Leadership Profile: Sass Somekh (Part 5)

Sass continues his discussion of technology innovation inside applied, and highlights the importance of experience. He also takes us into a discussion on innovation and conviction, which he believes can lead to success.

SM: In that process you still needed to act a bit like a venture capitalist and decide which products go forward and which ones do not go forward. What is the mechanism of sifting through all of that? SS: I don’t know if there is so much a single mechanism as much as it is experience.

Close interaction with your customers will allow you to judge development paths. Some people can refer to intuition, but it is really experience. I guess if you have enough experience it can turn into intuition. After having gone through different successes and failures, I like to refer to it as experience.

Being an innovative person who is willing to take risks, I laugh at Israeli’s as “sometime right, never in doubt”. As I go to Israel, I have not lived there in almost 40 years, but it overwhelms me every time to see a country where a lot of people are very innovative, and also convinced that they are right. If you have a person who is innovative and is convinced they are right, they will mortgage their home to start a company. The entrepreneurship in Israel is unbelievable. There are 200 circuit design companies. Intel’s latest design, the Centrino, was designed in Israel. The dual core processor was designed in Israel. I think this is due to the dual core of innovation as well as the conviction that you are right.

SM: Are you like that as well? SS: I am a mellow. Perhaps that is better for someone else to judge. I do find it amazing every time I go to Israel to see how strong their convictions are.

SM: Could we summarize the story of your success at Applied Materials by saying that you developed a methodology that allowed the company to successfully innovate and bring very large successful product lines to market even within the typical constraints of a large company? SS: I believe this is the challenge for high tech companies which have needs for continuous innovation and new products, otherwise they lose their leadership position.

SM: Have you considered writing a book about this? SS: So far I just have a nice presentation which I have given in a number of places.

[to be continued]

[Part 4]
[Part 3]
[Part 2]
[Part 1]

This segment is part 5 in the series : Leadership Profile: Sass Somekh
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