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12 SMT Magazine • October 2016 by Stephen Las Marias At the recent NEPCON South China event in Shenzhen, I caught up with Thomas For- sythe, executive vice president of Kyzen Corp., to talk about what makes a great leader, the changing roles of leaders in this industry, and the impact of effective leadership in the future of a company. Stephen Las Marias: Tom, from your perspective, what is the difference between being a leader and a manager? Thomas Forsythe: They share some pieces. Managers tend to be focused on tasks, for ex- ample, 'we need the production out by Friday,' and organizing resources to try to accomplish that task. I think leadership certainly includes that, but it's more about why and where. Where are we trying to go? What are we trying to do? Where's the organization headed? Whether it's a kid's football team or a big company, it's kind of the same thing of: where are we going, why are we going there, why is that the right thing, why is that good for us as people, why is that good for our customers, and why is it good for our shareholders and neighbors? Leaders worry about those things. Managers, maybe, but typi- cally not so much. Las Marias: Leaders then tend to look at the big picture? Forsythe: Leaders have to look at both pictures. If people only look at the big picture, then their head's in the sky, right? Those are the ivory tow- er guys that we all worry about. Leaders have to be in touch and in tune with their team; and if it's an outward looking team, their customers too. They also need to have the bigger picture of where the world is going, or where the mar- ket is going. Compare this to what it looked like 10 years ago. It's really different. How many people then knew the world was going here? Some did and they probably did well, their teams did well and their people did well. That's the responsibility of leaders, to look down that road. No one can see the future, but you can consider it. What might happen? What FEATU RE