Chip bellwether Intel put out a reassuring earnigns report -- calming fears of high-tech investors. Intel reported a 25% increase in profits after the markets closed yesterday. Revenues gained 17% from a year ago registering $9.4 billion. Demand looks solid without undue inventory buildup.
Intel will open the floodgates with its "Rosedale" chip on Monday, the company's entry into the WiMAX fray. Why WiMAX you ask? Think of this new technology as broadband on steroids. Deployment of WiMAX could spark the Internet2 boom.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Pasquale Pistorio Interview
Interview from EETimes reveals Pistorio management style.
I crossed tracks with Pasquale Pistorio when he was VP of marketing and sales in Europe for Motorola Semiconductor and was building up a team of mostly Italian managers in Europe (most migrating from SGS) in the 1970s. Motorolans working in Europe at the time called it the "Motorola Mafia" (Pistorio hails from Sicily). One advantage for working for Italian bosses was that we always went to the best restaurants.
I was stationed in France as analog marketing manager for Europe during 1973-76, when Motorola Semiconductor (now Freescale) went thorugh its second worst downturn (the 2001 downturn was the worst). For industry veterans who remember this era, it was the time of bloodletting in the bipolar digital TTL wars. With TI holding a dominant share in this business at the time, the ensuing fight left many secondary players in the dust, compelling them to later drop out of the TTL market.
In those days, Pasquale Pistorio had risen quickly through the Moto sales ranks from sales engineer in Milan, Italy to VP of marketing and sales for Europe. He reported to Europe GM, Robert Heikes, who was busy copying TI’s 'management by objectives' style and getting the troops fired up.
I remember TWXs (does anyone remember what those were?) arriving in Toulouse and saying that entire wards in Phoenix were being shut down. Rumors of Moto’s demise and sale of the chip sector were rampant. Moto was floundering, but it was Europe that kept the Moto ship from sinking. Chicago brass noticed the performance and as the recession bottomed, they brought both Pistorio and Heikes to Phoenix to work their magic on the executives in Phoenix. However, neither man lasted long in Phoenix.
The reason? Having experienced working for Motorola in both the U.S and Toulouse, France, it became clear to me that Moto Europe and Moto Phoenix were under totally different management styles. The Phoenix corporate culture did not encourage mavericks and wave makers. In fact, just the opposite: executives who were too dynamic were ejected by the system. Politics and entrenched organizations ruled the day, along with numerous meetings and consensus decision making as part of the Motorola family.
Pistorio went on to take the helm of SGS, which he later combined with Thomson to build Europe’s most successful chip operation (and most of the cohorts he had hired at Motorola from SGS went with him). He brought STM to world-class status over the course of the last decade. Pistorio recently turned over the helm to Carlo Bozotti. Robert iHeikes went on to consultancy work, helped run Eurotechnique for a while and now lives in the Provence area of France playing chess.
What's Pistorio's advice for newcomers to the industry? (comment taken from interview).
"Be determined. Persevere. Try to reconcile your professional position with the social aspects. We cannot dissociate our commercial responsibilities from our social responsibilities."
I crossed tracks with Pasquale Pistorio when he was VP of marketing and sales in Europe for Motorola Semiconductor and was building up a team of mostly Italian managers in Europe (most migrating from SGS) in the 1970s. Motorolans working in Europe at the time called it the "Motorola Mafia" (Pistorio hails from Sicily). One advantage for working for Italian bosses was that we always went to the best restaurants.
I was stationed in France as analog marketing manager for Europe during 1973-76, when Motorola Semiconductor (now Freescale) went thorugh its second worst downturn (the 2001 downturn was the worst). For industry veterans who remember this era, it was the time of bloodletting in the bipolar digital TTL wars. With TI holding a dominant share in this business at the time, the ensuing fight left many secondary players in the dust, compelling them to later drop out of the TTL market.
In those days, Pasquale Pistorio had risen quickly through the Moto sales ranks from sales engineer in Milan, Italy to VP of marketing and sales for Europe. He reported to Europe GM, Robert Heikes, who was busy copying TI’s 'management by objectives' style and getting the troops fired up.
I remember TWXs (does anyone remember what those were?) arriving in Toulouse and saying that entire wards in Phoenix were being shut down. Rumors of Moto’s demise and sale of the chip sector were rampant. Moto was floundering, but it was Europe that kept the Moto ship from sinking. Chicago brass noticed the performance and as the recession bottomed, they brought both Pistorio and Heikes to Phoenix to work their magic on the executives in Phoenix. However, neither man lasted long in Phoenix.
The reason? Having experienced working for Motorola in both the U.S and Toulouse, France, it became clear to me that Moto Europe and Moto Phoenix were under totally different management styles. The Phoenix corporate culture did not encourage mavericks and wave makers. In fact, just the opposite: executives who were too dynamic were ejected by the system. Politics and entrenched organizations ruled the day, along with numerous meetings and consensus decision making as part of the Motorola family.
Pistorio went on to take the helm of SGS, which he later combined with Thomson to build Europe’s most successful chip operation (and most of the cohorts he had hired at Motorola from SGS went with him). He brought STM to world-class status over the course of the last decade. Pistorio recently turned over the helm to Carlo Bozotti. Robert iHeikes went on to consultancy work, helped run Eurotechnique for a while and now lives in the Provence area of France playing chess.
What's Pistorio's advice for newcomers to the industry? (comment taken from interview).
"Be determined. Persevere. Try to reconcile your professional position with the social aspects. We cannot dissociate our commercial responsibilities from our social responsibilities."
Monday, April 18, 2005
Auvitek
We just interviewed Victor Chen, CEO and David Wang, Director of Marketing and Sales of Auvitek. An American-Chinese startup looking to make it more cost effective for TV makers to combine analog/DTV demodulation on one IC. Look for details in our InsideChips.com report in early May 2005.
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