PUMP LASERS ARE TOAST.
bizjournals.com
Coaxing excellence
Scientist finds coaching is key to leadership
Roberta Silverstein Contributing Writer
Gallium arsenide (or GaAs, as it's known in semiconductor circles) is the holy grail of chip manufacturing. Able to make more precise
semiconductors with denser electrical pathways, GaAs wafers nevertheless have a reputation for being unpredictable and expensive.
Yet Malcolm Thompson, president and CEO of Novalux in Santa Clara for the past year, is using GaAs for manufacturing laser
amplifiers used in telecommunications. Ask him why, and he'll in turn ask how much you know about the manufacture of lasers.
"I want to ensure that the information I share makes sense," he said.
"The legend was that you couldn't make anything but an elliptical laser beam using GaAs," Mr. Thompson said with a chuckle. "But
here at Novalux, we're proving them wrong every day."
Seems that Novalux has identified the secret to making surface-emitting laser platforms called Necsel (Novalux Extended Capacity
Surface-Emitting Laser).
Surface-emitting lasers are beneficial to both the telecommunications industry and Novalux.
Using Necsel technology lowers manufacturing costs and allows transmission of huge bandwidths of significant data and voice units
over long-haul networks across fewer laser amplifiers--cable on steroids.
Customers apparently are lining up around the block to use Novalux products. These include Nortel Networks Inc., Cisco Systems
Inc., Corning and Lucent Technologies.
But the product alone didn't snag these big players.
"Novalux could not have attracted the interest of its current customers without Malcolm," said Lynn Hutchinson, former analyst with
RHK and recently turned vice president of optical networks at Jedai Broadband Networks. "He's a real personable guy who not only
knows the market, but has a good business sense. Novalux founder Aram Mooradian is a smart savvy technology guy, but Malcolm
has [the kind of] commanding presence you need to deal with Wall Street. Novalux is on the top of our vendor list."
That strong presence stems from a combination of understanding how to get the best from his people while recognizing his own
strengths and challenges.
Mr. Thompson credits his first U.S. employer, Xerox PARC, with helping him find his personal leadership style.
As a student of applied physics, Mr. Thompson received both his bachelor's degree and doctorate from Brighton Polytechnic in the
United Kingdom.
At Xerox PARC, his job was to unite diverse scientists and engineers in developing the world's first ultra-high-resolution active-matrix
liquid crystal display, which in 1996 Xerox spun into a company called dpiX, of which Mr. Thompson was president and CEO.
"Here I was at Xerox, the essence of practical science, and my management told me, `Well, there's your group--now go motivate
them to create something,' " he said.
"I was a scientist and university professor with a Ph.D. in physics and I was supposed to motivate other scientists," he added, shaking
his head and laughing as he recalled his own consternation.
Mr. Thompson's quest to motivate the lonely, pressured scientists who worked with him led him to management consultant Pamela
Roderick, president of Buckner and Roderick, an international management consulting company with headquarters in London.
"I first met Malcolm in 1991, when he was a lab manager at Xerox PARC," she said. "He transformed his Xerox lab unit into a
well-functioning company, dpiX.
"In fact," she continued, "he was able to put a business layer of management above the Xerox engineers who followed him without
losing a single one.
"Malcolm's overriding quality is leadership; his ability to have integrity, trust and respect, and create a safe environment for people to
become mobilized."
As testament to his leadership, at least 10 senior dpiX managers joined him at Novalux.
He still uses Ms. Roderick's consulting firm to help him get the best out of his employees and himself.
"My job is only 10 percent management," said Mr. Thompson of his role at Novalux. "Thirty percent of my job is leading and 60
percent of my job is coaching people to do their best."
Mr. Thompson believes his internal role is threefold: 1) to align various groups, with an emphasis on "velocity;" 2) to build a strong
sense of relatedness among groups; and 3) to ensure that his management team can both challenge and respect each other.
"What startups like Novalux need is velocity--the ability to move at lightning speed with everyone going in the same direction,"he said.
"I don't agree with [Intel chairman Andy] Grove when he says paranoia is healthy. Instead, I believe you have to `be in the question.'
That is, you have to ask the question `What don't we know?' often as scientists. We look for answers; instead, we should ask
ourselves, `What do we still need to learn?' "
Mr. Thompson holds frequent off-site meetings for both his management team and board, at which he guides them through a series of
exercises and reviews the company's operating principles with each manager.
"Malcolm understands what it takes for people to get a job done," said Ms. Roderick. "He has learned to trust his own management
style and teaches his managers how to respond, not just react to volatile situations."
Mr. Thompson employed Ms. Roderick to help him find the right mix for Novalux's management team, and she taught that team how
to create the right environment to energize their staffs.
"From day one, Malcolm brought in his board, his management and the venture capitalists to create the essential philosophy and
operating principles of Novalux," she said.
Coaching comes naturally to Mr. Thompson. An avid football and baseball fan, he coached his daughter's softball team and played
soccer until three years ago when he realized he didn't have time for both league games and being a CEO.
He also runs three to five miles a day.
"I like running. It's the only time I get to be alone and really think about the day ahead," he said.
He also helps his wife of 32 years, Carol, raise the youngest of their four children: 13-year-old Paul. And he upholds the English
tradition of gardening by maintaining the family's 80-plus rose bushes himself.
"It's the simple, elemental things that really ground you," he said. |
