标签: company

Technology continually changes, forcing managers at all companies to evaluate their present market position. New approaches that yield cheaper and more powerful solutions for customers that are might erode a company's product offerings. These may come from established companies or from start-ups.   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

Keeping the team motivated and enthusiastic about an entrepreneurial company could be the difference between success and failure. It is also an aspect of the job for a founding CEO that can be puzzling. It seems like every high-tech executive I talk to has the same lack of appreciation for "human resources" issues. Their sentiment can be best summarized as, "Employee problems are the most frustrating."       The goal is to keep employees motivated so they are fully engaged and productive. To the manager who is committing his or her life to a new startup, it appears that the opportunity is so exciting that even the most cynical employee with a toxic attitude could be turned into a top contributor.   How does the management team go about this? Most of us learned how to solve complex technical problems but feel ill equipped to tackle employee issues.   Here are a couple of things I picked up along the way that might help.   One concept is fundamental to managing the workforce and creating a stimulating work environment. Team management issues can be divided in two main groups: Sources of unhappiness or dissatisfaction and the opportunities to create motivation.   The key is that those two sets are distinct. The former, sources of dissatisfaction, must be eliminated. This process is what was described to me by the late Phil Kaufman when I worked for him –– accurately, I believe –– as taking care of corporate hygiene.   On this list would be making sure the office is clean and well-lit, engineers have the tools to perform their job and are not hindered by "stupid" rules, and competitive pay and benefits. More important, management must take care of toxic employees.   For a tech startup, the list would include stock options as well. A word of caution here: The management team must plan properly the allocation of stock options to be equitable and to ensure the pool is not depleted before the full team is hired.   Perhaps the more important point is that taking care of this list gets executives back to the ground floor in terms of employee management. Getting employees motivated means addressing a completely different set of issues. To get into positive territory requires that the management team give employees autonomy and ownership of projects, which often requires a different approach with each employee. As managers, executives need to take the time to understand what motivates an employee and what his or her strengths are.   To put this further in context, managers should look at expanding the responsibility of their employees vertically, not horizontally. That means, not increasing quantities of the same repetitive tasks, but more ownership, including objectives and deliverables.   An important corollary of this division is that not every employee problem can be solved with compensation.   So much of keeping a team or individuals motivated rests with the first-line manager. A good manager knows how to give an employee all the authority and responsibility he or she can handle to get the job done, along with the tools and resources. The manager will let them make mistakes, learn from them and not micromanage, unless that’s required and, sometimes, it is. At other points, the manager will need to help clear the path to get a project completed or a roadblock cleared. Without a supportive and responsive boss, the cycle of discouragement begins.   Employees, especially engineers, like to understand the problem they’re solving and be able to put it into a context. Executives can and should encourage developers to interact with customers, participate in customer meetings were appropriate and, if needed, send developers to help the customer on site. When the company’s exhibiting at a trade show, engineers should be encouraged to take a shift or two of booth duty to meet prospects and learn more about the industry. It will give them first-hand knowledge of customers’ challenges and enable them to problem solve, a great motivator.   More than 20 years after I heard the concept of “hygiene” in employee motivation, it continues to help me understand the difference between clearing up dissatisfaction and creating motivation.   Michel Courtoy is a former design engineer and EDA executive who sits on the board of directors at Breker Verification Systems.

One essential component for a company's success is its culture. Defining company culture is difficult. Let's settle for a simple definition of the shared values of the organisation and look at how those values are communicated, implemented, and modified by the team. The benefits of a strong culture are that the whole team works well together, and new employees can easily integrate, given the clear behaviour patterns set by the team. In other words, out with the dreaded corporate politics. Conversely, in case of a weak culture, management is required to put in place a more rigid infrastructure to monitor and correct problems in the organisation. There is an obvious cost in the form of bureaucracy, loss of productivity, and employee morale. In other words, companies with strong, positive cultures are a lot more fun because employees have a lot more freedom to operate. The internal aspects of the company culture are most often discussed, but company culture also affects the relationship with customers, partners, and other stakeholders. High-tech culture club One of the key challenges with company culture that I have encountered in high-tech start-ups is the integration of employees from different origins. Today, even small start-ups have employees located across the world. Most of them are not native English speakers. They come from very different backgrounds and have to communicate through email, a distorting communication medium. Compound this with the fact that team members were recruited from the elite formed in the best schools, meaning that these team members have well-formed opinions. The opportunity for miscommunication is real. The solution? Team members need to meet face-to-face and get to know each other. It can be difficult to organise company-wide meetings in start-ups where the budget is tight, but the value of these get-togethers cannot be ignored. A company culture will change over time. This starts with the simple reality that employees will leave to be replaced by new ones who have different behaviours. Every one of those hires influences the company culture. Of course, in a strong positive company culture, the group will naturally filter out negative influences. Also, when the company grows, changes are unavoidable. Some changes are viewed as constraining by employees used to the looser start-up culture. For example, companies typically decide to impose name badges when they reach 100 to 200 employees. I have lived through this stage three times and every time a few employees resisted this perceived loss of freedom. Culture change Another topic that is often discussed is the ability of the management team to set the company culture. I am a big believer that this is an important part of the CEO's job. Of course, setting or changing the company culture has to be done with clear objectives in mind. What works best for the organisation, taking into account the industry, company size, etc.? Past experiences are important here. What worked for the key team members in the past is worth replicating. The CEO and his or her management team control a lot of levers that drive the company culture. They start, of course, by setting the right example. But there are many more pragmatic switches that can be activated. Let's go through a couple of quick examples. Case one: office design Closed offices, separate cubicles, or open-office space? Clearly, this choice has an impact on employee communications. Case two: customer focus The customer urgently needs a new feature in the software. Possible answers can range from "it is not planned," to "we'll add it to the next release," or "this is now the top priority of my development team." Case three: employee compensation Is the focus on individual or company performance for discretionary income, such as commissions and bonuses? Another interesting quandary can be the big or small differences between the compensation of top performers and average performers in similar functions. These variations can be viewed as either the cause of conflict or a deserved reward. A parting comment Maybe the true measure of the company culture can be found by listening to what's being discussed around the espresso machine. A CEO who ignores the company's culture does so at his or her peril. Michel Courtoy is a former design engineer and EDA executive who sits on the board of directors at Breker Verification Systems.