Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1259453
16 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2020 to leave." There was not a single complaint. As a part of the sales team, we got some pay, but we didn't get commissions, etc., and these were the people that stayed with the company and built it. It was a cultural thing. The leadership of the company went the other way for a while, where they brought in some good people from other companies in other industries instead of going with the team that helped start the com- pany. Reverting back to that team may not have caused the turnaround, but it seemed to help. Johnson: A lesson here may be to ensure you have a team that believes in the mission and has the skillset and emotional commitment to not manage and be tactical, but to buy into the strategy that's required to transform. Feinberg: Yes. And we can talk about TQM, commitment, and all of these things, but there's another factor that we have to admit— luck. Sometimes, it comes down to being in the right place at the right time and taking advantage of that. Johnson: It's being able to recognize that you got hand- ed an opportunity and responding to it. What's your ad- vice when a senior management team looks at who they have, what they need to do, and the chal- lenge in front of them and realizes they don't have who it takes? Feinberg: If you don't have the right team, change it. Johnson: And if you don't have the right facility? Feinberg: Let me give you an example that might help and has to do with Dr. Ed Reardon, our VP of research, who passed away about a year and a half ago—God bless. I was VP of marketing and sales, and Ed was VP of R&D, and we didn't get along that well. When I became his boss, he came to me and said, "I know we've had our differences, but we both have the same goal, which is to make this company successful. I want you to know you have my full backing." I thanked him, and we were great friends from then on. Ed came to me when we decided what we were going to do to fix the company. We had to cut costs significantly. In that situation, he had to cut his budget by 40%. He said to me, "I can't do that and meet all of our goals. It's not possible." I responded, "That's because all of your goals may not be important. What we have to do is prioritize your goals and de- termine the products and product improve- ments that are critical to us in meeting our company objective. The other projects are going to have to be put on the shelf. Let's not cut back on everything so that we're doing 50% on 20 projects; let's cut 10 of those projects out completely for now and do a 100% focus on the ones that are important to the company." Ed gave me kind of a half-smile and walked out. He came back three days later with his plan, and we had to cut his budget, but it was a case of set- ting the proper goals and meeting them. If you have a compa- ny that has a facility that isn't right, then look at what the facility does best and de- termine if that should be your focus. Many companies are probably trying to do things that they don't necessarily do very well, but they still stick with that stuff. What's your mission? Our company developed and sold new forms of dry film photoresist, sol-