Tundra Semiconductor
Corporation
Tundra makes its presence felt in
semiconductor industry
Nahlah Ayed
The Ottawa Citizen
Adam Chowaniec
understands the ins and outs
of his business--and he ought
to. He holds an MSc and a
PhD in electrical engineering
and has years of experience
in the high-tech industry.
But what makes him different
from many others with
degrees in the high-tech field
is his business acumen: a
focused vision and an ability
to pinpoint problems and
quickly find solutions, says
Richard O'Connor, Mr.
Chowaniec's vice-president
of marketing and business
development at Tundra
Semiconductor Corporation.
"What he brings to the table
is built-in business
knowledge. He knows
virtually everybody in the
high-tech sector and knows
every single angle from the
business perspective."
That appears to be the
consensus among other
executives at Tundra, where
Mr. Chowaniec is president
and CEO. But Mr.
Chowaniec himself cautions
that it takes more than a
sharp CEO to bring a company to success.
"It's very important to understand that you can't have one-man companies,
no matter how good the one man is. You have to get the correct set of
people together, giving them enough rope to manoeuvre and grow and
develop in their own right, to be successful."
Mr. Chowaniec has held many positions that have ultimately prepared him
for his current role at Tundra. Starting out teaching, as an academic, Mr.
Chowaniec took his first position in the high-tech industry as a member of
the scientific staff at Bell-Northern Research.
He began his chief executive experience as president and CEO at Calmos
Systems, another Ottawa-based semiconductor company. Three years
later, Calmos was acquired by Newbridge Networks and Mr. Chowaniec
became vice president of Newbridge and president of Newbridge
Microsystems.
The new Newbridge division quickly grew and showed that it needed to be
on its own to reach its full potential.
"We developed some new semiconductor products and sold them
externally. It then became obvious to myself and Newbridge that there was
a business opportunity here to build a semiconductor industry around those
products, and it couldn't happen at Newbridge if we were going to grow the
business," said Mr. Chowaniec.
In 1996, Newbridge Microsystems was spun off to form Tundra
Semiconductor, and Mr. Chowaniec hasn't looked back.
"It's doing extremely well, better than we'd hoped. We are ahead of the
plan for the second year of operation."
Tundra started off with a small team that came along from Newbridge
Microsystems, so it had a base of knowledge that came in handy when the
company was just entering the market.
Another selling point was the fact that company's managers had already
worked together for more than five years.
"Our first challenge was building the whole team. When you come out of a
large organization you don't necessarily have all the elements, like a finance
person or someone for human resources," said Mr. Chowaniec.
"We had a good bunch of people that came out of Newbridge, but we had
to shape the team and round it out.
"We've done that, but that was one of the most difficult things to put
together."
Once the team started taking shape, the next challenge was to start thinking
like an independent company -- that was not something that could be
learned overnight.
"We had to start thinking like an entrepreneurial group, to stand on our own
two feet and sink or swim on our own. That always takes a little longer,"
said Mr. Chowaniec.
Tundra is one of very few companies in Canada that is purely in the
semiconductor business. One of their best-known products is called
Universe, a VME-to-PCI bus bridge used by the top ten VME board
manufacturers, such as Motorola Computer Group. Tundra also produces
data security components.
Semiconductor components are increasingly in demand for use in
computers, consumer electronics and automobile segments. Most of
Tundra's business comes from outside Canada, where their products are
used in manufacturing in the U.S., Japan and Britain. Some of Tundra's
biggest customers include Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector, Texas
instruments, and Cadence Design Systems.
"The whole idea of a semiconductor company in Canada is quite unusual. A
lot of us are motivated by trying to make it happen. Having a presence in
that industry is a pretty exciting thing to do," said Mr. Chowaniec. "It is
underestimated how important this industry will be in the future."
As the president of a company like Tundra, Mr. Chowaniec feels his career
has finally brought him to a place he can feel right at home doing what he
does.
"I think I've evolved to a much more comfortable role that I'm in today than
being part of a larger company. I enjoy the faster pace and the ability to
make decisions more or less on our own. It's also enjoyable growing
something that didn't exist before."
He likes involving as many people as possible in the company's day-to-day
activities, with as much opportunity for input as possible. All employees are
share holders, which is a further incentive to get involved.
"I am someone who delegates responsibility quite broadly, but at the same
time watches the bottom line very carefully. Balancing those two things is
one challenge."
It's a lot of work, running an up-and-coming company in an area not
ventured into by too many Canadian entrepreneurs. But it's never boring,
says Mr. O'Connor.
"The pace is chaotic, and your job is literally trying to control chaos. Our
success depends on our ability to target markets and ability to respond to
change. There is never a dull moment."
The next hurdle is to draw up a strategy to help the company grow, says
Mr. Chowaniec.
Tundra is also looking at ways to broaden its product line and further
penetrate an increasingly lucrative market.
"Our vision is to be a successful semiconductor company, to put ourselves
on the map," says Mr. Chowaniec. "It's a combination of having the vision
of what you want to build, figuring out how to get there and taking more
risks to get out there, ahead of other people with our product ideas."
Though it's hard to imagine things getting any busier, Mr. Chowaniec says
how that affects a person's life depends on their attitude.
"There's barely enough time to see family, and the time and commitment is a
big drain," says Mr. Chowaniec.
"But if you feel good about yourself and what you do, you become a
positive person. If you feel really good about what you're doing, it actually
helps at the family level."
TUNDRA SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION
Founder: Adam Chowaniec, president and CEO
Employees: 70
Products: Variety of semiconductor components; most notable is Universe,
the industry-leading VME-to-PCI Bus Bridge
Quote: "It's very important to understand that you can't have one-man
companies, no matter how good the one man is. You have to get the
correct set of people together giving them enough rope to manoeuvre and
grow and develop in their own right." |
