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98 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2022 people believe in the leader first, and the vision second. Follow these guidelines and the Laws of the Picture and Buy-in, and you will truly be sur- prised at the results. Focus on enhancing your leadership skills to lead by example and the results will be epic. My high school buddy Bert said it best when he famously commented: "Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means." —Albert Einstein PCB007 Steve Williams is the president of The Right Approach Consulting. He is an independent certified coach, trainer, and speaker with the John Maxwell team. To read past columns or contact Williams, click here. Backward Thinking Many people have it backward, which is the fundamental reason they fail. ey believe that if the cause is good enough, people will auto- matically buy-in and follow. But it doesn't work that way. People don't follow worthy causes; they follow worthy leaders. People buy into the leader first, then the leader's vision. With apologies to my good buddy Kevin Costner, "If we build it, they will come" doesn't transfer well to leadership. Look at some of the leaders you admire and aspire to be like, then look at who follows them (Facebook definitely doesn't count). I would bet a boatload of beer that the folks on your list inspired their follow- ers way before they bought into their vision. If fact, I would double-down and bet that they could do a 180-degree pivot in their vision and wouldn't lose a single follower because by Luca Gautero After months of social distancing, productronica brought people and ideas together in a single place. Its most pragmatic demon- strations were the tools on the floor of the B3 Halle at the München Messe. The fair had representations for almost all equip- ment needed for PCB manufacturing and inspec- tion. Three of these tools were solder mask inkjet printers from different brands, as was the case in 2019—a sign that business has continued, albeit at a slow pace, through the pandemic period. However, this year there was another vibe, this time about additive manufacturing. At the entrance, an anima- tion on a giant screen showed how a company is delivering a bottom-up approach for PCB prototyp- ing—an inspiring manufacturing frontier on display at the doors. This was a good start, although the real positive vibe about inkjet came from the many discussions with interested companies, technological partners, and competitors. From the companies, we learned that the production pressure of the past few months is good for business even though it leaves little room to put attention on future technologies. From the technological network, we learned that, even if the attention was limited, inkjet was the hottest dis- cussion topic for the week. Even technology suppli- ers that have ground in solder mask, both traditional and additive, reported this overwhelming enthusi- asm for the inkjet option. When we had a discussion at our booth, we asked for a business card and entered that information on a sheet. These entries helped to organize follow-up discussions, in agreement with GDPR laws. How- ever, an interesting perspective emerged when looking at them in an aggregated manner. What emerged were expansions and green field opera- tions. All these plans had one contingency in mind: securing a PCB board supply in Europe. It's easy to look at recent events, such as trade wars, the Suez Canal obstruction, and the pandemic, but in my view, these are linear events. To read the rest of the column, click here. Additive Reality A Report From 2021 (Drop)tronica