Strategy Session

My family and I just returned from a two-week vacation in Italy. One of my fondest memories of the trip occurred in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. As hundreds of us gazed at the masterpieces of Michelangelo in near silence at one of the holiest places on the planet, my 8-year-old-daughter approached me. Waiting for her to say something profound for a child her age, I smiled and listened eagerly.

“Mom,” she whispered. “Don’t forget…you promised to buy me a gelato later.”

Yes, that was the top-of-mind concern of this 8-year-old at that moment.

But can’t you relate? Haven’t we all been in a situation where we are physically in one place but our minds are entirely somewhere else? It all comes down to focusing.

Consider the electronics company CEO who is under constant pressure from Wall Street to deliver profitable results--quickly. The CEO wants to invest more in R&D to develop that new product but he has to cut costs to satisfy the shareholders. So, downsizing may be the order of the day when what he’s really thinking about is increasing the R&D staff—the “gelato.” (See James Surowiecki’s story, “It’s the workforce, stupid!” in The New Yorker for more insight into this topic.)

Take the fact that technology companies face growing competition from overseas markets. The powerful consumer is having a tremendous impact like never before on the electronics industry--and semiconductor industry in particular. A study released today (“Competition at the Crossroads: Strategic Planning and Action in Disruptive Markets,” conducted by the Business Performance Management Forum and Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications group) of more than 180 technology industry executives reveals that the executives say they lack the resources, in terms of talent and information, to effectively plan for change.

“The semiconductor guys struggle with what’s really happening with demand on the consumer end,” explains John Ciacchella, a principal with Deloitte Consulting and leader of its technology industry group. The vast change for semiconductor applications, moving from defense in the mid-1970s to consumer products now, Ciacchella says, means CEOs have to change their focus from business-to-business to business-to-consumer.

So here’s one tactic some semiconductor companies are implementing, he adds: they are hiring people with retail and consumer experience “who understand Best Buy and WalMart” These folks know about the tools and techniques used in the consumer market, and can help the semiconductor companies figure out how to apply these techniques to their market.

Which brings us back to the concept of where we started: focusing on what’s important at the moment. It’s certainly not an easy task for an electronics industry executive in this day and age.

(Oh, my daughter did get her gelato eventually, by the way.)