Cloud-based software maker doubles local workforce and appoints a new boss

Co-founded by Ryan Smith – who now owns an NBA basketball team with Mike Cannon-Brookes – Qualtrics is defying the tech downturn, and its own falling share price.

Qualtrics chief executive Zig Serafin.

Cloud-based subscription software maker Qualtrics has more than doubled its local headcount in the past 12 months and appointed a local managing director, defying the tech industry downturn and expanding despite a falling share price.

Qualtrics has about 17,000 customers globally who use its so-called experience management software to “help their businesses be more human”, as CEO Zig Serafin puts it.

Co-founded by Ryan Smith – who now owns the Utah Jazz NBA basketball team with fellow tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes – Qualtrics offers software for businesses to survey and respond to their customers and employees. Its technology is being used on the ground in Ukraine for example by charities like Red Cross and Save the Children to assess individual and family support needs and direct them to the right support channels and relief co-ordinators.

Mr Serafin, who joined the company as chief operating officer in 2016 after nearly 20 years at Microsoft, said the Australian market had been one of the fastest growing for Qualtrics, which has more than 600 staff locally.

Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith.

“In the face of rising costs and shifting customer and employee expectations, executives want to figure out how to better listen to and understand the individuals they do business with,” he said.

“The ones who get that right are picking up outsized market share gains, and attract the best talent and build better connections with their customers. So we’ve never been more relevant.

“In the last 12 months the size of our local workforce has doubled. We have some of the best talent in Australia, we have scientists and methodology practitioners along with solution engineers, and we’re continuing to grow.”

Qualtrics has appointed Michael Heitz as its managing director for Australia and New Zealand. He replaces Jason Laufer, who has moved to start-up WithYouWithMe.

“It’s a privilege to lead this team as we help our customers build deeper, personal relationships at scale to drive meaningful business outcomes,” Mr Heitz said.

“The continued growth of Qualtrics and experienced management in Australia and New Zealand is testament to the value our capabilities and expertise brings to all organisations.”

Qualtrics was acquired by German software giant SAP in 2019 for $US8bn ($12bn) and began trading on the Nasdaq in 2021. Its shares are down 67 per cent in the year to date.

Mr Serafin said of his previous employer, Microsoft, that it understands the importance of the connection between humans, in a similar way to Qualtrics.

Microsoft struggled to innovate and maintain its rate of growth under previous CEO Steve Ballmer, but has turned things around under the leadership of Satya Nadella, who has led the tech giant since 2014.

“It’s all about knowing how to listen and how to stand in other people’s shoes, no matter their circumstances, and using that information to build your next product or next experience,” Mr Serafin said.

“A lot of what Microsoft has been able to do, particularly more recently, is empathise and connect with humans in a much more real way and build products that are increasingly relevant to them.

“And that’s not dissimilar to many of our other customers around the world who are using our systems.

“Uncertainty and the rate of change is increasing everywhere, but there is an important theme too, which is empathy.”