My background is actually in the semiconductor industry. I led problem solving teams that developed methodology and software solutions so that management could make better on-time decisions, increase productivity by 4x and reduce defects to nearly zero for the areas we focused on.

I believe that my teams succeeded because we focused on the people not the solutions we thought people needed. I learned of the concept of Design Thinking after having practiced it for years. I believe that the key to successful solutions is to first understand the problem from the perspective of the people who need or want the solutions you are creating.

I also had the best time leading an open innovation team for nearly 15 years called Free Your Mind. We enabled employees ideas that otherwise may never have seen the light of day. One of our CEO’s called my team the “bureaucracy busters”. What we really did was find ways to work within the rules and still do what we wanted to do, but I like the renegade title anyway.

The company name changed a lot, first Motorola, then the spin off called Freescale Semiconductor, then the buy out by NXP. But I stayed with the same team almost the entire time I was there, which is pretty amazing if you know anything about the semiconductor industry. I was honored to work with such great people. Great, great people. Shout out to them all.