Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1537054
32 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2025 Our preference is to add selectively. We want to go deep with the customers that we have. You bal- ance those. In this industry, you burn a lot of cal- ories cultivating new customer startups, and yet, you don't get to charge near enough for what it costs you. You can't sustainably add five custom- ers a quarter. Your new customers—and maybe even your current customers—will not have a good experience, and the number of calories it burns is just astronomical. You provide a balance based on where the orga- nization is with the ability to support it and to grow with your current customers. Do you need to add technology to grow? I have two Quarterly Business Reviews this week with strategic accounts. Part of our discussion is to ask, "Where is your roadmap taking you? We want to continue to grow with you, so where do we need to invest to continue to sup- port you?" I'm reading between the lines that you pay atten- tion to where your existing customers are going, maybe more so than what's happening in the general market trends. Absolutely, because the market trends may not be in the niche you've picked. Not every customer is on the bleeding edge of technology. You may not need bleeding-edge capabilities to stay well-equipped with your current accounts, especially if you're in a high-reliability niche. Bleeding-edge requires more data to prove their reliability and build their reliabil- ity models. They need to justify these new technolo- gies from a quality and reliability standpoint. Michael, when I started my career, the 005s and 008s were the size of the transistor on the IC. Now it's a part. Yeah, that's right. I know I've been doing this too long because I can't see the parts. But then there's the other end of the spectrum. With the multichip module packages, some BGAs are a 100 millimeters a side. Assembly is bifurcat- ing. You're either doing the microscopic or you're doing the macroscopic. Many customers have designed with a myriad of both. You have RF and digital all on the same cards. Those used to be separate technologies when I started. What shifts the niche? Even though you may have a solid set of very loyal customers staying in a particular market segment, there continues to be movement, and you have to keep up with it.