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FEBRUARY 2026 I I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE 69 Plexus with our customers and suppliers. The next step I took was to create a quarterly news- letter called "The Boardshop," with a distribution to our internal employees, customers, and suppli- ers, along with some industry movers and shakers. Each issue featured a Supplier Spotlight, where I would interview the owner of one of our board shops and give updates on the industry and new technology our suppliers were putting out. For example, the issue that followed 9/11 detailed my experience of being stranded in China and what was happening back home, how it trans- formed me into a true American Patriot, and how life was short. That prompted me to get off my butt and propose to my wife. The editor of Circuitree, the trade magazine for our industry at the time, read the newsletter and asked me to write my own monthly column, through which I have published over 250 articles and white papers over the past 25 years. Fortu- nately, my column survived a couple of ownership/ name change transitions before solidifying with the current I-Connect007 Magazine, part of the go-to industry global electronics resource media family. I always had a passion for writing, but this really kick-started my writing career, and of course, increased my presence in the industry. Also, early in my Plexus years, I created the Plexus PCB Symposium, an annual offsite event that provided an evening of social networking followed by a full day of technical presentations from the experts of our PCB suppliers. The audi- ence of 300-plus included our top customers, suppliers, and internal employees. The concept of putting customer and supplier competitors in the same room raised more than a few senior manage- ment eyebrows, but the event was a smashing success that continued for almost a decade. I also published my first book, Survival Is Not Mandatory: 10 Things Every CEO Needs to Know About Lean. Being involved in quality and best practices throughout my career, I felt supremely qualified on the topic, which added to my repu- tation as an expert in quality, Lean/best practices, and PCBs. I-Connect007 published the book, and while gaining critical acclaim in the industry as a "must-read," the Plexus director of Lean tried to cause quite a ruckus with senior management about a Plexus employee publishing a book about Lean who wasn't part of the Lean group. Since I had received prior approval from the corporate communication department and already been inducted into the Plexus Author's Club, my advice to the Director of Lean was, "If you are worried about it, write your own damn book!" Time To Pivot Several things contributed to leaving Plexus. First, we had lost the magic that made our sourcing group special. As the company grew, more senior executives were brought in from our competi- tion, and after several years we started to become "just like them." I knew it, my team knew it, and our suppliers knew it. Combined with being denied numerous advancement opportunities because I was "too valuable" in my current position, I had lost the excitement of coming into work every day. I could also sense an unspoken factor develop- ing with the powers-that-be at the highest levels of the organization, one with which they were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with. I was getting more industry attention because of the newsletter, my magazine column, the PCB Sympo- sium than as the custom global sourcing manager at Plexus. So, three months after my stellar 15-year annual review, anniversary party, and gift, my posi- tion was eliminated, and commodity manage- ment was moved to our Guadalajara operations for North America and our China Sourcing Office for Asia/EMEA. Though the company would never admit it, I also knew that turning 55, and being maxed out at a high compensation level and stock options were contributing factors. So, what next? Part 3 will finish this series with my reinvention journey and creating my dream job over the past 13 years. I-CONNECT007 Steve Williams is president of The Right Approach Consult- ing. He is also an indepen- dent certified coach, trainer, and speaker with the John Maxwell team. To read past columns, click here. T H E R I G H T A PPROAC H