It's that time of the year when the EDA industry puts on its annual show at the Design Automation Conference (DAC). This year's DAC was held in San Diego, California from June 6-8, 2011. Like many of us involved in the semiconductor industry, going to DAC provides a once-a-year opportunity for us to reconnect with colleagues, customers, and partners from all over the world in a very efficient way.
This year's DAC was a bit special for me. When registering for the conference and looking for hotels, I noticed on the front page of the DAC website a promotion of the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon, one of a series of running events held all over North America throughout the year. This year, the San Diego event was being held the day before DAC, Sunday June 5th. Being a lifelong runner, but never before competing in a marathon, this seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to give it a try. So I did, along with a number of other sleepy-eyed DAC attendees seen in this picture taken at the Marriot hotel at 4:30am, 90 minutes before the start of the race where we joined with another 32,500 runners.
The thing I like about long-distance running is the solitary time alone to think. It's like aerobic meditation. The mind and body get into a natural rhythm and while the body does it's thing, the mind is free to quietly work on those big problems you don't have time for during the frenetic workday. And trust me, when you are out there for 4+ hours slogging through 26.2 miles of streets and highways, there is plenty of time to think.
As my body wandered the streets of San Diego, my mind was looking ahead to my schedule at DAC and couldn't escape from a meme - running a company is a lot like running a marathon. For the best ones, the journey is not a sprint but a marathon. And there are some distinct phases that one goes through during the journey.
It's all fun and games at the start
The emotions one feels at the beginning of a company is a lot like the emotions at the start of a race. Everyone is bristling with enthusiasm and prepared for the long journey ahead while maintaining a healthy respect for the arduous nature of the task. I like to say, "Hope for the best and plan for the worst."
Companies often start in the same way with founders committed to the journey and emboldened by the planning necessary to survive the twists and turns of fortune that will inevitably come. Confidence and enthusiasm is extremely important for any entrepreneurial endeavour. Entrepreneurs often suffer from something called "optimism bias" which has the effect of creating a positive belief that what is being attempted is not crazy. The optimism bias counteracts those natural fears of failure that come from the more rational side of our psyche.
The great thing about being in a new company or organization is the sense of purpose and optimism for the task at hand. And for the marathon it was no different with over 32,000 people at the identical psychic address of "Yes We Can!"
The long middle
At the first hour mark we were about 25% along the way towards our goal and the euphoria of the start had been gone for some time and everyone realized that this was going to be just as hard as we thought. The well-trained continued to crank along at their pace and the not-so-trained started to fall behind and drop out entirely.
In business it's the same. The weak and uncommitted fall behind and drop out. The strong soldier on and attract new soldiers that are energized by being in the presence of those who believe. As I listened to my iPod, Rush's "Closer to the Heart" came on and the words stuck in my head:
And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality
Closer to the Heart
Often times business plans require a complete rewrite as the company reacts to the conditions of the market, and the leadership of the company must communicate these new realities to the troops.
Most people are familiar with Steve Jobs' recruitment of John Scully of Pepsi to take over the reins of Apple in the late 1980's and famously asking Scully whether he would prefer to "sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?" Of course, hiring Scully turns out in retrospect to be one of Jobs' greatest blunders. Scully it turns out did a miserable job in transitioning to the high tech world and nearly drove the company out of business by trying to clone the IBM/Microsoft/Intel model. One can't help but notice that perhaps his idea that PC vs. Mac was simply a high tech variant of Coke vs. Pepsi.
Scully clearly failed in his mission to "change the world" and was booted. Jobs returned as the "iCEO" again putting his fingerprints all over the new Apple with the iMac and rallying the troops once again in a new era of innovation.
Its now 2 hours into the race and the ½ marathoners have long split from the pack and we are envisioning them crossing the finish line over at Sea World. We're thinking, "that wasn't bad, half-way there" but knowing full well it's going to get tough now. It's a funny thing, but you start telling these lies to yourself to distract yourself from the harsh reality of the pain that will surely come at mile 20.
I'm sure Jobs was thinking the same thing when he came back to pick up the pieces from Scully. In fact he had to go get a loan from Microsoft to keep the company going. Reinvent, reinvent, reinvent. If there were a formula for success in the high tech business, I would call it "continuous reinvention".
There is ample evidence that the most successful companies in the world have a practice of continuous reinvention:
• IBM is more than a 100 years old and has continuously reinvented themselves over this time from business calculators, to typewriters, to computers, to semiconductors, to services.
• Hewlett Packard is more than 50 years old and what started out as a test equipment company has turned into one of the largest manufacturers of all manner of electronics equipment from computers to printers to services.
These are but two examples of companies that have reinvented themselves over the decades but there are many more. Even in the EDA industry we have seen serious shifts in strategies by Synopsys and Cadence to embrace IP as a new way to increase the value for its customers and make good on its original value proposition of helping designers be more productive.
There are also plenty of companies (and major ones at that!) that are struggling with reinvention as it is hard and requires the right leadership to show the way. Companies need to assess whether the leader that got them where they are today is the leader that gets them to the finish line.
And down the stretch they go!
After 3 1/2 hours we are over 75% to the finish line and the first significant pains begin. The little lies stop working and your body becomes very vocal in its assessment of the situation ("this is bull****!") So you start making these little deals with yourself: I'll keep going if we can slow down 30 seconds per mile. I'll keep going if you let me have fries with that burger after the race. I'll keep going but I get 2 weeks off before you make me run again. And so on.
In business it's the same. Most companies have been through significant pain and suffering over the last few years as the bottom fell out of the semiconductor market. Layoffs, pay cuts, restructuring are all part of the necessary pain to get to the finish line. The companies that had the courage to make the adjustments and the toughness to endure the pain are sitting pretty today.
The glory of the finish
The community of San Diego spilled out in force to support the runners and it was truly a sight to behold. I'm not a cheerleader sort of person, but was quite surprised to find myself encouraged by perfect strangers yelling at me to "keep going", "you can do it", and one very memorable sign at Mile 18 that propelled me through the end - "pain is temporary, glory is forever!"
While companies don't really have a finish line (except maybe an acquisition), there are a regular set of milestones and objectives that all companies achieve in the course of continuous reinvention. Just like the cheerleaders at the race, company management must also encourage people in their work to push through the obstacles and temporary hardships to push forward to the finish line.