The Briefing: THE BOSS’ MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

The Briefing: THE BOSS’ MANAGEMENT STRATEGY Computer sales are down. Ditto for the telecom industry. These days, if you are in a business that sells or services the tech industry, there is bad news at every turn, and chances are those headlines are hitting straight at the morale of your workforce. So what’s a manager to do? That is the question Business Journal Senior Reporter Shelly Garcia posed to Jack Poe, chairman and CEO of Camarillo-based Semtech Corp., makers of semiconductors. Semtech, in its most recent quarter ended April 28, posted its third consecutive increase in net sales and after-tax profit margin. But like most in the industry, the company’s revenues and earnings declined over the comparable period last year. And, like its peers, it is inundated almost daily with reports of layoffs, losses and cloudy prospects in the industry overall. Keeping morale up, says Poe, is not a sometime thing. It happens over the long term as a result of consistent policies and practices. “The strength of this company is based on intellectual property and people bringing intellectual property. The ability to recruit, maintain and motivate people is very important. “We have, of course, varied financial incentives that we’ve utilized, but there’s a number of other things. Part of it is building the team work environment and part of it is to create a financial model where the company does quite well. “We only have 600 employees total, and in our Camarillo location a couple hundred, so it still is a fairly small company. We know each other personally, and we do things as part of a group with the company. I think when you have that kind of relationship among employees, and between management and employees, I think that helps you get through some of the more difficult times this industry has seen in the last 18 months. “We’re going to have an open house at our building we just moved into a new building for friends and family of employees so they can show them where they work and give them some idea of what they do all day. We have picnics. “One thing we do have is quarterly meetings with all employees to go over results and talk about our key objectives and keep them abreast of the market conditions as we see them, so they kind of get a flavor for what’s going on. “Our turnover rate has been extremely low, 1 or 2 percent.”