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22 The PCB Magazine • December 2015 lutions. We've written the four aspirational goals so that they're unachievable, meaning that we'll have annual goals that are achievable, and five- year goals that are achievable, but the way we phrased the aspirational goals, there will be new goals we can always set towards those. So we can always have an ever-expanding target. Another thing we're looking at is trying to be more global, because our standards are globally accepted and are associated with nearly every stage of the global electronic product develop- ment cycle. I've often used this analogy when describing IPC's global impact. Patty, what kind of car do you drive? Goldman: Toyota. Mitchell: A Toyota. When you bought your Toyota, did you pay in yen? Goldman: No, of course not; it was a U.S. distributor. Mitchell: You bought it in the U.S. Goldman: It was probably manufactured in the U.S. Mitchell: At least parts of it were for sure. Simi- larly, with our standards, they're being used globally. We want to make sure that there is a local process to using a global standard. While you know a Toyota is a Japanese brand, you bought it as a global product. We're trying to make our impact feel the same. If you buy it in Brazil or if you utilize an IPC standard in Ger- many, or in Taiwan, wherever you happen to use an IPC product we want you to feel like you can have the normal, local experience to utiliz- ing this global standard. Currently, IPC's stan- dards are available in 19 languages. That's a big vision we're trying to achieve and it will take some time because frankly we don't have the kinds of resources as the elec- tronics industry. We don't sell billions worth of products like smartphones out there. Goldman: Or big cars. Mitchell: Or big cars, or anything like that. We'll try to do it in the most efficient way we can. We'll focus on the centers where most of the electronics manufacturing happens, but even- tually we look to offer that type of global view. Many people have used the term "Global but Local." We're trying to do the same thing for our standards—provide a global product with a local experience. The same goes for developing the standards. As I mentioned with the IPC Electronics Euro- pean Council, just like we have the fall commit- tee meetings and the spring committee meetings, we're looking to have similar types of events for standards development in Europe. We already have committee meetings in Asia. We're really trying to make sure there is a larger global impact. Goldman: Somehow those all get pulled together so that we still have one global standard? Mitchell: That's correct. There is a single stan- dard, but we want to have input from all of the different segments regionally, as well as across the various market segments. When compa- nies work from established IPC standards, they speak the same language with customers and suppliers—the language of the global electron- ics industry. Goldman: Excellent. What else would you like to talk about? How's Chicago? Mitchell: Chicago's great. From an office per- spective, we've gone virtual. We're having people work from their home environment a significant portion of the time, which, again, improves your home life experience. You don't have to drive in Chicago traffic for 40 minutes each direction coming to the office every day. A CONVERSATION WITH IPC PRESIDENT AND CEO JOHN MITCHELL FeATure inTerview