A punchy piece in EETimes regrets the lack of Q&A at the Electronica CEO Forum.
This could well be because of the current insecurities of the CEOs of NXP and Freescale. It seems that Freescale’s CEO has not even got a contract from the new owners.
NXP’s CEO didn’t have an agreement settled with the new owners at the time of the press conference.
These CEOs may well be in a contractual limbo, controlled by groups of super-secret financial types who could easily parachute in an entire new management team if they took it upon themselves to dislike the cut of the CEO’s jib.
Possibly a sign of things to come. As the faceless money men move in on the industry, the ability of execs to speak their minds may well reduce.
As for the sudden no-show of STMicroelectronics’ CEO Carlo Bozotti, this probably wasn’t such a loss to the Forum.
Just as the Popes used to be named ‘the Good’ or ‘the Magnificent’, Bozotti should be dubbed ‘the Speechless.’ Questions don’t usually get answered very fully.
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Comments (2)
I think that there´s more than just contract issues. I fear that the new generation of CEOs are too conservative and too protected by an army of PR guys. I bet the first thing that ever get to their minds is "what will this do the value of our shares?"
From (private equity) owner´s perspective this must be great, they have the CEOs following very nicely and smoothly on everything they want. From editorial point this all sucks. The new CEOs fear to say anything worth quoting, anything newsworthy, anything worthy at all.
Luckily there are exceptions to this rule and there are some CEOs who actually have opinions of their own and are not afraid to say it. Unfortunately they are a dying breed.
Electronics may be maturing as an industry, but its management is getting very boring.
Posted by VO | November 22, 2006 7:26 AM
Posted on November 22, 2006 07:26
You're right. It's a mixture of terror about infringing all the 'forward looking statements . . ' stuff and CEOs who look like alumni from the MBA/Accountant schools.
My hope is that when the nano/molecular companies eventually emerge they'll be headed up scientists and technologists and it will be like the old days of plain speaking again.
Posted by David Manners | November 22, 2006 2:51 PM
Posted on November 22, 2006 14:51