Judy Odom

Judy Odom has proved to be an elegant, graceful business warrior. As co-founder of Software Spectrum, Odom sparred with many a competitor in a 20-year entrepreneurial journey that began in a small retail shop and blossomed into a $1.3 billion global software-reselling empire that helped shape the U.S. software industry and channel.

Launched in 1983 on a $20,000 investment by Odom and her then-husband Richard Sims, Software Spectrum first dabbled in selling products such as Lotus 1-2-3 and Ashton-Tate's database. The company then embarked on a meteoric rise inextricably linked to the great fortunes of a software business in the Pacific Northwest,Microsoft. In the ensuing years, Software Spectrum would help catapult Microsoft into an industry-leading position while fiercely battling reselling rivals such as Corporate Software and ASAP Software.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's longtime sales chief and now CEO, described Odom as a top-notch executive who knew her business. "Judy is a sharp, sincere and motivated leader who always impressed me and with whom I formed a great partnership," Ballmer said. "Judy knew she had a key niche and focused on it very well."

Roughly 20 years after its start, Software Spectrum broke the $1 billion mark and cracked the Fortune 1000. Odom, who served as CEO throughout Software Spectrum's history, was one of just 13 female chief executives on the list. She retired from Software Spectrum in August 2002, three months after Level 3 Communications acquired the company.

A refined and disciplined executive, Odom is respected by former employees, competitors and partners for her professionalism, strategic thinking, competitive flair and honorable, nurturing management style, which inspired strong loyalty among her staff. Many of Software Spectrum's first employees, in fact, now run the Garland, Texas, company, including CEO Keith Coogan, President Roger King, Senior Vice President Lorraine Castorina and Vice President Lisa Stewart. In a business where high volume and low margins often dictate a cutthroat environment, Odom kept a cool composure and cultivated a warm, caring culture, King said. "She helped you keep things prioritized and inspired a lot of loyalty," he said.

Yet Odom didn't inherit a dynasty. She made her own.

When Odom was 8, her mother died, leaving her to care for her younger brother while their father worked the late shift at a steel mill near their home in Fort Worth, Texas. She was a serious, straight-A student who yearned for a college education. Her father had only a seventh-grade education but supported his family by working at the mill and by refurbishing and reselling cars on the side. Odom said she inherited her father's work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit but not his traditional viewpoint. "He was my role model, an entrepreneur at heart. He was very loving and wonderful, but he was from the old school who thought girls didn't go to college," she said. "I learned responsibility and to be independent and make decisions at a very young age."

After finishing high school, Odom headed to Texas Tech in West Texas. She graduated in 1974 with a business and accounting degree and then accepted a position at accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand in Dallas, where she met and married staff accountant Richard Sims. At the time, there were few women in the big accounting firms. After marrying Sims, Odom left Coopers and joined Grant Thornton, another large accounting firm, where she was one of two women who made partner in a short time. But the entrepreneurial bug started to bite.

Odom's business journey began in 1983, when she, Sims and Grant Thornton colleague Frank Tindle investigated business ventures. The trio caught wind of an emerging industry centered on PCs and began talks with custom programmers who sold entertainment, educational and word-processing software from a Dallas retail shop.

Odom saw an opportunity. The trio contacted Portia Isaacson of Future Computing, a local consultant who later became a PC industry legend and served on Microsoft's board. She gave them the green light to take over the shop, and Software Spectrum was born.

Initially, the company continued selling games, entertainment and educational software plus Atari and Commodore computers. But it didn't get much foot traffic. Instead, it got calls from local businesses in search of word processors and databases. So the entrepreneurs decided to switch gears. They called Micro D, a local distributor of business software, about the possibility of taking over its inventory and allowing them to pitch the new stuff. That distributor, which later became Ingram Micro, agreed. Software Spectrum began establishing relationships with big Dallas businesses such as EDS and Halliburton, which at the time bought hundreds of copies of software from ComputerWorld and other retail outfits.

Software Spectrum initially considered selling hardware but opted to specialize in software so it could cater to each customer, Odom said. The orders started to pile in. Odom worked full-time as an accountant at Grant Thornton for Software Spectrum's first two years, when its run rate started at $150,000 and doubled to $300,000. But as sales rose and profits reached the 20 percent range, it became clear that a full-time staff was needed.

And that was just the beginning. Software Spectrum sold many software titles from Lotus, Adobe and Peachtree Software. Yet a little-known company named Microsoft knocked on the door one day, and Software Spectrum,at the time housed in a 1,200-square-foot store in a strip mall,started selling Microsoft DOS, Windows, Word, Excel and then a suite called Office. That pushed Software Spectrum's growth to another level. In 1991, with annual sales near $90 million, Software Spectrum went public at $12 per share.

The company's rise helped steer the corporate software business in another direction. In the early days, software publishers required resellers to have retail stores. But Odom and other channel players helped convince the big publishers of the day that corporate software wasn't a retail purchase and that they should rethink their packaging and distribution model. Microsoft and other publishers resisted at first, but they succumbed after Software Spectrum did some test cases with customers. "They were initially skeptical, but we lobbied them hard," Odom said. "We saw it as a sea change in how software is sold."

Between 1992 and 1993, Odom began a European expansion and noticed that publishers were selling on a country-by-country basis, though multinational firms could benefit from global deals. "We saw early on the advantages of licensing and went to Ballmer and pitched our case. Microsoft was one of the first to grant a pan-European authorization," she said. "It was a very progressive business model."

But as Software Spectrum neared,and eventually surpassed,the $1 billion mark, another market shift began. By the late 1990s, stiff competition eroded software margins, and commoditization loomed. Microsoft took over the revenue side of the software-licensing business and retained its former large-account resellers (LARs) as advisers to handle customers' increasingly complex licensing arrangements.

Times, indeed, had changed for software LARs. In 2002, Odom and the board sold Software Spectrum to Level 3 at $37 per share, netting a nice return for shareholders. Level 3 also acquired Corporate Software that same year. Competitors acknowledge Odom's role in the industry transition. "We thought of her as one of the industry's voices of reason during periods of turmoil and change," said Paul Jarvie, president of ASAP Software, Buffalo Grove, Ill., another software reseller-turned-licensing adviser.

Odom admits she was worried that retiring might leave her feeling empty. But now, at age 50, she said she's happy pursuing personal interests and serving on the boards of two corporations not related to the high-tech industry. Odom maintains her primary residence in Dallas and enjoys hiking, skiing and snowshoeing near her vacation home in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

"The mountains help me stay grounded in life," Odom said. "It helps you to keep things in perspective and not get carried away with any success you have in life. There are plenty of temptations in life not to do the right thing. But you have to keep your priorities and treat people right."

 Published for the Week Of December 15, 2003