Carol Bartz, CEO of Autodesk for many years, underlines the silver lining for many stagnating issues in the workplace. Making a plan for yourself is a good idea, but don't let it limit your scope. By bringing value to the organization, you are the one to benefit most. Learning is the most critical aspect of any job; if you're not growing, it's time to uproot. She also points out that bad managers are great teachers, as they are instructive in what not to do when you finally get to fill their role.

According to Bartz, the more interested you are in things around the world, the more interesting you are to somebody else. Make sure your learning curve is always up and to the right, she adds.

Autodesk prices and packages its products differently in different countries. Bartz discusses how Autodesk has been successful doing business in emerging markets. She talks about the importance of looking at wage standards and labor standards of the country when selling global products like AutoCad across the world.

Carol Bartz, chairman of the board, president and CEO of Autodesk, talks about the need to speak with customers to tailor a standard product for different customer groups. She uses the example of AutoCad and the way it has been tailored to specific customers to meet their requirements. She also says that the best way to make a product a standard is to get it to volume.

In this clip, Carol Bartz points out that young workers needn't be afraid of a lateral career move. Ambition often focuses only on upward motion, whereas well-rounded experience in a number of departments - sales, marketing, or customer service, just to name a few - gives a career a solid foundation. Ladders are unstable, Bartz says, but pyramids have depth, safety, and strength.

How do you take a task that you already know how to do and do it a whole different way? Bartz talks about lateral moves within companies to improve innovation. She looks forward to future technology that will allow the creation of rich media content.

Over the last three years, Autodesk had to change delivery times due to customers' faster delivery demand. Autodesk was able to move forward using software as service, thinking about process, and innovating in an established company.

Bartz argues that you must understand how a company is run. Life is about horizontal and lateral moves. She also talks about the various positions she has held in the past, from analyst to VP of customer service. By the time she became CEO, she had acquired a strong background in various fields.

Bartz talks about how people who failed within Buzzsaw, were often given new projects to work on. Failure was valued, she says. Rather than criticizing projects that failed, Bartz notes how people wanted to apply the knowledge they learned from mistakes into new projects.

How do you seek out and promote quality leaders from within a company? Leaders are often self-selected from peers, Bartz says. On way to identify them is to set up a management meeting and tap into the different groups across the company and note who gets picked to represent the individual groups. Usually, these are your leaders. Because they are easy to work with and are creative, they are sought out as leaders at whatever level they are in. No one wants to work with an asshole, however qualified they may be.

Bartz discusses Buzzsaw.com, a company created to provide a hosted environment for the construction industry. Because Autodesk had no experience in the construction industry, the company spun out Buzzsaw and then bought it back after a successful fundraising round with VCs.

Bartz examines long-term balance and encourages people to catch themselves before they fall too far. Learn how to manage the various activities you are involved in, she says. Juggling is pertinent to career development.

Autodesk's vision is to keep the design data in digital format. Wireless industry is essential in this area. A small team of engineers at Autodesk banded together and built a wireless product on the fly to address an immediate need.