It was just a few days ago that Avid Technology, Inc., announced the departure of their current CEO David Krall. Avid is a publicly traded company so these kinds of corporate shuffles and re-structures are always noted in press releases and in post production industry news coverage. Why should we as editors care about the musical chairs at the top of the corporate ladder? These guys (and gals) carefully guide the ship around the icebergs (of Final Cut Pro?) and try to reach their destination: sustained profitability. All corporations have to be profitable to survive and a publicly traded company like Avid has to answer to their shareholders at the end of the day, not to us editors. Apple has to do the same thing but they have many more oars in the water to attain their profitability. I can’t help but think it must be easier to steer a big multipurpose ship like Apple than a smaller single use vessel like Avid. A few bad decisions might sink the ship. Would Avid be better off as a privately held firm? I really don’t know enough about the advantages of privately vs. publicly held companies to make an informed comment. But maybe they would.

Steve Cohen has been following the business side of Avid Technology, Inc., over on his blog. He probably keeps a critical eye toward Avid more than anyone else on the web. Check out a few of his posts just to get an idea of where Avid stands in the market and where they need to go:

Avid’s Road Show

NAB in Hindsight

Xpress Pro Exit Stage Left

Business Models 101

Business Models Pt. 2