| When I joined TI in 1966, the original entrepreneurs were still running the company. Pat Haggerty, imo a giant in the industry, was Chairman, and I often heard him speak of his dream of making semiconductors pervasive in both consumer and industrial products. I also had the opportunity to hear the philosophy (and have a few drinks) with Jack Kilby, who holds the original patent on the integrated circuit. At the time, the state of the art was discrete gates, flip flops, and shift registers. Kilby was dreaming about large scale integration. The vision of both of these men has been realized, and now we have a new generation of tech leaders (John Chambers, Tom Siebel, Dan Warmenhoven, Bill Gate, etc.) trying to turn their visions to reality. Having been through the process before, I have no doubts about the outcome. Mr. Market can be as fickle as he wants on a short term basis, but over the long run, he'll reward successful innovators generously. |
