture to reduce costs And that’s what we can help the government do,” he says “We think DOGE can have a positive impact in the future I don’t know if it materializes in the next six to 12 months we really think it’d be helpful to someone like Workday.” Workday sees a "tremendous opportunity" with DOGE the software company's CEO said on Tuesday "If you want to drive efficiency in the government you have to upgrade your systems and we find that as a really rich opportunity," Eschenbach said on an earnings call on Tuesday His comments about DOGE echoed similar remarks he made on a November call Eschenbach said despite high tech spending from the federal government its human resource and financial systems are "very antiquated." He added that most of these systems are inefficient because they are on-premises — still physically located on local servers Private and public organizations have been pushing to move their servers to the cloud for cost efficiency Eschenbach said that 80% of the federal government's HR systems were on local servers Workday makes cloud-based human resource software used by employers for job applications The company's fourth-quarter revenue was $2.2 billion beating analyst expectations of $2.18 billion Revenue grew 15% from the same quarter last year Workday rose over 12% after hours on Tuesday The company's shares are down 13.5% in the past year Workday cut about 1,750 jobs or 8.5% of its workforce Jefferies analyst Brent Thill wrote that Workday has an "attractive valuation" relative to other high-growth software companies and international opportunities that can drive long-term revenue growth Workday has been working with some federal agencies including the Department of Energy and the Defense Intelligence Agency we've started to lean into the federal business and opportunity more aggressively than we've historically done," Eschenbach said on Tuesday Eschenbach also acknowledged that there is "some uncertainty" regarding DOGE which has been throwing back-to-back curveballs at federal employees In this exclusive moment from the  Cloud Wars Top 10 CEO Outlook 2025 series, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach on the tangible value of the company’s AI-based Recruiter Agent for customers In the past two quarters the Workday Recruiter Agent has seen accelerating growth due to the ROI it’s delivering: customers are seeing upwards of a 50% productivity gain — that is absolutely something they will pay for 00:48 — The Recruiter Agent also helps accelerate onboarding or hiring of new employees by up to 30% so they’re the type of things that customers are looking for to justify moving towards these AI It’s an example of driving tangible value back to customers While AI spending on business applications and related solutions will increase significantly in 2025 customers are demanding that tech vendors must be able to demonstrate clear and quantifiable ROI around productivity gains In our recent interview for this ongoing Cloud Wars CEO Outlook 2025 series Eschenbach said business leaders are willing and eager to invest in AI-powered business applications but only if those leaders can clearly see a very rapid payoff “I think we’re moving from an experimental phase to a phase where people are now looking to implement this technology and do it in a way where it’s driving real business value,” Eschenbach said in our Zoom interview (you can see the full interview here) “There’s a lot of questions around AI in the enterprise and the pace of its adoption a lot of the money being spent on AI is at the infrastructure level we’ll start to move into the software layer in the application layer — but as I spend time with the enterprise and the C-suite out there but we now need to make sure there’s a return on investment we’re getting and there’s a total cost of ownership and a productivity gain,” Eschenbach said but they can’t really show the ROI associated with it.” And as customers crank up the scrutiny about their AI investments the primary determining factor will be data Eschenbach believes that Workday will be in a strong position to gain the confidence and trust of these more-discriminating buyers because of the company’s long history with AI and its unified model “As we move from this experimental phase into this new phase of people deploying it customers are going to look to go to trusted partners partners that they know have a highly curated set of data AI but your output of your AI is only as good as the data that you’re training it with and we have the best data set in the world and many want access to our data set to drive those outcomes.” The market dynamics around data quality as an indispensable element for AI success are spurring customers to focus more of their 2025 software spending on a smaller number of vendors that are able to meet the more-demanding standards Eschenbach described Business leaders are “looking to consolidate a lot of their point solutions onto platforms,” Eschenbach said “and we’re seeing more and more customers say ‘How do we leverage the investment we have in Workday to consolidate more and more of these point solutions to drive economies of scale and get a better total cost of ownership?’ And I think we’re super positioned to be the consolidator of all these point solutions and stop that sprawl from happening.” A big trend in 2025 is the move by companies such as Workday from being primarily applications vendors to being platform vendors that also have large and highly capable suites of applications Workday’s platform capabilities are enhancing its ability to be one of the core software vendors on which that consolidation happens “We know how to deploy at scale across the biggest companies in the world who at times have very complex data sets and environments and they can’t implement at the speed and pace and at the dollar value that Workday can,” Eschenbach said “So I think it’s the strength of the technology, both at the platform level and the applications, and then our ability to deliver on time. And because we’re a platform, and there’s much more being consolidated on us.” (You can see the full interview with Eschenbach here) and in the last two quarters our Recruiter Agent has seen accelerated growth because there is a tangible ROI and productivity gain that can be seen,” Eschenbach said “Our customers who’ve deployed our Recruiter Agent actually are seeing upwards of a 50% productivity gain in recruiting — and that is absolutely something people will pay for it helps accelerate their onboarding or hiring of new employees by up to 30% “Those are the types of results customers are looking for to justify moving towards these AI solutions as opposed to just kicking the tires and doing all these experimental things we’ve seen over the last couple of years This is why I talked about having solutions around AI that can drive tangible evidence of value back into your customers and that’s what we’re focused on doing.” In Workday’s case, being in the HR and Financials markets is nicely aligned with customers’ investment priorities “And I think both across HR and finance those are two functions in the enterprise that are going to actually start to see true benefits from AI more than many other departments.” Customers are 100% correct in demanding that software vendors back up the widespread hype about AI with real-world commitments for great business outcomes And for the software companies that can convince customers of their ability to deliver truly transformative AI-powered business outcomes “So it’s going to be a really interesting 2025,” Eschenbach said “I know there’s a lot of talk about the size and scope of the investment customers are going to make in AI But when you look at the overall budget for technology “And I think there are companies like Workday that are uniquely positioned to take advantage of that hypergrowth.” Workday’s growth rate fell for the seventh time in the past eight quarters, but CEO Carl Eschenbach expressed a bullish outlook about customer demand for Workday’s AI solutions and full-suite bundles as well as for the impact incoming president and chief commercial officer Rob Enslin will have Workday subscription revenue grew 15.8% to $1.96 billion and CFO Zane Rowe said the company expects Q4 subscription revenue growth of 15% to $2.03 billion which would give Workday fiscal-year 2025 subscription-revenue growth of 17% Rowe said Workday is projecting that full-year subscription-revenue growth will fall to 14% on a projected total of $8.8 billion the Q3 results released last week mark a clear trend of declining growth for Workday in the intensely competitive enterprise-apps field Here are Workday’s quarterly numbers for subscription revenue and growth for the past eight quarters starting with last week’s Q3 results and going backward through FY24 Q4: Eschenbach cited Q3 softness in the EMEA market as a major contributor to Workday’s measured outlook but also offered a few compelling details to go along with his bullish outlook for customer demand for AI and suites as well as for the Enslin Effect New customers like the full suite: “More than 35% of our new core customers in Q3 were full suite,” Eschenbach said referring to the decision by those customers to go with both Workday HCM and Financials That trend was particularly strong in the higher-education and public-sector verticals in which 90% of new customers went “full suite.” 30% of existing customers added Workday AI more than 30% of our customer expansions involved one or more of our AI solutions and Recruiter Agent powered by HiredScore,” Eschenbach said citing particular strength in the recruiting space “The [Recruiting] team closed more new logos in Q3 than in its 12-year history and our new ACV more than quadrupled compared to Q2… It’s clear that customers are ready to invest in AI that’s built for their specific needs and delivers real results They want solutions that are easy to implement without needing a ton of IT support.” Enslin “brings fantastic customer and partner relationships and a proven track record of success” and is “the perfect person to lead our go-to-market efforts as we move into our next phase of growth.” Enslin most recently was co-CEO at high-growth UiPath for a couple of years after leading Google Cloud to three years of industry-leading growth he led global field operations for SAP during its move from into the cloud a tenure that Eschenbach noted in his rationale for bringing Enslin aboard “His background and experience fit us nicely especially when you think about what we’re doing in international and he started the SAP business in China,” Eschenbach said “Because Rob spent so many years at SAP there’s not a single partner that Workday has today that Rob doesn’t already have relationships with and… I think he’ll bring a great outlook for the future to us.” While Salesforce and Workday have collaborated in various ways over the past 20 years their new partnership centered on sharing datasets and AI technologies goes far beyond anything they’ve worked on before and is a clear attempt to alter the competitive dynamics in enterprise software I shared my initial thoughts on this partnership last week in a piece called “Salesforce and Workday Target SAP, Oracle with New Data, AI Partnership.” My thesis was that while Salesforce and Workday are each leaders in their respective segments — CRM for Salesforce and HCM for Workday — neither could match the data-gathering capabilities of SAP and Oracle whose end-to-end application portfolios allow them to collect and analyze all of an enterprise’s data So I was intrigued to watch a YouTube video featuring Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach discussing the strategy behind this ambitious new partnership on a recent episode of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show on CNBC both Benioff and Eschenbach made it very clear that while the companies made a half-hearted attempt to cloak the significance of their new alliance behind the introduction of a new employee-service agent the true strategic intent is to enable customers to seamlessly deploy Salesforce data and Workday data to approach end-to-end coverage for AI initiatives And while neither Benioff nor Eschenbach mentioned SAP or Oracle it would be naive to think that those arch-rivals of both Salesforce and Workday were not vital factors in this new alliance Tracing the long-running collaborations between the two software-as-a-service (SaaS) pioneers “I called Marc five months ago and said ‘We have the three most powerful datasets and systems of record in the enterprise between your CRM and our financials and HR because no two companies have that level of datasets for the enterprise other than Workday and Salesforce Calling the new alliance “a revolutionary partnership that will change the dynamic of how people leverage AI going forward,” Eschenbach described how he and Benioff expect that customers will benefit from not just the federated datasets but also simpler workflows “I think what’s most important we have the three most-important datasets in the enterprise: the employee data And our objective with this partnership is to meet our customers’ employees in their flow of work,” Eschenbach said you can actually stay in those platforms and get access to each of the datasets that we have and you no longer have to jump out of either Salesforce or Workday.” “You can do precise workforce planning taking a look at all the skills that you have in your workforce and matching it against the demand that you have from your Salesforce data Think about doing continuous financial planning: leveraging Workday’s financial planning platform looking at the forecast you have in Salesforce and pulling those two datasets together and determining whether or not you’re on track to meet your financial goals or objectives,” Eschenbach said “And if you’re a sales rep and you’re in Salesforce and you’re working on a very complex deal the system now will provide you prompts on what to do next to help close or accelerate that opportunity.” Benioff was equally enthusiastic and spoke of the new partnership as a catalyst that will push AI capabilities to new levels “With this incredible new expanded dataset there’s a whole new range of applications and capabilities that we could have never imagined — plus we’re layering Slack on top of all of that,” Benioff said “So this is really a next step for AI: the ability to kind of bring more and more data together.” Benioff also tapped into a term and theme that his friend Larry Ellison has been using for several years: autonomous technology “So all these incredible things that you can do with Workday and Salesforce you will be able to do autonomously,” Benioff said “The power of what’s happening right now in our industry and what we’re really referring to is this: it’s really humans with AI that are driving customer success together and humans with AI that are driving employee success together,” Benioff said “But now there’s this idea of autonomous — wow this idea that we have agents that are acting on our behalf you’re seeing the expansion of our human sales forces and our human service forces and really our employee bases extended through artificial intelligence and agents That’s the idea that we’re able to kind of open up a new sales territory with a sales agent or do service deflection with a service agent the ability for employees to get the access to the information they need through using this agent technology “This is humans with AI driving success together.” I congratulate Eschenbach and Benioff for conceiving this compelling new vision and driving it forward and share their optimism about its potential for the customers of both companies the approaches that SAP and Oracle have been taking for a number of years in their attempts to offer end-to-end solutions that provide customers with unified data models and the opportunities to harmonize and optimize operations across large and complex enterprises The comments from both Eschenbach and Benioff indicate that they are hoping to be able to close the gap on — and perhaps even leapfrog — SAP and Oracle with new approaches to AI solutions and a striking new level of vendor-to-vendor collaboration And if I had to guess who the big winners will be in this new front in the Cloud Wars That’s easy; the big winners will be the customers who now have more options and more innovation at their disposal here at the dawn of an entirely new way of doing business Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily cloud news and commentary show Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the cloud In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I discuss my conversation with Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach who shared insights on the growing demand for clear ROI metrics in AI investments and the accelerating shift toward AI applications in 2025 00:07 —Today, I want to talk about my conversation with Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach. Workday is number seven on the Cloud Wars Top 10 Carl’s been the CEO there for a couple of years He has brought a new sense of dynamism and growth and vitality to the sales organization while co-founder Aneel Bushri moved from CEO to chairman 01:09 — Carl’s view is that we’re moving in 2025 out of the experimental phase with AI and customers are really going to demand some very strong proof demonstrations a lot of the AI investments were going into infrastructure hardware; this year that’s shifting to applications and agents 02:16 — Now he sees that this AI spending could be in hyper-growth this year he said HR and financials (Workday’s specialty) are now some of the top priorities for investments from customers a big topic that Eschenbach said we’ll see play out in 2025 is vendor consolidation He said this has been going on for a while but he thinks the move to AI is going to be an accelerant for consolidation because a lot of point solutions can be trouble for customers to integrate on their own 03:48 — He emphasized the point that business leaders he speaks with are wide open to the possibility of AI investment, and bigger portions of their budget going to AI. But he said the first thing we’ve got to understand is: What’s the business outcome going to be? Where’s the ROI, where’s the productivity 04:20 — So what we’re hearing from Carl Eschenbach is something we’ve heard a couple of other Cloud Wars CEOs talk about in this Outlook series we’ll be posting a full-length article based on the interview This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page 03-10-2025MODERN CEO Carl Eschenbach explains how workers—including CEOs—can coexist with AI [Images: Ony98/Adobe Stock; Boris Zhitkov/Getty Images] BY Stephanie Mehta Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach and his leadership team including cofounder and executive chairman Aneel Bhusri arrived at a big decision: the software company would restructure itself to free up operating dollars for investment opportunities tied to artificial intelligence (AI) The move would involve shedding hundreds of jobs marking the biggest layoff in the company’s history Eschenbach says he was “not at peace” because he had not had a chance to share his thinking in person with Dave Duffield Workday’s other founder and its largest individual shareholder Eschenbach met Duffield at the Jax Truckee Diner near California’s Lake Tahoe—the very diner where Duffield and Bhusri decided to start Workday 20 years ago this month—to lay out his rationale We brought you in to scale the company and we’re supporting you 100% in this very difficult decision,'” Eschenbach recalls was that we take care of our employees who were moving on.”   In early February, Workday announced it was cutting 1,750 employees, or 8.5% of its workforce, with U.S.-based employees receiving a minimum of 12 weeks of pay with additional severance based on tenure. Workday is just one of many tech companies, including Salesforce, Microsoft, and Meta, announcing layoffs this year But even as Eschenbach restructures his company to make room for more AI investments he insists AI will not result in mass unemployment he says of Workday’s layoffs: “If you fast-forward one year later if not more people in the company because we’re going to rehire as we invest in [the AI] opportunity.”   The workforce more broadly will “peacefully coexist with the technology and we’ll become more productive as humans and as employees because of the technology,” he says I asked Eschenbach what kinds of AI agents or automation tools CEOs should embrace He says all executives would benefit from agents that help with day-to-day “mundane” tasks (this is a common AI talking point) such as managing calendars or summarizing email messages But he also noted that Workday is starting to roll out agents that can summarize financial data ahead of earnings calls and monitor transactions to help with audits who has served as CEO or co-CEO of Workday for nearly all the company’s 20-year history “Every CEO should be thinking about how to integrate agents that enhance their ability to think strategically and make informed decisions faster,” he says “There are two primary types of agents: task-based and role-based Task-based agents can create some efficiencies but can become easily siloed I’d encourage executives to adopt role-based agents that can transform entire workstreams to free them up to focus on more strategic But AI also has the potential to free up leaders to do more of the meaningful, person-to-person work that’s become an increasingly important part of the job. In 2018, Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria published research in Harvard Business Review that showed CEOs spend 61% of their time in in-person meetings And while the study predated the pandemic and the rise of remote and hybrid work there’s no question that face-to-face interactions—like Eschenbach’s meeting with Duffield at the Jax Truckee Diner—will continue to be part of the CEO playbook in the age of AI Are you a CEO using AI to help you manage your time or run your business? Send your best examples to stephaniemehta@mansueto.com Your responses may form the basis of a future newsletter The final deadline for Fast Company’s Brands That Matter Awards is Friday, May 30, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today. Stephanie Mehta is chief executive officer and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Inc. and Fast Company. She previously served as editor-in-chief of Fast Company, where she oversaw digital, print, and live journalism More Fast Company & Inc © 2025 Mansueto Ventures Fastcompany.com adheres to NewsGuard’s nine standards of credibility and transparency. Learn More the Orchestra’s music director from 2003 to 2008 In the concert’s first half, Bell is featured in two Romantic masterworks for violin and orchestra that are too seldom played in concert. First is Poème by French composer Ernest Chausson a work that almost seems to tell a story through its eloquent dialogue between soloist and orchestra Chausson wrote this music in 1896 while staying in and around the Italian city of Florence taking in the glorious Tuscan landscapes and a wealth of museums and churches filled with magnificent paintings “I was surprised when I saw what ideas certain paintings awaken in me,” he wrote at the time “Some of them give me the entire outline of a symphonic piece.” It’s possible that he was describing his own Poème In an interview with WRTI’s Alex Ariff, Bell remarks on the increasing rarity on today’s concert programs of virtuoso violin music from the 19th century, such as the concertos of Henri Vieuxtemps one of the greatest violinists of his time Vieuxtemps was also revered as a composer; no less a critic than Hector Berlioz called the Fifth Concerto “a magnificent symphony for orchestra with principal violin.” Indeed this remarkable concerto strikes a perfect balance between breadth of musical ideas and both dazzling virtuosity and expressive lyricism for the soloist “exploits the instrument in ways that non-virtuoso composers” — such as Beethoven or Brahms great as they were — “couldn’t even imagine.” To conclude this broadcast, Christoph Eschenbach leads a masterpiece with an extraordinary two-decade-long gestation period. Johannes Brahms famously struggled to write his first symphony The drawn-out process began when he first produced sketches for a symphony at age 21 soon after his mentor Robert Schumann had proclaimed in an influential journal article that Brahms was the rightful heir to Beethoven it must have seemed like the whole of the European musical world had trained its eyes on him but despaired that his stubborn symphony would ever be completed and it was worth the wait: the work was universally admired as did his third and fourth — all masterworks Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts every Sunday at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, streaming at WRTI.org, on the WRTI mobile app, and on your smart speaker. Listen again on Mondays at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2. Listen for up to two weeks after broadcast on WRTI Replay accessible from the WRTI homepage (look for Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert On Demand) Coming off a strong Q4, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach believes the DOGE impact on federal-government tech spending represents a “tremendous opportunity” as agencies realize they can no longer put off the inevitable and much-needed move from on-premises systems to the cloud If that scenario plays out the way Eschenbach expects Workday could be a big winner via its expertise in equipping large organizations with cloud applications for both financials and HCM along with a growing portfolio of AI-powered agents and other solutions Before sharing Eschenbach’s thinking on the DOGE impact on federal agencies I want to point out some highlights from Workday’s Q4 and full-year results: Subscription revenue up 15.9% to $2.04 billion marking the company’s first $2-billion quarter for subscriptions; Subscription revenue up 16.9% to $7.72 billion; FY26 Guidance: subscription revenue up 14% to $8.8 billion “We continue to expect a slightly faster pace of year-over-year subscription revenue growth in the second half of FY ’26 relative to the first half.” — CFO Zane Rowe During the Q&A portion of Workday’s Q4 earnings call Eschenbach was asked how the DOGE cost-control measures for federal agencies would affect Workday’s public-sector business we’ve started to lean into the federal business and opportunity more aggressively than we’ve historically done,” Eschenbach said in reply “And the reason for that is if you look at the federal government, while they spend a tremendous amount of money on technology, the systems they have, specifically ERP “And as we think about DOGE and what that could potentially do going forward if you want to drive efficiency in the government you have to upgrade your systems,” he said “And we find that as a really rich opportunity — in the last year we’ve laid the groundwork with a couple of significant wins at the Department of Energy and the Defense Intelligence Agency to allow us to springboard our momentum in the federal market moving forward but there’s still tremendous opportunity,” Eschenbach said “And if you want to drive efficiencies across the government there is a starting point called on-premises solutions and getting them to the cloud all of them are looking to leverage Workday and what we have in our best-of-breed platform and applications to better service them more efficiently.” One trend supporting Eschenbach’s view is that in Q4, 30% of Workday’s net-new wins included both Financials and HCM “And if you look at our focus industries of SLED [State Workday now has 6,100 customers using its core Financials and/or core HCM It takes the federal government an average of 101 days to hire someone for a job Accounting for the initial application process for a federal role on USAJobs.gov that timeline often stretches well beyond six months Workday — the California-based HR and financial services software company that claims to host one in every three job applications in the U.S — believes that timeline is unacceptable and that it has the bona fides to reduce it by bringing a more modern workforce management ecosystem to the federal government The company has started making targeted headway in its government work in recent years with notable contracts with the Department of Energy Defense Intelligence Agency and others at the state and local levels with the Trump administration placing top value on driving efficiency and slashing bureaucracy — and artificial intelligence becoming an operational reality at the federal level — Workday sees an opportunity to ride that momentum and drive widespread transformation across the government’s workforce management functions “It’s a massive business opportunity for Workday to drive efficiency and effectiveness across the federal government Because while there’s a tremendous amount of money spent each year in the federal government on technology and infrastructure They haven’t moved to a modern architecture like a cloud-based solution that Workday has now for 20 years And therefore that inefficiency is costing more money than people would probably want,” Eschenbach said in an interview Agencies are spending huge portions of their IT budgets to support and maintain those legacy HR systems without the features they desire to support skills-based planning and hiring efforts and without leveraging machine learning and AI to make actionable decisions on their workforce data.  But technology only enables change — it doesn’t drive change I think we have a unique opportunity — and I could be completely wrong and I’m OK admitting that — to leverage the people transformation side and the willingness to do something different and break down barriers,” he said in reference to the Trump administration’s early agenda to “do things in a different way Joined by Lynn Martin, chief growth officer for government at Workday, Eschenbach spoke with FedScoop on Thursday ahead of his company’s Federal Forum would share many of the same thoughts on stage during a discussion about the opportunity to reimagine the federal workforce in an era guided largely by the commoditization of AI and the current administration’s rethinking of the shape “I think everyone in that room today needs to think about: How do I take advantage of this time in this moment where we can leverage the administration’s willingness to drive costs out do it with speed and a sense of urgency that doesn’t happen too often in the government So how do we all capture that opportunity right now?” Eschenbach said of the Workday forum Martin — who knows the business of federal technology as well as anyone after spending her career with some of the government’s top tech partners like HP among others — said it’s one thing to introduce a modern technology on a small scale to an agency But Workday has proven experience working at such a scale including with Fortune 500 companies like Walmart which boasts a workforce of 2.1 million.  who said the enterprise platform supports the processing of more than 1 million applications every day — and more than 1 trillion transactions each year It’s that scale — and the data generated by it — that creates an advantage for Workday in the age of AI gives us a truly unfair advantage when it comes to thinking about the world right now of AI,” he said We know the context of every interaction on our infrastructure So our output and the power of our AI back to our customers is extremely differentiated from everyone else out there.” pointed to AI and other digital features native to a platform like Workday as a must-have if the government wants to attract young talent that knows nothing else particularly during that first experience applying for a job “The federal government understands that they want to get people that want to serve But then those people that want to serve have to have an easy entry point So that’s from the recruiting process all of that has to be smooth,” Blair said he hears the opposite from agencies that are “very frustrated by their ability to react to applicants” because it can take “six eight weeks before they can get back to someone that even applied.” The experience could be especially frustrating for Gen Z Americans entering the workforce who’ve grown up with smart devices integral to their daily lives “It doesn’t take that long for anything in their entire life,” Blair said so they move on and agencies “miss out.” from the applicant and employee experience gained by using a more modern platform to the manager’s ability to make improved decisions about their workforce “You start to capture all of the skills of your employees And then when you have a new job requisition you want to post or you have a new project you have to fund our system in leveraging AI starts to look at all the skills you have across your employee population ‘Why don’t you take these five employees and apply them over here?’” he said.  Such enhanced intelligence also benefits recruiting and reskilling Eschenbach said his company is ready to invest the technology and expertise to match the need of the moment in Washington but the reform has to happen through policy change in people,” he said we’re bringing our knowledge of how to do that and obviously we have the technology platform and that’s been the long pole in the tent.” And that “massive investment,” he said comes amid “the perfect inflection point when the government’s saying we’ve got to do things differently.” “There is a desire to drive transformation There’s a desire to do things faster and I think we should all take advantage of this opportunity to transform our antiquated infrastructure going forward That’s the excitement we see.” Young is a medical journalist who earned her BA in English from Samford University in Birmingham Young has worked in medical publishing since 2022 She is currently an online content editor for Healio Eschenbach Optik of America has launched Optaro an attachable video magnifier designed for use with an iPhone to aid those with vision impairment “Some people with vision loss don’t want to bring around both a video magnifier and their smartphone so we decided to make a device that has a camera but uses the screen of the iPhone,” Tim Gels “That is what’s novel about this device: It allows an iPhone to turn into a full-featured video magnifier.” Optaro can attach to an iPhone via a custom-fit integrated case or through a MagSafe universal stand which magnetically attaches an iPhone to the Optaro camera module The device communicates with the smartphone via Wi-Fi and the free Optaro app reading lines or blinds and a read aloud function all of which can be customized through the app Gels said the device was designed to have an integrated stand considering the needs of older patients who may have tremors and those who want to read for extended periods of time without holding up a phone he said that clinicians can help older patients by demonstrating all the features of the app during an office visit “The settings can then be customized by the practitioner who can ensure each patient has the settings that provide them the most benefit,” Gels said The device is compatible with iPhone models 12 through 15 and must be run on iOS 16 or later Get the latest news and education delivered to your inbox The email address associated with your Healio account is: If you would like to edit or change the email address that your subscriptions and alerts are sent to You'll receive reminders to complete your saved activities from Healio CME Finance and human resources software company Workday is laying off 1,750 employees essentially cutting down its total workforce by 8.5% Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach said in a note to employees Wednesday that the mass layoffs were a "difficult decision" as the firm clears resources to help expand its global presence and prioritizes the demand for AI and it affects all of us—the Workmates who are leaving and those who’ll continue with us I encourage you to work from home or head home if you’re already in the office," Eschenbach said Affected employees will be informed shortly with Eschenbach adding the company aimed to meet with as many possible on Wednesday He added that the termination process will vary by areas as some local requirements require a consultation period Workday had over 20,400 employees at the end of October, according to Bloomberg The company had been one of the few major tech firms not taking part in mass layoffs in recent years will be offered at least 12 weeks of pay with tenure determining who is eligible for additional weeks Other benefits include "additional vesting of restricted stock unit grants will be offered similar packages as long as local standards allow it I want to express my sincere gratitude for your hard work and the valuable contributions you've made to Workday's success," he said "We are committed to providing support and resources to help you navigate this transition." expanding global footprintIn the Wednesday note Eschenbach illustrated the other ways executives plan to reshape Workday citing innovation investments from AI and platform development to analyzing return on investment opportunities across the firm and we have a strong foundation to build upon," he said "While we have work ahead to realize our vision and full potential today is about focusing on taking care of each other I am proud and grateful for how you support one another our customers and partners—particularly in moments like these." He also emphasized a need to expand Workday's global footprint by "investing in strategic locations with strong talent." Other goals Eschenbach listed included speeding decision-making accelerating innovation and clarifying responsibilities As Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy gear up to try to reshape large swaths of the federal government one big software player sees an opportunity is embedded in more than half of Fortune 500 companies The $72 billion company has been building up its government customer base from Oklahoma's Tulsa County to the US Department of Energy Workday was approved to work with the federal government Now that Musk and Ramaswamy's Department of Government Efficiency is set to advise President-elect Donald Trump on rescinding regulations and cutting administrative costs Workday and other government vendors could stand to benefit CEO Carl Eschenbach addressed an analyst's question about how DOGE could impact Workday's business people are absolutely looking to drive more economies of scale and more efficiency And I can tell you supporting these on-premises antiquated systems is not a way to do that," Eschenbach said Eschenbach added that federal agencies were at an "inflection point" and ready to move to the cloud — and Workday has a government-focused product to sell them "We think this will only be a tailwind for us as we think about the federal government business going forward," he said Workday said in May that it would work with the Department of Energy and the Defense Intelligence Agency "These are critical wins for us and it's actually driving demand for us in the federal government as people recognize Workday is really pushing hard into that market," Eschenbach said on Tuesday's call The company didn't respond to a request for comment sent outside business hours Musk and Ramaswamy named several of DOGE's targets in a Wall Street Journal opinion column: work-from-home arrangements "DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions," the pair wrote The federal government is the largest employer in the US, with a workforce of more than 2 million Americans so the group's suggestions could have wide-ranging implications Despite subscription-revenue growth of 19% and 24% growth in total subscription-revenue backlog Workday has trimmed revenue projections for the rest of the year as some customers are taking much longer to sign off on big deals Workday’s decision to revise its FY25 guidance triggers key questions about what’s going on in the market: Before we get to the answers to those questions, I want to share some key details from Workday’s fiscal Q1 results for the three months ended April 30 that will shed some light on what’s going on with the #7 company on the Cloud Wars Top 10: So why the decision to trim full-year guidance for the fiscal year ending Jan Two primary reasons cited by Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach are additional levels of scrutiny being applied by customers and slower headcount growth among Workday customers which leads to fewer seats being purchased Here’s how Eschenbach broke the news during the company’s recent Q1 earnings call and then I’ll offer additional perspectives made by Eschenbach and CFO Zane Rowe during that earnings call last week “Our first quarter is always our seasonally slowest,” Eschenbach said during his opening remarks “We had clear areas of outperformance and continued strength in financials and full platform wins But we also closed fewer large deals than last Q1 we experienced increased deal scrutiny as compared to prior quarters” [emphasis added] “And we are seeing customers committing to lower headcount levels on renewals compared to what we had expected We expect these dynamics to persist in the near term which is reflected in our revised FY ’25 subscription-revenue guidance.” CFO Rowe pointed out that the elongated buying decisions are happening primarily in EMEA (Europe we experienced elevated scrutiny in our sales cycle we continue to see expansion primarily through product add-ons versus customer-headcount growth which has slowed relative to our expectations.” most of the questions from financial analysts were about the revised guidance and the “elevated scrutiny” from customers that led to that revision Eschenbach was quite blunt when describing how the change in customer behavior emerged for the very first time in Q1 I think for the last year and a half we haven’t seen any material change to the macro meaning we haven’t seen any additional scrutiny one way or the other — in fact it’s been rather consistent,” he said “But this quarter, we did” — particularly involving large deals and net new deals. In addition, Eschenbach said, Workday’s intensified focus on selling what it calls “the full platform” — both HCM and Financials — requires the Workday sales team to meet with relatively large numbers of customer executives from across the C-suite “We did see a bit more scrutiny specifically on large deals and net-new deals — it was truly around the world,” Eschenbach said “Some of that may be because we’re talking to our customers about full platform deals — we’re no longer just talking about HCM deals — and when we sell full platform, particularly in the large enterprise market, we are selling to multiple buyers. We’re selling to the CHRO, we’re selling to the CIO and the CFO which makes it a little bit more of a complex deal for us which makes some of these sales cycles a bit longer.” Eschenbach brushed aside the suggestion that competitors are taking share from Workday and insisted that the primary issue is simply that customers are taking longer to commit we’re clearly winning our fair share of both HCM So definitely some more scrutiny than we’ve seen in the past.” CFO Rowe agreed that the dynamic behind the revised revenue guidance is customer behavior rather than competitive incursions “It’s just been a slowing effect,” Rowe said “That’s the part that’s impacted us more so than actually losing deals win rates have come in nicely aligned with where we’ve seen them historically.” Workday hosted its annual Innovation Summit for analysts and the company rolled out a stunning array of new products and capabilities all centered on AI So I can say with great confidence that Workday technology and product strategy are definitely not the culprits here And while the euphoric outlooks among customers caught up in the heady early days of the AI Revolution might have led to some excessive spending in the back half of 2023 even the greatest growth market the world has ever known is subject to the ebbs and flows of the global economy the high-energy Eschenbach insisted that Workday is superbly positioned to do well throughout 2024 and on into the future regardless of how much time customers take to make their decisions “We have a solid number of large opportunities in front of us and these opportunities we think we have a really good chance of closing them throughout the rest of the year,” Eschenbach said these larger transactions can be pushed out “But I think what’s really important to know is none of the larger opportunities that didn’t close in Q1 moved out of our pipeline When a customer makes a decision to go to a big transformation on a platform like Workday HCM and Financials it’s not if they’re going to do it — it’s when they’re going to do it.” The AI Ecosystem Q1 2024 Report compiles the innovations, funding, and products highlighted in AI Ecosystem Reports from the first quarter of 2024. Download now for perspectives on the companies 02-06-2025NEWS The cuts are part of a broader restructuring plan CEO Carl Eschenbach said demand for artificial intelligence could “drive a new era of growth.” [Photo: Michael Short/Bloomberg via Getty Images] BY Michael Grothaus It’s been a rough week for the tech industry. First, Salesforce announced it would lay off more than 1,000 employees and now another enterprise software maker has announced even deeper job cuts Yesterday, Workday, Inc. (Nasdaq: WDAY), maker of cloud-based human resources software, announced that it would lay off 1,750 employees—or roughly 8.5% of its global workforce. These layoffs add to a rough start for the tech industry in 2025 Here’s what you need to know about Workday’s layoffs Workday yesterday announced that it was eliminating 1,750 roles at the company. That equates to about 8.5% of its total workforce, which stood at about 18,000 employees as of January 2024, as Reuters notes Workday was founded in 2005 and is based in Pleasanton The company makes enterprise software for HR management Workday announced the layoffs in a memo from CEO Carl Eschenbach Eschenbach said the company would realign its resources in fiscal 2025 in light of the increasing demand for artificial intelligence and its “potential to drive a new era of growth for Workday.” This realignment means that Workday will invest “strategically and making it easier for our customers and partners to work with us,” Eschenbach said Eschenbach “encouraged” employees to work from home or He said Workday’s goal was to inform as many impacted employees as possible on that day The layoffs are part of a larger restructuring plan for the company which includes prioritizing investments in strategic areas including AI and the development of its platform That filing also revealed that Workday expects to “exit certain owned office space” as part of the restructuring Workday says it expects its restructuring plan to cost the company between $230 million to $270 million with roughly $145 million to $175 million related to severance payments will be offered a minimum of 12 weeks of severance pay with additional weeks of pay based on tenure While layoffs are devastating for the individuals affected investors generally see things differently The company’s stock price jumped after Workday announced its layoffs yesterday WDAY shares closed trading yesterday over 6.3% higher than they opened With yesterday’s post-layoffs stock price jump WDAY stock is now up just over 7% year-to-date WDAY shares are currently up 0.3% to around $277 per share According to tech layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi 42 tech companies have now laid off over 10,800 workers since the beginning of 2025 Michael Grothaus is a novelist and author. His latest novel, BEAUTIFUL SHINING PEOPLE, has been translated into multiple languages More 2025 at 11:58 am PT.css-79elbk{position:relative;}Workday's Pleasanton headquarters the Pleasanton-based financial and human capital management software company In an open letter sent to employees CEO Carl Eschenbach wrote that the cuts are due to a shift toward utilizing artificial intelligence “Companies everywhere are reimagining how work gets done and the increasing demand for AI has the potential to drive a new era of growth for Workday,” he said and making it easier for our customers and partners to work with us.” The company will look to invest more money in areas like AI and platform development and said it will continue to hire people with expertise in that area Eschenbach also said the company is looking to enable “faster decision-making” and an expanded global presence Employees will also receive additional vesting of restricted stock unit grants will be offered packages based on local standards that are aligned with the U.S and the valuable contributions you've made to Workday's success We are committed to providing support and resources to help you navigate this transition,” Eschenbach said The Workday news comes one day after Salesforce reportedly cut more than 1,000 positions Amazon have also announced layoffs in the past month Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. 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When Workday closes its fiscal year 2024 just over one year from now for the first time in the company’s 18-year history it will have a single CEO other than cofounders Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri So just who is newly named co-CEO and future sole CEO Carl Eschenbach, on whom Bhusri and Duffield and Workday’s board are betting so heavily in spite of the fact that Eschenbach’s never run a SaaS (software-as-a-service) company before It’s an essential question because on Feb. 1 of next year as Workday’s fiscal year begins and Eschenbach takes over as sole CEO Workday will almost certainly have eclipsed $7 billion in annual revenue as it handles HCM and Financial for many of the world’s largest corporations a few quick highlights into Eschenbach’s sterling background that have been mentioned publicly since the announcement came out late last year and then I’d like to share some verbatim comments from Eschenbach that reveal the character and soul of Workday’s future CEO In the Workday press release announcing Eschenbach’s appointment to co-CEO and the company’s plans for him to become sole CEO just over a year from now “I’ve long admired Workday and how it has redefined the enterprise software industry with a focus on putting people at the center and a relentless focus on customer service and innovation… help us build on this great momentum and take hold of the massive opportunity in front of us.” Beyond those top-level perspectives, I was intrigued by some personal thoughts from Eschenbach from the Sequoia website and I’d like to share a few that I found to be most interesting And from a different page on the Sequoia website: One other thing to know about Carl Eschenbach is that I’d bet a year’s income to a cup of coffee that he and Aneel Bhusri are close friends And I say that not just because they’ve been on the Workday board together for more than four years but because being close friends is Bhusri’s #1 condition for making the co-CEO model work—and that’s how he and Eschenbach will be operating for the next 12-1/2 months Here’s Bhusri on the subject of the importance of co-CEOs to be close friends from an interview I did with Bhusri about two years ago in a piece called “While Oracle, SAP, and Salesforce Snub Co-CEO Model, Workday’s Loving It”: “And much like Dave [co-founder and former co-CEO Dave Duffield] and I are very close friends Chano [former co-CEO Chano Fernandez] and I are close friends as well. I get asked the question ‘How do you make the co-CEO model work?’ Number one We’re just not big-ego people and so we need to figure out what do we need to do to be successful as a company because we’re stewards of this company,” Bhusri said From this deeper look into who Carl Eschenbach is I think Workday’s future is in very good hands ERP Today has established itself as THE independent voice of the enterprise technology sector through its use of dynamic journalism As Workday jumps into its new financial year 2025 the HCM giant has announced its year-long co-CEO Carl Eschenbach will be taking a solo lead from today co-founder and chair will step into a strategic advisor to the CEO role and will remain integral to the organization as co-founder and executive chair of the Workday board of directors The news is hardly unexpected, with the pair telling ERP Today of their succession plans for Workday in an exclusive interview last year when Eschenbach was first named co-CEO to serve alongside Bhusri Speaking on this latest news on his taking the helm Eschenbach has expressed his firm belief in the company: “Working alongside Aneel for the last year has been a highlight of my career and has solidified my belief in the opportunities ahead for Workday “I’m honored to serve as CEO of this incredible company and to continue working with our world-class leadership team and more than 18,000 Workmates around the globe to build one of the most enduring software businesses of our time.” For Bhusri, the role refresh will allow him to focus more on an area he has long preferred: the technology and product strategy. Moving forward, Bhusri will now be particularly focused on advising the business on innovation and the future direction of Workday’s technology platform the ex-venture capitalist Eschenbach presented a new avenue to increase company growth and profitability Just six weeks into Eschenbach’s co-CEO role Bhusri had already described a “new energy” and impact emerging within the organization “Workday has never been in a stronger position thanks in large part to the impact Carl has made in his first year,” said Bhusri he has embodied the company’s core set of values and I am confident that he is the right person to help Workday scale and lead us into our next phase of growth.” Since Eschenbach’s undertaking of the co-CEO role in December 2022, the firm has reached a series of milestones. Following the increased momentum from its mass expansion scheme, Workday has hit over $1bn in annual recurring revenue (ARR) for its EMEA business hospitality and financial services industry business to additionally each surpass $1bn in ARR mark More users are continuing to flock to Workday for its HCM and FSM software with the vendor now surpassing 65 million users under contract and more than 10,000 global customers It has also hosted its largest annual user conferences in the US and EMEA to-date and its partnership ecosystem has also grown substantially since last year boasting new and expanded partnerships with Accenture The takeaway from this takeover? With Eschenbach at the helm, Workday is firmly pointed toward its growth goals and getting ever closer to reaching its $10bn annual revenue target by 2025 Sign up to our newsletter to receive exclusive and actionable intelligence for the enterprise technology market ShareSaveLeadershipLeadership StrategiesLongtime VMWare President Carl Eschenbach: To Grow Your Business, Manage Your 4 C’sByDon Yaeger Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights I study high performers in sports for lessons in business leadership.Follow AuthorOct 03 11:08am EDTShareSaveThis article is more than 4 years old.Carl Eschenbach Carl Eschenbach’s is a name synonymous with explosive growth As the longtime president and chief operating officer of VMware he helped the company go from 200 employees and $30 million in revenue to 20,000 employees and $7 billion During that sometimes challenging uphill ride to success Eschenbach developed what he affectionately calls his 4 C’s that he counsels any executive to manage A true competitor both in business and as a lifelong athlete Eschenbach left VMWare to become a partner at Sequoia Capital regarded as Silicon Valley’s most prestigious venture capital firm he shared that his time in athletics helped shape those philosophies that took him to the C-Suite Headquarters of venture capital investment firm Sequoia Capital The recipient of five Most Valuable Athlete Awards ten varsity letters and captain of the football Eschenbach was recently honored as a 2020 inductee into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame you have to learn to lose before you can learn to win,” he said “It's very unlikely you’re going to go undefeated in anything you do for your entire life so learning how to lose when you're an athlete and competing it teaches us so much about how to have endurance and perseverance in life.” Eschenbach made a point to differentiate between two leadership styles — motivational and inspirational “A motivational leader points out team members’ strengths and challenges their team to accomplish more,” he said “An inspirational leader gets the team to a point where they say ‘I’m not going to let that leader down.’ The first pushes his or her team But no matter which style of leader you might be Eschenbach believes you must always be aware of the things that can derail your efforts and cause those you’re leading to no longer be inspired by your leadership Eschenbach said he is continuing to use the leadership lessons he learned as an athlete back in Stroudsburg “The choice to lead is one you make for the long haul and the lessons and the losses will just make you better,” he said Our board of directors currently consists of 12 members Aneel Bhusri serves as executive chair and Mark Hawkins is vice chair and lead independent director Other board members include Tom Bogan; Liz Centoni; Lynne Doughtie; Carl M Eschenbach (who is also our CEO); Wayne A.I M.D.; Mike McNamara; Rhonda Morris; Michael Speiser; George Still other than Aneel Bhusri and Carl Eschenbach is “independent” as defined by the rules of the Nasdaq Global Select Market with each class serving staggered three-year terms as well as biographies for each of our directors Aneel Bhusri is co-founder and executive chair at Workday and innovator in the enterprise software industry for more than 25 years Aneel serves as a strategic advisor to the chief executive officer (CEO) and other members of executive management with a particular focus on innovation and the future direction of Workday applications and technology platform previously served as the company’s co-CEO from 2009–2014 with co-founder Dave Duffield and co-CEO from August 2020–January 2024.  Aneel has been a member of the Workday  board of directors since its founding Aneel held a number of leadership positions at PeopleSoft including vice chair of the board and senior vice president responsible for product strategy Aneel is an advisory partner at Greylock Partners a leading venture capital firm that he has been associated with since 1999 and he is a member of the Board of Trustees at Stanford University He also serves on the board of directors of the Workday Foundation the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Aneel previously served on the board of directors of several other companies including General Motors Aneel holds an MBA from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and economics from Brown University He is a Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute Hawkins has served as a director since 2023 Mark served as president and CFO Emeritus of Salesforce from February 2021 to November 2021; president and chief financial officer from 2017 to February 2021; and executive vice president and chief financial officer from 2014 to 2017 he served as chief financial officer and executive vice president of Autodesk a design software and services company; chief financial officer and senior vice president of Finance and IT at Logitech International S.A. a global hardware company; and held various positions at Dell and Hewlett-Packard Mark served as a director of SecureWorks Inc He currently serves as a director and advisor of various privately held companies Hawkins received a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Colorado He brings to our board extensive experience as an officer and director of publicly traded software and technology companies and financial expertise in the technology industry Tom Bogan joined Workday’s board of directors in February 2022 and previously served as the company’s vice chair of corporate development before retiring in January 2022 Tom brings to the board extensive executive leadership experience and expertise in software technology companies including experience and familiarity with our business Tom joined Workday in 2018 through the acquisition of Adaptive Insights where he served as chief executive officer (CEO) he was a board member of several public and private software companies where he served as chair for both companies Tom was also a partner at Greylock Partners where he focused on enterprise software investments he served as president and chief operating officer at Rational Software until it was acquired by IBM as well as CEO at Avatar Technologies and Pacific Data He began his career as a financial officer for both public and private companies Tom currently serves on the board of directors of CS Disco and served on the board of directors of Aspen Technology Tom graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Stonehill College in Easton Liz Centoni joined the Workday board of directors in December 2024 Liz is a seasoned leader who has a passion for leveraging technology to drive customer success and deliver unparalleled experiences Liz has been spearheading initiatives that have significantly enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty Liz Centoni has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Experience Officer at Cisco and GM of Applications at Cisco from March 2020 to March 2024 and as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Computing Systems at Cisco from March 2018 to March 2020 Liz held senior engineering leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Cisco since 2000 She has served on the Supervisory Board of Mercedes-Benz AG since April 2021 and previously served on the board of directors of Ingersoll Rand Inc Liz received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from the University of San Francisco Lynne Doughtie joined the Workday board of directors in February 2021 Lynne brings to the board extensive experience in risk management and information security given her work in effectively advising organizations on complex global business matters and strategies across industries chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of KPMG LLP (“KPMG”) she served in many leadership roles during her career at KPMG including vice chair of the firm’s U.S Advisory business from October 2011 to June 2015 Lynne has served on the board of Boeing Company since January 2021 and on the board of McKesson Corporation since February 2025 She also serves on the board of directors of several nonprofit organizations and on the board of advisors of various private companies and educational organizations Lynne received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Virginia Tech Carl Eschenbach is chief executive officer (CEO) at Workday He is also on the company’s board of directors Carl was a general partner at Sequoia Capital a leading innovator in the enterprise software and executive vice president of worldwide field operations Carl held various sales management positions with Inktomi Corporation Carl has served as a director of Palo Alto Networks Carl has also been an active board member for other leading technology companies including Aurora Innovation Carl also continues to stay involved with Sequoia in a venture partner capacity Carl received an Electronics Technician diploma from DeVry University He is currently serving as the interim chief executive officer (CEO) of the American Cancer Society Frederick is the president emeritus of Howard University having previously served as the President from 2014 through August 2023 Drew Professor of Surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine He is also a practicing cancer surgeon at Howard University Hospital Frederick served as Howard University’s interim president (elected October 2013) after serving as provost and chief academic officer for more than a year Following his post-doctoral research and surgical oncology fellowships at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Frederick began his academic career as associate director of the Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut his academic positions included Associate Dean in the College of Medicine Division Chief in the Department of Surgery Frederick is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and belongs to numerous surgical organizations including the American Surgical Association Frederick served on the board of directors of Forma Therapeutics Holdings Frederick currently serves on the board of directors of Mutual of America Life Insurance Company in addition to a few other privately held companies and charitable organizations Frederick received a bachelor’s degree in zoology He brings to our board deep experience in business administration and insight into the healthcare and education industries Mike McNamara has served on the Workday board of directors since 2011 Mike brings to the board extensive leadership and experience managing international operations As the former chief executive officer (CEO) of a large global company Mike provides Workday with a management perspective on business and strategic decisions Rhonda Morris joined the Workday board of directors in February 2025 With more than 31 years of global business acumen Rhonda brings extensive operational experience in human capital management and keen insights on the customer experience to Workday’s board of directors Rhonda served as Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Chevron Corporation holding roles of increasing responsibility in human resources She serves on several non-profit boards and is a fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources Rhonda received a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California Michael Speiser joined Workday’s board of directors in June 2024 Michael brings to the board more than three decades’ experience as a technology leader and venture capitalist including a proven track record of building some of the fastest growing companies in the world and incubating some of the most pivotal AI technologies in the tech industry.  Michael has been a managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures and serves on the boards of several private companies and unannounced projects Michael served as the part-time chief executive officer (CEO) of Snowflake Inc. and he’s served as a director since the company’s inception in 2012 and others; and held executive leadership positions at Bix Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Arizona has served on the board of directors at Workday since 2009 and as vice chair of the board of directors since 2014 George brings to the board financial and investing acumen gained through his many years with Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) George’s experience as an advisor to a number of technology companies is also a valuable resource for the Workday board George is currently a Partner Emeritus at NVP he served as NVP’s co-managing partner George led the sole venture investment in PeopleSoft where he served on the board of directors from 1991 to 2001 and as a partner at venture capital firm Centennial Funds George served as a director and chair of the board of Stillwater Growth Corp and as a member of the Board of Advisors of Tuck School’s Center of Private Equity and Venture Capital from 2011 to 2019 He currently serves as a director of two private companies George served as a director of Rackspace Hosting from 2006 to 2014 the National Venture Capital Association from 1995 to 2000 and the Stanford Business School Venture Capital Trust from 1997 to 2001 George received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College Jerry Yang joined Workday’s board of directors in November 2013 Jerry brings to the board deep experience building technology products used by millions of people around the world as well as leadership experience with global organizations Jerry currently works with and invests in technology entrepreneurs through AME Cloud Ventures He serves as the chair of Stanford University’s Board of Trustees and is a director for the Monterey Peninsula Foundation Jerry also serves as a director of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and was previously a director from 2005 to 2012 and is a director and/or advisor of several other companies and foundations and served on its board of directors until 2012 and as chief executive officer from 2007 to 2009 including two of the biggest investments in the internet: Yahoo as a director of Yahoo Japan Corporation from 1996 to 2012 Jerry holds a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University Learn More When Workday cofounder and chairman Aneel Bhusri hired Carl Eschenbach as co-CEO just over a year ago Bhusri expected Eschenbach to double the size of the company over the next several years by upgrading its go-to-market talent and performance boosting its levels of engagement with customers And as the high-intensity Eschenbach begins his second year as the business leader and public face of Workday it’s clear that while big progress has been made on all those fronts With Workday’s customers undergoing their own significant changes and pursuing a range of new opportunities amid fast-changing market dynamics in every sector Eschenbach said that Workday has to be able to move as fast as the world it serves “Quite frankly, the pace and rate of change we’ve had here at Workday over the last year has been pretty aggressive,” Eschenbach told me in a recent Zoom interview for this CEO Outlook 2024 series. (You can watch my full interview with Eschenbach here.) Register for Acceleration Economy’s Cloud Wars CEO Outlook 2024 Course Featuring exclusive interviews on strategy and customers with the CEOs of Cloud Wars Top 10 companies “I could not be prouder of how the company has embraced change has embraced a lot of the transitions and transformations we’re going through embraced the new sets of leaders that have come on board here at Workday and very quickly partnered with the tremendous talent and tremendous leaders that we’ve had at Workday for so many years,” he said “But the one thing that keeps us all grounded here at Workday is the core values at Workday that are the foundation of our company,” added Eschenbach in referencing a company culture that has won numerous awards since Bhusri and Dave Duffield founded the company in 2005 That’s a delicate balance for any leader to strike but Eschenbach’s adventure has surely been helped by having been a board member at Workday for almost five years an experience that’s allowed him to intimately understand the company So as Workday prepares to jump into its 2025 fiscal year on Feb Eschenbach outlined some of the key initiatives he’s got underway: And something every Workday customer wants to talk about and understand is, of course, artificial intelligence (AI) From his hundreds of conversations with customers Eschenbach said that while they all expect world-class AI technology and capability the other essential ingredient that they insist upon is trust “As we engage with not just CEOs but CIOs are all trying to better understand the potential impact of AI,” he said “And I believe that it can have a massive step-function change in human productivity But people are struggling to figure out how to use it and how to make sure it’s done in a very trusting and responsible way And I think this is where we are uniquely positioned Eschenbach believes customers will extend that trust around AI as well and ultimately be the key ingredient in what he said will be “systems of trust.” “If you think about what we started out to do almost 19 years ago we set out to build a system of record in the cloud — no one else thought about doing that we took all of that precious data of their people and their money and we put it in the cloud and we made sure we drove massive business benefit for customers in moving to that cloud model,” he said “We went from being that system of record to becoming the system of engagement and we now have 65 million users on top of the Workday platform with an output of 600 billion transactions a year on top of Workday quickly followed there by having more than 10 years of AI and machine learning built deep into the platform rather than being bolted on,” Eschenbach said “So that system of record became a system of engagement and is now a system of intelligence and all of this gets wrapped by what we call the system of trust in the company of trust they continue to trust us to deliver ethical “Systems of trust” is easy to say but very hard to deliver but it’s clear that Workday believes its strong customer-loyalty scores will help them fulfill that vision one of the other ambitious visions that I believe exemplifies what Eschenbach has brought to Workday is his idea for the company’s fast-growing ecosystem to transcend the typical industry model and become a self-sustaining “economy.” “I talked to everyone about the strength of our ecosystem and where it’s at today but I also talked about what the future could bring if we think about the partner ecosystem a little bit differently,” Eschenbach said “I don’t think we’re just building an ecosystem — I literally believe with the strength of our technology and our platform and the innovation we continue to bring to market we can build an entire economy around the Workday platform With all the investments we’ve made in the last 12 months to focus on the partner ecosystem So as Eschenbach prepares to become sole CEO next month as Bhusri moves to executive chairman I don’t think it’s a big stretch to believe that that phrase — “we’re just getting started” —will typify what goes on across Workday for the next few years as the Eschenbach era unfolds and Chair to Remain Co-CEO through January 2024; Expected to Assume Full-Time Role as Executive Chair at that Time Chano Fernandez has Stepped Down as Co-CEO and as a Member of the Workday Board of Directors today announced the appointment of Carl Eschenbach to co-CEO Carl will remain on the Workday Board of the Directors Carl will serve as co-CEO alongside Aneel Bhusri Aneel and the Board expect that Carl will assume sole CEO responsibilities and Aneel will assume a full-time role as executive chair and will remain as chair of the Board of Directors Chano Fernandez has stepped down as co-CEO and as a member of the Workday Board of Directors Carl has more than 35 years of experience leading successful technology companies innovative enterprise software organizations Carl will stay involved with Sequoia in a venture partner capacity Carl held several leadership positions at VMware a global virtual infrastructure software provider helping the company scale at that time to more than $7 billion in total revenue during his 14 years at the company Comments on the News "We have an incredible opportunity in front of us and I'm confident that Carl with his leadership skills and his proven experience in helping technology companies scale as well as his commitment to culture and values will help lead Workday through its next phase of growth," said Aneel Bhusri "Chano has been an integral part of Workday since he joined almost nine years ago and has helped us to achieve great success and growth "I've long admired Workday and how it has redefined the enterprise software industry and a relentless focus on customer service and innovation driving its growth and success in supporting some of the world's largest organizations," said Carl Eschenbach "I'm thrilled to be expanding my role at Workday and working with Aneel and our amazing group of employees to help us build on this great momentum and take hold of the massive opportunity in front of us." Workday reaffirms its financial guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 and its preliminary outlook for fiscal 2024 as provided on Nov Workday and the Workday logo are registered trademarks of Workday All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements including statements regarding the impacts of the co-CEO transition the timing and impact of Workday's future leadership structure and Workday's fourth quarter fiscal 2023 and full year fiscal 2024 financial guidance These forward-looking statements are based only on currently available information and our current beliefs Because forward-looking statements relate to the future and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control or we experience unexpected changes in circumstances actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements and therefore you should not rely on any forward-looking statements risks described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") including our Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended October 31 and our future reports that we may file with the SEC from time to time which could cause actual results to vary from expectations update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release or other press releases or public statements that are not currently available are subject to change at Workday's discretion and may not be delivered as planned or at all Customers who purchase Workday services should make their purchase decisions based upon services and functions that are currently available plans to announce its fiscal 2026 first quarter financial.. today announced that Evisort's AI-powered contract intelligence .. Cloud Computing/Internet of Things Financial Technology Financial Technology Banking & Financial Services Do not sell or share my personal information: Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Official Appointment Follows a Year of Strong Business Momentum today announced it has officially named Carl Eschenbach CEO effective February 1 Eschenbach was named co-CEO alongside Aneel Bhusri Bhusri will remain integral to the organization as co-founder and executive chair of the Workday Board of Directors He will serve as a strategic advisor to the CEO collaborating with Eschenbach and the rest of the executive team to develop strategic plans and growth initiatives that align with Workday's mission Bhusri will be particularly focused on advising the business on innovation and the future direction of Workday's applications and technology platform "Working alongside Aneel for the last year has been a highlight of my career and has solidified my belief in the opportunities ahead for Workday," said Eschenbach "I'm honored to serve as CEO of this incredible company and to continue working with our world class leadership team and more than 18,000 Workmates around the globe to build one of the most enduring software businesses of our time." "Workday has never been in a stronger position thanks in large part to the impact Carl has made in his first year," said Bhusri he has embodied the company's core set of values and I am confident that he is the right person to help Workday scale and lead us into our next phase of growth." Since Eschenbach assumed the co-CEO role in December of 2022 Eschenbach will assume the sole CEO role beginning tomorrow at the start of Workday's fiscal year 2025 This press release contains forward-looking statements including These forward-looking statements are based only on currently available information and Workday's current beliefs and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of Workday's control risks described in Workday's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") including Workday's Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended October 31 and other reports that we have filed and will file with the SEC from time to time Computer & Electronics Personnel Announcements Just as student athletes watch Olympians’ moves for inspiration student pianists benefit from listening to a pro’s interpretation of the pieces they’re learning the famed pianist and conductor Christoph Eschenbach traverses the repertoire that forms the backbone of many a piano student’s development from beginner to early-advanced in this new 16-CD set from Deutsche Grammophon who was music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra from 2003-2008 specializing in Classical-era and Romantic repertoire Piano Lessons is a compilation of recordings Eschenbach made during the 1960s and ‘70s before his first conducting appointment in 1981 as principal guest conductor of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra Technique is addressed in 4 CDs devoted to finger exercises and studies We hear Eschenbach breeze through Ferdinand Beyer’s Vorschule im Klavierspiel and Friedrich Burgmuller’s 25 Easy and Progressive Exercises which have descriptive titles such as “The Harmony of the Angels.” Bach presents a challenge for students which can’t be faked a student must learn how to play a musical line with the right hand while the left hand plays an equally important s/he learns to play what’s known as counterpoint Bach had this in mind when he compiled the pieces that form the Little Notebooks for his family members son Wilhelm Friedemann and wife Anna Magdalena The level of difficulty progresses with J.S Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias that he wrote for his children and students to master Eschenbach plays select pieces from both of J.S Bach’s Notebooks and the complete 15 Inventions and 15 Sinfonias with clarity Only one of the Inventions sounds a bit out-of-place in Eschenbach’s interpretation This is a characteristic of Eschenbach’s music-making that extends he indulges in an inordinately slow tempo in the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata Op 1 in G minor (the first of the 2 “Leichte” or “easy” sonatas.) Likewise the dramatic opening “Grave” of Beethoven’s “Pathetique” Sonata is almost painfully drawn out he brings plenty of fire and speed to the fast “Allegro di molto e con brio” that follows And there is no question that the final movement of his “Moonlight” Sonata performance equals the brilliance and excitement of any other pianist’s Two CDs contain the Clementi and Kuhlau Sonatinas that prepare a student for the demands of Haydn’s and Mozart’s Sonatas Eschenbach plays nine well-known Mozart Sonatas with charm “Facile.” To his selection of eight Sonatas by Haydn Eschenbach brings a sly sense of humor in his placement of accents and in his conversational phrasing dispatched with the timing of a superb comic Eschenbach’s touch produces a compelling piano tone that engages the listener This is brought to beautiful light in the final 2 CDs of the set devoted to Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words From the popular “Venetian Gondola Songs” to the final work in the set showing students of all ages how a piano is capable of expressing as much emotion as the human voice As an added bonus to this satisfying collection, students who are truly serious about improving their art can sign up for the Tomplay app which pairs the sheet music of every piece in the set with Eschenbach’s performances