原创 Thoughts on industry and change

The future is, however, always murky. We never know which technology to put resources behind to expand a company’s product line. "Cannibalizing your product before someone else does" is the watchword that must drive any successful transition. Sounds good, but why do so many companies fail at it?

Industry leaders usually opt for doing things the same way with subtle changes. In fact, most try to improve on cost to meet corporate profitability goals. The whole enterprise is structured to deliver a quality product at the lowest achievable cost. Any changes (improvements?) are welcomed only if they reduce cost.

Certainly, these companies employ a lot of smart people who know that nothing lasts forever. But they also know that there are plenty of wild, crazy ideas out there and it will take a lot of understanding to get managers to place bets against something they know already works.

Every industry has market leaders who look over their shoulders at who might upset their vaulted position. For example, the automobile industry has grown to its stature over the last 100 years. The internal combustion engine has been improved upon over that time to deliver a reliable, good experience. But is that about to change? Is technology at the point that it can deliver a lower cost, better experience with electric vehicles? If you were at GM or Ford, how would you handle this?

It takes a remarkable company with extraordinary leadership to shift to a newer technology. Actually, the automobile manufacturers are experimenting with many new technologies, especially electric. But is it a waste of money?

As the late great Steve Jobs said in one of his memorable lines, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

We've seen many changes in the measurement field, too. The fast rise of consumer products has demanded a shift to software platforms and modular solutions. The older solutions were box functions, connected by IEEE-488 (GPIB) communications, driving measurement systems. New systems are driven by software and hardware that can implement the desired functions.

Test systems are being drawn up with new architectures than those developed just a few years ago. Certainly, USB and Ethernet play a role, but even wider choices using embedded approaches running Linux are being used to give real time performance data, resulting in faster testing throughput.

Today’s consumer products such as cell phones, tablets, and action cameras, etc. are being subjected to usage extremes of temperature and vibration that demand new approaches. Modular devices that directly handle sensor data can be rapidly employed to give extensive measurement data that older approaches can't.

The continuing fascination of consumers with these new personal devices is changing the supply chain, as well as the testing of these products. They demand that their devices work despite the “torture” they’re subjected to: dropping them, falling in water, sitting on them, and the ultimate…having their children entertained with them.

No one can know for sure what changes will occur next. We only know after they occur. But, we must let our intuition and good sense must lead us.

Fred Molinari

President & CEO

Data Translation