Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1505694
44 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2023 on our industry. We have a combination of slow growth and elevated capacity. at's a critical one. e second is the geopolitical environ- ment, in particular the geopolitical environ- ment between China and the United States. Overall, you can just call it global regional- ization, which is driving supply chain resil- iency, or China Plus One strategy, depending on which customer you talk to and where they are in the world. e third one is technology drivers. Now everybody's into AI, but I would say it's AI and 5G primarily driving huge shis that we see in semiconductor and technology requirements, and that's impacting our business. ose are the three big ones. Andy Shaughnessy: Tom, what are some of the mis- takes that you see leaders making when they're planning strategy? I think it's a huge mis- take if a leader believes that they personally are responsible for driving the company's strategy. An organization is only made better by the input of the smart people that you bring together in a room. I think companies also make a mistake when they believe their strategy is sacred, and they can't communicate elements of the strategy in broader teams. at's the fun part, because it's just such an opportunity to get everybody on board with the company. People really enjoy stepping out of the day to day and actually thinking about something bigger. Matties: Tom, we certainly appreciate your time and insights today. Thank you very much. ank you, Barry. PCB007 our employees. ose haven't changed much at all over time. Nolan Johnson: You're describing a very much consensus-driven sort of process, with input that's not just from the top level. How open is this process to the employees at large? In our quarterly communication meetings, we chart the beginning and the end of the process. Part of our September session is trying to get people to really stretch in their thinking and throw out ideas and have a discussion vs. just presentations. Aer we've done the three-year strat- egy, we then focus on the first year of the strategy, and that becomes our bud- get. It's a whole exer- cise that stretches into early December that gets us from strategy to budget. In January, we roll the combined strategy and budget out to the broader organization. I'll meet with all the man- agement teams in our plants and review the broad outlines of the strategy for the year and what has changed. at's how it works in terms of the broader population. I can't say that we have the magic formula for making this whole thing work, but every year we try to get better at it. Matties: Audiences appreciate a limited number of slides. It took us a few years to figure that out. Johnson: Tom, what do you currently see as some of the major market drivers that would affect strategy for anybody in printed circuit board fabrication right now? I'll give you three. First is the macroeconomic climate, which is clearly having a huge impact I can't say that we have the magic formula for making this whole thing work, but every year we try to get better at it.