Even though I work at Analog Devices, I never have the opportunity to interact with Ray Stata, founder and Chairman of Analog Devices as well as a revered figure in that company. I was really excited when I heard that he would be the keynote speaker at the Technology and Entrepreneurship Forum (TEF) at MIT. Yesterday, Eimear and I attended the event and I took notes of Stata's talk. Here is a summary of his talk:

• You have to have passion if you want to be an entrepreneur.
• Even before MIT, he has always been interested in math and was motivated to start a company.
• He worked for Hewlett Packard after graduating from MIT; but after a short stint there, he founded Analog Devices with his former MIT roommate.
• Analog Devices started as a company that designed and manufactured transistor modules. At the beginning, things didn't go well in the startup. By today's standards, you can conclude that Analog Devices then was a failure. But it started producing products and more importantly established a good relationship with a customer who ended funding the company.
• But even if you fail, you will learn and do it better later. Again, you have to have passion for what you are doing, especially starting a new enterprise.
• It is not the initial business model that the company survived but rather the competence of the organization, and the flexibility to identify opportunities and threats and then reacting accordingly.
• As a startup, Analog Devices struggled with funding and there weren't a lot of venture capitalists in the Boston area in the 60's. Nonetheless, Analog Devices negotiated a deal with a bank who provided $1 as loan for every $1 the company earned.
• When Fairchild Semiconductors introduced the first Integrated circuit operational amplifiers (IC op amps) in the mid 1960's, the performance of these devices were dismal but were very cheap to manufacture. Furthermore, Stata said that the new technology which enable thin films to be deposited on silicon and then be laser trimmed to adjust the circuit resistance was elegant. He was absolutely convinced that IC op amps are the way of the future. But engineers disagreed and complained that the performance of the device was inferior to performance of the transistor modules that the company was making. So they resisted his call to develop IC op amps at Analog Devices. He went to the board and told them about this new technology. Again, the board resisted his call citing that the company was doing well with their current product offerings and there is no reason to adopt a new technology especially when it was still unproven and not very profitable. Still convinced that IC is the way of the future, Stata proposed to the board that he would sell his personal shares of Analog Devices and use the proceedings to fund and start a company that specializes in developing IC op amps. He said that if the startup were successful, Analog Devices can always acquire it later. If the startup fails, it was his loss. The board approved his proposal and Stata started the company that develops IC. Some years later as the IC technology became the dominant design in the semiconductor industry and was fast becoming a highly profitable enterprise, Analog Devices acquired the company that Stata started with his own money. Stata joked: "Well, here is your first case of disruptive technologies, way before Clay Christensen coined the term in his book, The Innovator's Dilemma."
• On leadership, Stata mentioned the 4 pillars of leadership.
  • Sincerity - a good leader doesn't spin and is committed to people.
  • Competence - a good leader uses good judgment.
  • Trust - a good leader needs to know the people to gain trust.
  • Reliability - a good leader has to be consistent in his/her actions.
• Looking for someone who is competent but without the ego is hard.
• Entrepreneurship is hard work. He quoted Thomas Edison: "It's 10% inspiration and 90% aspiration." Yes, that's 90% of hard work.
• Stata is a huge fan of system thinking and has this to say: "Understand how parts work together not how they work individually."
• When creating an organization, create a culture where people play nice and are accessible.
• Building a board is tough. Venture capitalist (VC) is a good member but make sure you check his/her reference.
• VC used to be risk-tolerant but they have now become risk averse.
• Stata ended his talk by emphasizing that entrepreneurship requires passion and a lot of hard work. He has been very lucky to have a very supportive and understanding wife. He continued to give attributes to his wife and family for the support they have given him.

During the Q+A session of the talk, I couldn't resist but to ask Ray Stata the following question:

Startups rather than big companies are more likely to adopt disruptive technologies and take risk in developing business around them. Do you think Analog Devices still has the competence in this area? Also, what do you see the next technology and business model for Analog Devices?

He answered that not many big companies, past and present, have successfully adopted new technology. Strong leadership is needed in making such transition. He believes that Analog Devices can do it. As for the next big thing, he said that we need to follow where the money is. The government is funding research in energy and nanotechnology. He believes that these are hot areas. Overall, I don't think he answered the question fully but it was still a pleasure listening to his talk.

4/22/2006 1:10:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Entrepreneurship

The amount of accolade that I received from friends, colleagues, and even strangers for completing the Boston marathon was amazing. I am actually feeling so empowered right now that I am already planning to run the Boston Marathon next year.

4/21/2006 11:38:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Sports

Yep, I did it. I finished my second Boston marathon in 4:48:20 hrs today. Since I have only trained for the marathon a month before with more more than 7 miles long runs, the best thing for me to do was to take everything in moderation. In other words, establish a moderate pace of 11 minutes per mile, have a good attitude, and most of all have fun doing it. For these reasons, I really enjoyed today's run. I maintained my pace at exactly 11 minutes per mile - forcing myself not to go too fast at the beginning and too slow at the end. I was proud by the fact that I didn't walk during today's run. I did, however, stop a lot to to drink and to take pictures, which I have taken a lot of. I will post them later.

Because I was a bandit runner, I was placed at the end of the line and didn't start till 45 minutes after the first athletes had started running. I caught up to my friend, Denise at around mile 4 and we ran together till mile 16 where we met Denise's friend, Natasha. Feeling really confident and strong, I decided to depart ways with Denise to run the rest of the race by myself. Unlike my last Boston Marathon I overcame the Newton Hills - a series of 4 hills between mile 17.5 and mile 21 - without stopping. Better yet, I picked up my pace and past a few dozen runners during the ascent. However, the last 4 miles of the race was a bit of a struggle for me as I have exhausted every once of energy in my body.

Having ran the course before helped with my planning of the marathon run as I know what to expect. I find that the first 13 miles is relatively easy while the last 13 miles is a lot more difficult, especially the Newton Hills, including Heartbreak Hill, as being the most grueling part of the race. The moral of the story is to moderate yourself, make sure you run at a pace that are comfortable. Every time I tried to be a hero and run faster than my training pace on race day, especially at the beginning of the race, gets me into trouble later in the race. The surest way to improve one's running pace is to train hard, which is something that I lack. Anyway, this is my 2 cents. All in all, this is a really fun race and I am really glad that I did it. I would like to thank Eimear for giving a ride to the starting line and subsequently cheering me on at the finishing line. Big thanks also go out to Denise whose company has been valuable during the marathon. Last but not least, I would like to thank the numerous people who supported me for the run.

4/18/2006 12:00:33 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [6]

Sports

How stupid am I? A day before the big race, I decided to play ultimate frisbee with my TPP buddies. Alright, I was lucky nothing catastrophic happened, but I did get a few minor blisters due to excessive lateral movement in the game. Also, my ankles were pretty sore after the game but after a quick run after the game, they seem to be okay now. The game was an intramural tournament where we played against team Tang Hall and the game was laid back and . Under Matt's excellent leadership and coaching, we won the game. Anyway, it is time to recuperate for tomorrow's race. I am planing to keep a low profile tonight by working on my assignments.

4/16/2006 4:29:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [3]

Sports

So it has been decided, I will be running the Boston Marathon on April 17 as a renegade runner (running the race unregistered) along with my friend, Denise who is a registered runner. It was a last-minute decision for me. For the last couple weeks, I was simply overwhelmed with school and have little time to train, not to mention the lack of sleep and poor diet that I have been having. But despite not being in peak shape, I have to do the Boston Marathon this year as this may be my last chance. I hope my knees don't give out tomorrow. We'll see... Anyway, wish me luck.

4/16/2006 12:40:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Sports

These days my weekends aren't about relaxing but catching up on things - school or personal - that I have missed or lagged behind during the week. Occasionally, it is great to have a totally goof-off weekend. This weekend so far has been very relaxing and the feeling of not rushing from on thing to another (aka just being plain lazy) is just refreshing. After Real Options Analysis class yesterday, I invited Serge, Nick, Sorin, and Chester - the party boys of the SDM 06 cohort - to my place for grilled food and beer. The ultra laid back boys night out was fun and relaxing after a stressful week at school. Now that I the weather is getting warmer, I know that grilling at my place will become a common thing from now on. Excellent... nothing beats a cold beer and grilled food on a cool spring/summer night.

Last night sleep, a restful 10 hours long, was simply invigorating. It sure beats the 14 hours that I had in total from the prior 4 nights. I started the day slowly by reading the last 6 issues of the Economist that I had accumulated. Now that I am taking macroeconomics, I have really become immensely interested in international economics and foreign policy. Speaking of macroeconomics, for the nerd in me, I did managed to slip some school work into today's schedule by reading the case studies for my macroeconomics class - what! they were interesting papers from my favorite class. I then went for a sumptuous dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant, Lanna Thai Diner which unfortunately was located outside of Boston (it is still worth the drive though). I came home after dinner and dilly dallied around for an hour, mostly to digest the spicy Thai food, before going for a run along the Charles River. I am currently recovering from the run by writing this blog. But as I write this blog I am already thinking what I should do for the rest of the night. To paraphrase the Clash's perennial song: Should I stay or should go - Should I stay home to watch TV or to go to Flat top Johnny to join the SDM 06's in celebrating Monica's birthday...

4/15/2006 10:17:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Personal

The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, and the best of all, my braces are finally taken off. What a relief!!!

4/12/2006 11:51:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Personal

I have always been interested in macroeconomics and its application in assessing the economy. This is why I recently registered for 15.012 - Applied Macro- and International Economics, a course that is offered in the second half of the semester at MIT. This class is being taught by Prof. Chris Foote, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and a visiting professor at MIT Sloan. He is patient, friendly, animated, enthusiastic, and best of all, funny. He makes an otherwise dry and mechanical subject like macroeconomics interesting and even entertaining. I like the class so much that I actually taking the extra time to read about this subject outside of class. I also find that the tools that I have learned from this class have enabled me to appreciate the Economist better. This is a pretty intense half-semester course but it is a great class and it is definitely worth taking.

4/12/2006 11:44:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

School

I wasn't planning to run the Boston College MBA Challenge 5k Race but I eventually caved in to peer pressure and ran the race on Saturday (thanks to Serge and Nick). This year, my finishing time this year is 25:26 min (8:11 min/mile pace), way down from last year's time of 23:10 (7:26 min/mile pace). What happened? I don't know, I wasn't feeling particularly motivated to run fast or was capable of being speed demon. Nonetheless, it was a fun run along with fellow SDMers, Will, Serge, Nick, Leticia, and Jessica, and other colleagues from the Sloan MBA program.

4/10/2006 8:14:52 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Sports

I am sure some of my classmates who are readers of this blog would appreciate this blog entry (and its comments) by the value of an MBA. Thanks to Ian Lamont for the link.

There are many things that were said in the blog that affirm some of my perspectives:

• Getting a job in venture capital after graduating from B-school is very difficult.
• Whether degree reads SM in Management, MS in Management, SM in Management of Technology, or MBA, it really doesn't matter - it's all semantics. Personally, I think that the real substance is what you learn from school. Sadly, like Todd said "these days credentials and degrees are more important than knowledge."
• I couldn't agree with Chris Yeh more, the networking opportunities at top-tier universities (or B-schools) are enormous. Having access to alumni network and building relationships with a group of highly-talented people are some of the perks.

Finally, I have a few more things to add:

• Yes, brand recognition, career opportunities, people, and network are remarkable in top-tier schools. But I think that every school has its fair share of good and bad courses. I can say this because I have taken some the best classes I have ever taken as well as a fair share of horrible classes at MIT.
• Experiential learning does occur in b-schools. Try managing a large team-based term project, I find it more challenging than managing a team of professionals in a regular job (yeah, I am being facetious on this one).
• If you do end up in b-school, don't neglect to experience life beyond the confines of your classrooms. Instead of spending all your time studying or writing that term paper, budget some time to hang out with your cohort, join a club, engage in an activity, and most of all have a life. I have also noticed that most b-schools tend to be exclusive and are isolated from the rest of their campus. Reach out and get to know other students from other parts of college.
• Last but not least, as far as deciding whether to do an MBA or not, I have this to say. I think is more than just $100k and two years of opportunity cost when deciding if an MBA is right for you. Sometimes you just have to follow your gut feeling. If you feel that doing an MBA program gives you an edge and confidence in your career development, do it. If you feel that you have a great idea and wants to start a company, what are you waiting for? Start a new enterprise - Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did and look where they are now.

4/6/2006 3:32:46 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

School

Giving ordinary people the ability to create commercials seems to be the fad these days. Many companies like MasterCard, Sony, and GM are doing exactly that. Well, the rationale seems to be if consumers are creating their own dog-and-pony shows, there is no way they can avoid companies' ads, right?

Maybe not for GM. These days, GM just can't seem to get it right even with their ad campaign. GM recently started a contest where you can design an ad for their Chevy Tahoe SUV. It seems that if the consumers don't like your product, they are not going to kind with the portrayal of the product. Needless to say there are plenty of parodies created from this ad campaign. Here are some of my favorites:

• Don't Buy Me
• Funny 1 - Finally, a non-environmental commercial. You will get a good laugh on this one. My favorite by far.
• Funny 2
• Jive Turkey

Feeling inspired? Let your creativity run loose at the Chevy Apprentice Challenge.

4/4/2006 8:09:16 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Humor

With the weather going up to 60+ F yesterday, I ran Heartbreak Hill - the most fabled part of the Boston Marathon race - with Denise who will be running the Boston Marathon in 2 weeks. It was a great run.

Feeling exceptionally hungry after the run, I suggested going to Michael's Delicatessen at Coolidge Corner for food. I have never eaten at Michael's before but I have heard positive reviews of the place with some people telling me that the deli sandwiches here resemble to the those that one finds in New York City. I ordered a Michael's Special (I think) which is consists of roast beef, beef brisket, and horseradish sauce sandwiched between 2 breads. The sandwich was gargantuan but I easily finish it in one serving. It was delicious.

4/2/2006 1:52:20 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Personal

Yesterday's interview with Tom Friedman on radio program Fresh Air with Terry Gross was excellent. It was one of the most thought-provoking (yet rational) views I have heard on foreign affairs and policies in recent months. Friedman talked about foreign affairs ranging from the recent Palestinian and Israeli elections, Iran, war in Iraq, and American energy policy. Definitely worth listening if you care about what is going on around the world. You can still listen to the interview here.

4/1/2006 12:01:24 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [4]

Radio