Get off the sidelines

Progress: It’s what engineers do. They advance, they grow, they move forward. And, as such, there is nothing more defeating than standing still or, worse, taking a step back.
Yet for many engineers, that’s what 2011 was, a year of maintenance or recovery following a layoff or budget cuts. Read the Voices question-and-answer column in our most recent issue and it’s easy to see why. For that Voices, Bill McClean, president of market-research company IC Insights, spoke to EDN about 2011’s less-than-expected semiconductor-industry growth, estimates for 2012, and why the always-complex semiconductor market cannot be judged on just one of its aspects. He graciously gave EDN 30 minutes of his time for the interview and in that half hour he made several wise points based on his more than 30 years of experience tracking the IC industry.
Here’s one that really hit home for me while conducting the interview:

We’ve always said that uncertainty is the worst thing in the marketplace. It’s actually worse than bad news. If you know something is going to be bad, you can plan around it. But uncertainty creates total fear and total apprehension, and it makes people freeze. They don’t do anything; they just sit on the sidelines. 2011 saw a tremendous amount of uncertainty, and that [feeling] showed up in the semiconductor market.

Look below the surface of the cheerful toasts from execs at the company holiday party this week and the fear that remains in this industry is conspicuous. It’s understandable. After all, 2011 was supposed to be our year of double-digit growth, the return to gains, the “normalizing” after years of disorder. Instead what we saw were some supply chains, lives, and purchasing habits disrupted by tsunamis, floods, and earthquakes. Add in the high unemployment rate in the US, Europe’s economic confusion, the passing of some of the industry’s greatest engineers, and the reemergence — or continuation — of R&D tightening, and 2011 is not a year to be remembered fondly for many.
But it’s time to move past that. No one can say for sure that 2012 will be clear of problems. Here’s what can be stated, however: It’s no longer 2008. It’s not 2009, it’s not 2010, and we’ve closed 2011. It’s time to get off the sidelines and charge forward. Leave the last three years of turmoil behind and move forward, away from the fear.
There are plenty of things we as individuals have no direct control over - natural disasters, death, the worldwide GDP - but there are things that we (or perhaps our managers) can do to get off the sidelines and progress. Number one on that list should be hiring the best people available. Companies don’t grow without talented people and they don’t grow by overworking the talented people already on staff. Number two, take some risks again. Invest time and resources in smart ideas that have potential, not just established product lines. Number three, be prepared to get knocked down. It’s going to happen. No matter how well you innovate and plan, you will at some point be tackled unexpectedly if you get off the sidelines and get in the game. You can bet the guys heading to Indianapolis in a few weeks got hit a lot on their way to the Super Bowl. So keep you helmet handy and proceed aggressively, but defensively.
We start a new year very soon. As the hangover of 2011 subsides, plan your 2012 with progress in mind. Make it - not maintenance - a priority. Get off the sidelines and back into the game.