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ACE: Top exec finalists stood apart from crowded field
3/20/2012 2:11 PM EDT
In a challenging year, Beyer set Freescale on the right track
Like many executives, Rich Beyer's biggest headaches in 2011 stemmed from the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck off the coast of Japan on March 11. Beyer, the former U.S. Marine Corps officer who has served as chairman and chief executive officer of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. since 2008, had to cope with massive damage to his company's 6-inch-wafer fab in Sendai, about 80 miles west of the quake's epicenter. The facility, which was the chip fab closest to the epicenter, was so badly damaged that it never re-opened.
"That plant was an important part of our company for many years," Beyer, 63, said. "The disruption could have been enormous. But we were able to manage through that downturn very, very successfully."
Freescale moved quickly to transfer production of the 8-bit microcontrollers, analog parts and sensors made at the Sendai fab to other Freescale fabs worldwide. Ironically, the Sendai fab was scheduled to close late last year anyway. But being forced to close the fab nine months early posed problems: Some of the parts made in Sendai were never going to be transferred to other facilities because their production in 2012 was expected to be insignificant. "Because the plant shut down, we had to completely revise those plans and requalify those parts in other facilities," Beyer said.
But Beyer is the first to acknowledge that Freescale's troubles with the loss of the Sendai fab were small potatoes in comparison to competitor Renesas Electronics, which had a number of its fabs knocked offline by the quake. Freescale's senior executives in Japan contacted Beyer to ask if Freescale engineers could assist Renesas, and he agreed. In one of the most extraordinary developments in the postquake recovery, Freescale and other Renesas' competitors were among those that pitched in to help get that company's fabs back up and running.
"I think it's the human spirit," Beyer said. "A crisis like that brings us together, in the sense that we are all dealing with this issue, and we are able to set aside for the moment the fact that we are going to compete very fiercely in the marketplace."
Freescale shook off disruptions in production en route to posting sales of $4.57 billion in 2011, up 2 percent from 2010. During the year, Freescale also continued to strengthen its balance sheet and reduced its sizeable debt obligations by more than $1 billion, primarily through money raised from Freescale's initial public offering in May.
Beyer, who was CEO of Intersil Corp. before joining Freescale and is also the 2012 chairman of Semiconductor Industry Association's board of directors, is proud of the company's achievements. "The single thing that strikes me is we've built a team of winners," he said. "We've transformed to become a much more competitive, much more aggressive company. We've begun to regrow the company and gain market share."
- Dylan McGrath
Like many executives, Rich Beyer's biggest headaches in 2011 stemmed from the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck off the coast of Japan on March 11. Beyer, the former U.S. Marine Corps officer who has served as chairman and chief executive officer of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. since 2008, had to cope with massive damage to his company's 6-inch-wafer fab in Sendai, about 80 miles west of the quake's epicenter. The facility, which was the chip fab closest to the epicenter, was so badly damaged that it never re-opened.
"That plant was an important part of our company for many years," Beyer, 63, said. "The disruption could have been enormous. But we were able to manage through that downturn very, very successfully."
Freescale moved quickly to transfer production of the 8-bit microcontrollers, analog parts and sensors made at the Sendai fab to other Freescale fabs worldwide. Ironically, the Sendai fab was scheduled to close late last year anyway. But being forced to close the fab nine months early posed problems: Some of the parts made in Sendai were never going to be transferred to other facilities because their production in 2012 was expected to be insignificant. "Because the plant shut down, we had to completely revise those plans and requalify those parts in other facilities," Beyer said.
But Beyer is the first to acknowledge that Freescale's troubles with the loss of the Sendai fab were small potatoes in comparison to competitor Renesas Electronics, which had a number of its fabs knocked offline by the quake. Freescale's senior executives in Japan contacted Beyer to ask if Freescale engineers could assist Renesas, and he agreed. In one of the most extraordinary developments in the postquake recovery, Freescale and other Renesas' competitors were among those that pitched in to help get that company's fabs back up and running.
"I think it's the human spirit," Beyer said. "A crisis like that brings us together, in the sense that we are all dealing with this issue, and we are able to set aside for the moment the fact that we are going to compete very fiercely in the marketplace."
Freescale shook off disruptions in production en route to posting sales of $4.57 billion in 2011, up 2 percent from 2010. During the year, Freescale also continued to strengthen its balance sheet and reduced its sizeable debt obligations by more than $1 billion, primarily through money raised from Freescale's initial public offering in May.
Beyer, who was CEO of Intersil Corp. before joining Freescale and is also the 2012 chairman of Semiconductor Industry Association's board of directors, is proud of the company's achievements. "The single thing that strikes me is we've built a team of winners," he said. "We've transformed to become a much more competitive, much more aggressive company. We've begun to regrow the company and gain market share."
- Dylan McGrath
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Luis Sanchez
3/20/2012 10:15 PM EDT
I like to read about the persons behind the companies and how they influence their success.
Many times the difficult and negative events shake things up to either improve them or remove the weak. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going". That is what happened with Renesas and Cadence. And really impressive that move of cutting paychecks to survive in the case of Juki Automation Systems. An the winner is... ?
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junko.yoshida
3/21/2012 9:56 AM EDT
You're right. You should do more stories about what's behind all the news -- especially when it comes to hard decisions these top executives need to make.
As for the winner of the Executive of the Year, stay tuned. It will be announced next Tuesday evening in San Jose, Calif.
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elctrnx_lyf
3/21/2012 2:12 AM EDT
My choice would be the chief of Juki.
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dylan.mcgrath
3/22/2012 1:19 PM EDT
Any one of this executives would make for a deserving winner of the award. But for me, Akao may well be the favorite, simply because of the mess Renesas was left with after the Japan quake. To get the fabs back up and running ahead of schedule required a very impressive company-wide effort, even while Japan as a country was still reeling from the disaster. That takes inspiring leadership.
I also think that the impressive turnaround of Cadence under Lip-Bu Tan deserves a lot of consideration.
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sharps_eng
3/30/2012 12:56 PM EDT
I would think the skill comes from managing the multi-cultural environment of these global businesses, some more so than others, internally but they all have global markets and need to read those correctly to plan and take risks with the future direction of plant and product investments.
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