Intuit’s CEO is focused on bringing his company into the future with more virtual offerings.
The company, which created financial software TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Mint, reported an 8 percent decline in Q3 revenue in May, citing the coronavirus pandemic as the cause. The pandemic prompted the IRS to extend the tax filing deadline to July 15, which caused millions of tax filings to shift to later in the season, resulting in the total revenue decline.
Intuit is also focused on becoming an AI-driven platform. “We are now facing a fundamental shift as the pace of change has dramatically increased. More customers are looking for virtual solutions, small businesses are accelerating their shift to omni-channel commerce, and money benefits and offerings matter more than ever,” CEO Sasan Goodarzi wrote in a blog post to employees.
Goodarzi stepped into the CEO role at Intuit last year, replacing Brad Smith, who became Executive Chairman of Intuit’s Board of Directors. Goodarzi previously led the company’s Small Business and Self-Employed Group. Before that, he was Executive Vice President and General Manager of Intuit’s Consumer Tax Group, and in previous years served as Intuit’s Chief Information Officer, as the general manager of Intuit’s ProTax organization, and as the General Manager of Intuit’s Financial Services Division.
As a result of the company’s change in focus, Goodarzi recently announced Intuit is laying off 715 employees, with plans to add more than 700 roles to build the capabilities needed for its future plans. He added that there are three main areas where the company will see the biggest changes. First, there will be an increase in investment in technology, with a focus on key engineering skills such as systems engineering, full-stack engineering, data science, data engineering, mobile, and native cloud.
In addition, Intuit will work on acquiring the skills necessary to deliver improved customer experiences in areas such as self-help, live platform, QBO Advanced, Full-Service Payroll, and Accountant support. In Sales, there are plans to transform the department into a world-class SaaS organization by working to simplify and focus each sales interaction.
