原创 Is Cadence preparing for a change in leadership?

Cadence Design Systems Inc. chief marketing officer, John Bruggeman, is suddenly out the door (almost). He has been the face and voice of Cadence Design Systems Inc. for most of his two-year stay at that post. At least one analyst thinks the move portends a change in leadership at the firm.

Gary Smith, principal analyst at Gary Smith EDA, said the surprising departure of Bruggeman—who will remain at Cadence as a "non-executive employee" through Aug. 14—is part of a reorganization of marketing functions to pave the way for CEO Lip-Bu Tan to hand the reins to Charlie Huang, Cadence's senior vice president of worldwide operations.

Tan, a longtime Cadence board member, stepped into the Cadence leadership breach in January 2009, a couple of months after the previous CEO, Michael Fister, was forced to resign (along with four key vice presidents). At the time, many assumed it was a short-term fix, pointing out that Tan hadn't even bothered to quit his day job (he has remained chairman of Walden International, the VC firm he founded in 1987).

Now, two-and-a-half years later, Tan has won deserved praise for guiding Cadence through turbulent times, reversing the company's descent and righting the ship and, perhaps, desires to hand off the reins of Cadence and return to his VC work full time. (According to Smith, the rumor mill makes Charlie Huang, Cadence's senior vice president of worldwide operations, the favorite to become the company's next CEO).

Of course, this is only speculation, and as far as that goes it seems plausible enough. But what's the connection between a possible new CEO appointment and Bruggeman's departure? Officially, the explanation from Cadence is that the company announced to employees last week that product marketing would move into the corresponding R&D organizations within Cadence and that Pankaj Mayor, chief of staff to Tan, became acting head of marketing.

If Smith's speculation is on target, though, there may be another dynamic at play. Tan is highly respected throughout the semiconductor industry and deserves all the credit he gets for turning Cadence around from the dark place it was in when he took the CEO job two-and-a-half years ago. But Larry Ellison he is not. Unlike Aart de Geus and Walden Rhines—Tan's counterparts at the other two of EDA's "big three" companies, Synopsys Inc. and Mentor Graphics Corp.—Tan has not signed on to the role of being the face and voice of his company at industry events. Whether that is because he is not comfortable in such a role or because he simply prefers to focus on the details behind the scenes, the fact remains that he simply hasn't emulated the roles of de Geus or Rhines as spokesmen for their company's and for EDA as a whole.

Enter Bruggeman, who seems in fact to be most comfortable when at the head of a room full of people and never heard a question he couldn't answer with a perfectly crafted spin supporting his point of view. Bruggeman, despite not having an EDA background, created a whole new vision for EDA that involved playing in a significantly larger market, then trumpeted it loudly and frequently.ÿ

Bruggeman too aggressive for Cadence?
But Bruggeman's aggressive push for change at a company that has largely done business the same way for more than two decades may have been too much for some of Cadence's more conservative executives. Smith—who wonders if Cadence will be ill (sick?)-served without its loudest advocate for change—said, simply, that Cadence "is way more conservative than Bruggeman is."

If indeed Tan is preparing to replace himself, it may be that the rest of the company's board believes the next CEO—be it Huang or someone else—can fill that role as company spokesperson and that Bruggeman was no longer needed to bridge that gap.

Still, you've got to believe that there is more to the story. The way that Cadence pushed Bruggeman as the company's face and voice sometimes suggested the company was grooming him to be its next CEO (Smith quickly dismissed this theory). You have to wonder about the logic of elbowing out someone that has been put on such a pedestal to represent the firm. (Longtime EDA watcher Gabe Moretti reported on his blog that rumors circulated at the recent Design Automation Conference that Bruggeman was not happy with his role at Cadence).

Predictably, Bruggeman did not immediately respond to a request for an interview on the topic. Cadence reports that the company and Bruggeman signed a transition agreement which calls for him to remain a full-time "non-executive employee through Aug. 14," a part time employee entitled to benefits after that, and likely includes restrictions on what he is at liberty to say publicly.

To sum up, Bruggeman's departure brings about at least as many questions as it does answers. Is Lip-Bu Tan preparing the step down? Was it wise for Cadence to make Bruggeman the go-to guy for the company and then elbow him aside? Will Cadence be worse off without its loudest advocate for change?

The call here is that EDA in general may be worse off without Bruggeman (assuming he doesn't hook on with another EDA firm). Bruggeman is a marketing guy through-and-through, but he's long on vision and audacity—two things that often seem to be in short supply in an EDA landscape that has been stagnant for too long.

Dylan McGrath

EE Times