categories
HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Role Model Interview
Leadership Profile: Sass Somekh (Part 6)
After spending 23 extremely successful years with Applied Materials, Sass joined Novellus as the President. In this next segment of our interview we discuss this transition, and some of the differences he encountered between the two companies. SM: What prompted you to leave Applied and go to Novellus? SS: I had an opportunity to become
Leadership Profile: Tom Werner (Part 5)
Tom joined SunPower in 2003, and the IPO occurred in 2005. Here we review the steps the company took in that timeframe which led to not only a successful IPO, but also laid the foundation for its current success. SM: Between the time you showed up and the IPO, what was happening to the business
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
Leadership Profile: Tom Werner (Part 4)
During its early phases SunPower was, out of necessity, not as focused of a company as it is now. It engaged in several other business areas to ensure positive cashflow, yet such activities detracted from the development of high efficiency solar cells which became one of its core competencies. SM: Did SunPower engage in any
Leadership Profile: Sass Somekh (Part 4)
Sass has displayed a consistent and perpetual ability to introduce extremely successful product lines at Applied Materials. Here we discuss the methodologies he used to establish the environment of innovation and product development. Very few companies have been able to internally innovate after reaching a certain scale. Many have perfected the art of M&A to
Leadership Profile: Tom Werner (Part 3)
In this next segment of the interview, Tom takes us through the history of SunPower. From the inception, it was a company driven by innovation, yet faced the common business challenges which have been the demise of numerous other hi-tech startups. SM: Can you briefly tell us about the history of SunPower? TW: SunPower is,
Leadership Profile: Sass Somekh (Part 3)
Sass continues his discussion of his early career. Of note is his constant involvement in innovation, from Bell Labs to Intel he was consistently working on developing emerging technologies which would come to dominate the marketplace. His talent for building new product based on new technologies, and scaling them into market leading businesses is at
Leadership Profile: Tom Werner (Part 2)
Here Tom discusses his transition into SunPower. He also provides some basic information about the solar power marketplace. SM: How far along was SunPower at the time? TW: It was 60% owned by Cypress, and they were at the prototype stage. They were prototyping the high efficiency solar cell for the target market it was
