EMS SCV Meetings: SEP 2002 – JUN 2003
Jun 25, 2003:
Talk: Our Quantum Future: The Dawn of Programmable Matter – Wil McCarthy
May 21, 2003:
Management Forum: Retaining Top Technical Talent in a Soft Economy – Dr. B. Lynn Ware
After-dinner Talk: The Role of a Project Office in Leading Change – Randall L. Englund
Apr 30, 2003:
Management Forum: Managing Global Teams – Amita Dev & Bob Greenleaf (see slides)
After-dinner Talk: Streamlining Product Development Processes for Greater Success – Manu Pillai (see slides)
Mar 26, 2003:
Management Forum: Creating Successful Business Models for the 21st Century – Mitchell Levy (see handouts)
After-dinner Talk: For Your Eyes Only: Protecting your Intellectual Property from Hackers – Chris Binns-Smith (see slides)
Feb 26, 2003:
Management Forum: Settling Disputes without Boxing Gloves: The Art of Mediation – Linda Price (see slides)
After-dinner Talk: The Future is Here: How the Internet Is Transforming the Education of Engineering Managers – Andy DiPaolo
Jan 29, 2003:
Management Forum: Preparing Technical Presentations to Decision Makers – Roxanna Dunn (see slides)
After-dinner Talk: Good Ethics is Good Business – Mike Hackworth (see slides)
Dec 4, 2002:
Management Forum: Embracing the Challenge of Team Building – Kimberly Wiefling (see slides)
After-dinner Talk: Fast Time-to-Market Best Practices – Joe Neipp (see slides)
Oct 30, 2002:
Management Forum: Enterprise Knowledge Management – Dr. Doug Kalish
After-dinner Talk: The Manager’s Nightmare: Technical Litigation – A. J. Nichols
Sep 25, 2002:
Management Forum: Managing Conflict – Paula Bailey
After-dinner Talk: Increasing Role of Innovative Software and the New Software Economy – Ann Winblad
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MEETING SUMMARIES & BIOS
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Jun 25, 2003
Meeting Talk: Our Quantum Future: The Dawn of Programmable Matter
Presented by Wil McCarthy
Join us for a special evening with Wil McCarthy, the author of Hacking Matter, which was the subject of an article in the April issue of IEEE Spectrum (page 50), entitled “The New Alchemy.” Aerospace-engineer-turned-science-fiction-author, Wil McCarthy, will explore the future of this bleeding edge technology with us, and how he himself is helping to transform science fiction into science fact.
Programmable matter is probably not the next technological revolution, nor even perhaps the one after that. But it’s coming, and when it does, it will change our lives as much as any invention ever has. Imagine being able to program matter itself-to change it, with the click of a cursor, from hard to soft, from paper to stone, from fluorescent to super-reflective to invisible. To quote the Spectrum article, “This is the promise of programmable matter-and it could make the technology revolution wrought by semiconductors to date look like a warm-up for the main act.”
Supported by organizations from Levi Strauss and IBM to the Defense Department, solid-state physicists in laboratories at MIT, Harvard, Sun Microsystems, and elsewhere are currently creating arrays of microscopic devices called “quantum dots” that are capable of acting like programmable atoms. They can be configured electronically to replicate the properties of any known atom and then can be changed, as fast as an electrical signal can travel, to have the properties of a different atom. Soon it will be possible not only to engineer into solid matter such unnatural properties as variable magnetism, programmable flavors, or exotic chemical bonds, but also to change these properties at will.
Wil McCarthy has visited the laboratories and talked with the researchers who are developing this extraordinary technology. He will describe for us how they are learning to control its electronic, optical, thermal, magnetic, and mechanical properties and tell us where all this will lead. The possibilities for how we live and work are truly magical.
Previously employed by Lockheed Martin and Omnitech Robotics, Wil McCarthy is currently the Chief Technology Officer for Galileo Shipyards, an aerospace research corporation. He is also the author of seven science fiction novels, including the New York Times Notable Book, Bloom, Amazon.com’s “Best of Y2K”, The Collapsium, and most recently, The Wellstone. In addition, he is a contributing editor for WIRED magazine, the science columnist for the SciFi Channel, and has written for other major publications, including Nature. Additional information about his books and background can be found on his website at: www.wilmccarthy.com
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May 21, 2003
Management Forum: Retaining Top Technical Talent in a Soft Economy
Presented by Dr. B. Lynn Ware
Why you should care and what you can do
Even in a downturn, top talent can go to the competition, leave, or companies can lose the productivity and discretionary effort of their best people if their workplace needs are not met. In this presentation, learn what the top 20% of technical performers want from employers now when traditional retention tactics, such as bonuses and credible stock options, may no longer be available.
Dr. Ware will reveal the results from a recent study of workplace attitudes of top technical talent conducted by ITS during this past two year recessionary period. The focus of the presentation will be, based on the study data, what managers and companies should be doing now to motivate and engage their top performers.
Dr. B. Lynn Ware is President & CEO of Integral Training Systems, Inc. (ITS), a management training and consulting firm located in Menlo Park. ITS is recognized as a global leader in talent management, employee retention and innovation. Lynn has 20 years of experience as an Industrial Psychologist. She has consulted to over 120 of the Fortune 1000. Some of her current clients include 3i, Genentech, Hewlett Packard, Intuit, LSI Logic, McKesson, Oracle, and Verizon. Dr. Ware is frequently quoted on trends in talent management strategies in numerous publications such as the Associated Press, Computer World magazine, Network World and the San Francisco Chronicle, and has been featured several times on CNN as a national talent management expert.
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After-dinner Talk: The Role of a Project Office in Leading Change
Presented by Randall L. Englund
Early explorers faced many challenges to open new worlds. Modern explorers, called change agents, are tasked with creating new futures for organizations facing troubled times. To address the challenges—unknowns, resistance, and chaos—a project office, properly implemented, offers an effective path to achieve greater overall success.
This presentation focuses not on the functions of project offices but on the change process. Studies show that successful change agents have big visions but start small, achieve success, promote successful ventures, and enlist support of a larger coalition, thereby making significant contributions to new ways of working across the organization. This stimulating, multimedia presentation offers a change process that concentrates on developing project management capabilities within one part of the organization, then spreading capabilities organization-wide. It combines proven organizational development concepts with case studies implemented by experienced practitioners.
Come to understand the premise that guides this approach:
• Projects create the means to generate profits and shareholder value.
• Projects change how organizations work.
• Each project manager is a change agent.
• Effective change agents focus on human factors and follow proven processes.
• Theory, best practices, and case studies support these factors.
• Implementing a project office is an effective means to lead organizational change.
People who had difficulty implementing a project office now say they should have taken a change management approach from the beginning. They usually began by concentrating on functions of a project office itself rather than on the change process. The reverse approach is the new story about how to implement a project office. The story follows life itself—cycles of birth, recreation, and death. Which path you take and whether or not you are successful depends on the skills, process used, and state of the project culture. An effective change agent learns and applies a systemic approach to this endeavor.
Randy Englund was a senior project manager at Hewlett-Packard Company and a member of the HP Project Management Initiative whose purpose, as a consultative and training project office, was to lead the continuous improvement of project management across the company. He assisted management teams in applying project management to new product development. Previously he led teams to release high tech products. He joined with cultural anthropologist Dr. Robert J. Graham to co-author Creating an Environment for Successful Projects: the Quest to Manage Project Management, based upon their combined experiences and observations as practitioners, consultants, facilitators, and educators.
Randy now serves as an independent project management consultant to enlighten and guide management and project teams through an organic approach to project management. He shares the L2M2 framework—leadership, learning, means, and motivation—that they present in his latest book, co-authored with Graham and Paul C. Dinsmore, on Creating the Project Office: a Manager’s Guide to Leading Organizational Change. Questions or comments may be addressed to englundr@pacbell.net.
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Apr 30, 2003
Management Forum: Managing Global Teams (link to slides below)
Presented by Amita Dev, Dev Consultants & Bob Greenleaf, R.J. Greenleaf & Associates
Managing teams across time zones, geographies and cultures is a challenge most of us have had or will experience doing business globally. Managing global teams requires more time, effort and resources than most of us expect. A model for analyzing the impact of culture, communication and technology on global team performance is introduced. Best practices of global companies are explored. Techniques and tips for leveraging multiple communications technologies are also presented. To overcome the barriers and challenges of global teams an action planning tool is shared.
Amita Dev has over 17 years of experience in the Hardware, Software and Telco Support and Services business spanning positions in Marketing, Support Management and Alliance Management. She has extensive experience in Hewlett Packard and Agilent Technologies managing people in remote global teams in Project and Program Manager roles. She is currently teaching in the Professional Development Program at San Jose State University. She holds a Masters Degree in Economics from Wayne State University, Michigan.
Bob Greenleaf has over 20 years of experience working and consulting across cultures. He is the principal owner of R.J. Greenleaf & Associates which assists clients in leveraging cultural and organizational differences into competitive advantage. He was most recently the Director of Training and Development of Commerce One, a B2B software company. He is now the Program Manager at SJSU Professional Development Center in charge of corporate training. He holds a BA and MBA from the University of Oklahoma and spent two years in Japan as a Fulbright Scholar studying Japanese business management.
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After-dinner Talk: Streamlining Product Development Processes for Greater Success (link to slides below)
Presented by Manu Pillai, Product Acceleration, Inc.
A key to rapid and cost-effective product development is to front-load design processes effectively to avoid bottlenecks and iterations.
A key challenge in high-end systems design is managing cross-domain interaction across teams and vendors. Since most designs ultimately cross the chip, package, board, and cardcage domains, streamlining the design process is of particular importance in today’s complex design ecosystems. With millions of dollars and the fundamental market relevance of a company or product at stake, front-loading key design processes to reduce friction and iterations is critical to increasing design velocity and product quality. In many cases, streamlining fundamental design processes can also lead to simpler – and therefore more successfully managed – new product introduction efforts.
In this session, an actual product development case study will be presented along with suggestions on how to seek out and identify opportunities to streamline and front-load design processes within your organization. The presenter, Manu Pillai, has successfully leveraged his techniques with hardware and software design teams in Silicon Valley to deliver clear and measurable results.
Manu Pillai is the Founder & CEO of Product Acceleration, Inc., a San Jose startup focused on delivering tools and processes to help customers ship products faster, cheaper, and with higher quality. Prior to founding Product Acceleration, Inc., Manu held engineering management and product development positions with Creative Design Solutions (acquired by Maxtor) and with Fujitsu PC Corporation, where he delivered time-to-market gains of over 30% per year. Previously, Manu held a variety of engineering positions at Solectron Milpitas and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in India, the UAE, and Japan.
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Mar 26, 2003
Management Forum: Creating Successful Business Models for the 21st Century
Presented by Mitchell Levy, ECnow.com (see handouts)
Creating Successful Business Models for the 21st Century Corporate success depends on the companies ability to simultaneously deploy, manage and evolve the multiple business models they have in place. In today’s economy, business models appear and disappear almost overnight. Missing a model or keeping one around too long could be disaster for any company. Mitchell Levy, author of the book E-Volve-or-Die.com and a faculty member at San Jose State University will present the Value Framework(tm) for analyzing corporate success in the 21st century. He will share case studies from well recognized companies as well as sharing thoughts on how you can use the framework within your company. You will be able to see how successful business models can be created, managed and evolved in the 21st century. This was a very successful talk given at Comdex Fall and is also part of a class taught at San Jose State University. Read more at: http://ecnow.com/value/.
Mr. Levy will be giving away two free “90-minute” 1×1 sessions, walking the recipient’s company, division or department through the high-level view of the Value Framework(tm). He guarantees that the recipients will think differently about their companies after being exposed to the framework and spending the 1×1 time with him. He will also give away a copy of his book, E-Volve-or-Die.com.
Mitchell Levy is President and CEO of ECnow.com, a management consulting firm helping companies and individuals’ transition from the industrial age to the Internet age with strategy, marketing and off-the-shelf and customized on-line and on-ground training. He is the author of the book E-Volve-or-Die.com, creator of the Value Framework(tm), a strategic framework for analyzing and creating corporate success, the Founder, Program Consultant, and Faculty Member of the premier San Jose State Enterprise & E-Commerce Management Certificate Program, and the current Chairman of the CEO Networking organization. Mitchell was at Sun Microsystems for 9 years, the last 4 of which he managed the e-commerce component of Sun’s $3.5 billion supply chain. Mitchell is a popular speaker, lecturing on business and management issues throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Detailed Bio on Mr. Levy: http://ecnow.com/ml_bio.htm
Mr. Levy’s Public speaking appearances: http://ecnow.com/speaking.htm
ECnow.com’s media coverage: http://ecnow.com/media/
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After-dinner Talk: For Your Eyes Only: Protecting your Intellectual Property from Hackers
Presented by Chris Binns-Smith, Accelocity Systems (see slides)
Your company’s Intellectual property is at Risk!
In today’s competitive marketplace, your company’s wealth is based on products that are stored on computer systems. With the advent of the Internet, these products are created around the world with global project teams. This critical data is traversing the world and if compromised, can be lethal to your company.
As the Internet has quickly matured, so have the hacker’s tools and knowledge. In this discussion, we will outline how internal and external hackers work and how to fight back! We will present you with proven strategies of protecting your data by using best practices, state of the art tools and safe computing policies.
Upon completion, you will have a wealth of Internet security knowledge, resources and a checklist to help secure your projects.
Chris Binns-Smith is a founder of Accelocity Systems (www.accelocity.com), an Enterprise Risk Management security firm that specializes in delivering proactive security solutions based on industry best practices and their security framework. Accelocity’s mission is to leave their customers protected and educated so they can focus on running the business rather than defending it.
Prior to joining Accelocity Systems, Chris served in numerous executive IT positions for Mercury Interactive, Selectica Inc. and Blue Pumpkin. Chris holds a B.S. of Computer Science, a CISSP certification and has extensive experience in IT security technologies.
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Feb 26, 2003
Management Forum: Settling Disputes without Boxing Gloves: The Art of Mediation
Presented by Linda Price (see slides)
Ever feel like a referee when it comes to managing employees who aren’t getting along? There is a skill to managing disputes as a third party mediator. It doesn’t have to end as a war of words, where nobody wins.
In February’s Management Forum, you will have the chance to learn this skill from an experienced mediator and have fun trying it out. Join us on February 26 to learn the process, learn the language, and practice the skill.
Linda Price is a mediator, coach, consultant, hypno-therapist, and trainer, who has provided service to many well-known companies. Her sessions are widely recognized for helping participants develop skills necessary to be more effective, to present and project a corporate image necessary in today’s business environment, and to be more successful in the workplace.
Linda’s thirty years of professional experience includes maintaining a private practice in hypnotherapy and executive coaching (Professional Dynamics), motivational speaking, serving as manager of training and development and as HR director of major high-tech corporations, as education officer for the Air Force at Onizuka Air Force Base, and teaching business management and communication at local universities.
Her academic credentials include a B.S. in Business Administration from USF, a teaching credential from UCB, and a Master’s Degree in Management from the University of Redlands. She is currently working on her doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy at the American Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy in Southern California.
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After-dinner Talk: The Future is Here: How the Internet Is Transforming the Education of Engineering Managers
Presented by Andy DiPaolo, Stanford School of Engineering
The Future is Here: How the Internet is Transforming the Education of Engineering Managers
In the TMC after-dinner presentation, Dr. Andy DiPaolo will discuss the rapid development of online learning for engineers, scientists, and managers and the lessons learned by educational institutions and corporations involved in these activities. He will draw on his work as Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD), one of the largest university distance education organizations in the United States, as well as his role as an advisor to universities, government organizations and corporations involved in distributed learning. His presentation will offer the results of Stanford University’s studies on the marketplace forces of graduate and professional education and how traditional universities as well as new education entrepreneurs have crafted innovative online education programs to meet the needs of changing student populations.
Dr. DiPaolo will profile Stanford Online, an award-winning, asynchronous online learning network designed to deliver educational programs to technical professionals and managers worldwide. He will also provide a vision of the future: where public/private alliances, networked learning communities, intelligent tutoring, and virtual universities will become common practices in higher education.
Dr. DiPaolo was a leader in creating the SCPD in 1994, transforming an existing distance education organization into a full service, large-scale university enterprise, designed to support the career-long education and training needs of industry professionals. The SCPD covers areas of engineering, computer science, information technology, biosciences, and engineering management. In 1995, he established Stanford Online, the first university program in the world to deliver video-streamed engineering courses on the internet. Stanford Online was recognized as the “Most Significant Advancement in Distance Learning” in 1997 by the U.S. Distance Learning Association. In 1998 Stanford became the first major research university to offer a complete MS engineering degree online.
Today, DiPaolo is responsible for leading Stanford’s efforts to deliver engineering graduate degree programs, credit courses, certificate programs, professional education courses, and contract training to nearly 500 companies using a variety of campus-based, on-site, and distance education approaches. SCPD delivery technologies include the internet (Stanford Online), broadcast television (Stanford Instructional Television Network), two-way video, multimedia, and custom courseware. Recognized for his expertise in the area of media-based and distributed learning for professional and graduate education, Dr. DiPaolo sits on numerous education and industry advisory boards at universities, corporations and government organizations in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. DiPaolo has published and presented extensively in the area of e-learning for higher education and industry. Awards in 1993 and in 2000 recognized Dr. DiPaolo for his vision, leadership and commitment to distance education.
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Jan 29, 2003
Management Forum: Preparing Technical Presentations to Decision Makers (link to slides below)
Presented by Roxanna Dunn
No one expects an engineer to present with the drama and polish of a television personality or a CEO. Yet, even allowing a little latitude for nerd nerves, engineers frequently fail to sell their ideas effectively. Their presentations are typically too technical, too detailed, too long. Decision-makers, including executives and customers, are listening for the bottom-line and the next steps. But too often they come away shaking their heads in confusion. The effect of this poor communication can be devastating to projects in need of active sponsorship and clear direction.
In this discussion, we’ll explore pitfalls common to engineering presenters. We’ll peek into the politics behind projects, and we’ll look at a framework for identifying and conveying business benefit.
Roxanna Dunn holds a Masters in Education and an MBA in Information Technology. She spent 20 years managing software development engineers at Hewlett Packard Company, including a number of years developing business systems architectures. She weaves the conceptual view of academia with the real-world view of corporate experience and the integration view of architecture. Having both given and received engineering presentations over many years and many projects, she recognized the need to help engineers look beyond their content to the needs of the audience and the political and economic environment in which presentations are delivered.
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After-dinner Talk: Good Ethics is Good Business (link to slides below)
Presented by Mike Hackworth, Cirrus Logic
Ethics has emerged from an esoteric philosophical study to the center stage of American life, as citizens become infuriated with unethical behavior in politics from the Nixon administration, continuing to the Clinton administration and now into industry. Mr. Hackworth will be talking about ethics, both from a leadership perspective and from an industry perspective. The hypothesis: Good ethics is morality – justice, honesty, fairness, decency. But good ethics is also good business. It is a question of: “Pay me now, or pay me later!”
The ethics of a business, or any organization, is determined by its culture. Culture is how things actually get done. And the reality is that the culture is what the top executives actually do. The top leader, therefore, is ultimately responsible for the ethical behavior of his employees. The presentation will be enlivened by many robust and poignant historical and current examples from industry to clearly explain and validate the hypothesis. At the conclusion, an ethical decision making model will be presented. The model was developed by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Santa Clara.
Michael L. Hackworth is a Co-founder and currently Chairman of the Board of Cirrus Logic, Inc. He serves as an “Advisor to Entrepreneurs” at a number of semiconductor and electronic design automation based start-ups. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Read-Rite Corp. and Virage Logic Corp., as well as several private company boards. Prior to becoming Chairman of Cirrus Logic in April 1999, he had served as President and Chief Executive Officer for the company since January 1985. Under his leadership, Cirrus Logic has grown from a start-up venture to become a major supplier of advanced integrated circuits. The company’s growth, one of the fastest companies in the semiconductor business to reach $1billion in annual sales, was highlighted in September 1997 when Deloitte & Touche LLP and Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network announced the winners of the “Silicon Valley Fast 50.” Special recognition was given to the fourteen companies that placed in the “Fast 50” for three consecutive years. With nearly 600 percent revenue growth over the 1992-96 period, Cirrus Logic ranked tenth in this distinctive group.
Before joining Cirrus Logic, Mr. Hackworth spent 14 years at Signetics Corp., a subsidiary of N.V. Philips, where he held various management positions, his last one being Senior Vice President of MOS and Linear Products Group, overseeing several divisions and manufacturing plants. Prior to joining Signetics (now Philips Semiconductors), he served in a number of general management, marketing and sales management positions at Motorola and Fairchild Semiconductor. Altogether, Mr. Hackworth has been working in the semiconductor industry for nearly 35 years.
A native of Silicon Valley, Mr. Hackworth attended Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo and holds a degree in engineering from Santa Clara University. Ernst & Young recognized his management acumen in 1990 when he was named Semiconductor Entrepreneur of the Year. He was honored again as a nominee for this recognition in 1994. In 2001, he was the recipient of the third annual Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award presented by the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) at their 2001 Awards Dinner, for his visionary contributions to the fabless semiconductor industry.
Mr. Hackworth is personally active in several community activities, including University of Santa Clara Engineering Advisory Board, The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Santa Clara, The Tech Museum of Innovation, Junior Achievement Santa Clara County, the San Jose Symphony and Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley. He has also led Cirrus Logic to sponsor such programs as the San Jose Children’s Shelter, the Second Harvest Food Bank, and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. In recognition of his philanthropic efforts, Santa Clara University awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Public Service. Mr. Hackworth resides in Saratoga, California with his wife, Joan, who is also an active volunteer in community programs.
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Dec 4, 2002
Management Forum: Embracing the Challenge of Team Building
Presented by Kimberly Wiefling (link to slides below)
Does your profession require you to work effectively in a team? What differentiates a team from a group? Would you like to really understand how you can contribute significantly to the quality of teams in which you participate? Would you like to enjoy it??!!!
In today’s challenging and fast-moving business environment we must often collaborate with others to accomplish goals so ambitious that only a team can achieve them. Sometimes we are in leadership roles; sometimes we are followers. Either way can make a tremendous difference to the quality of the team.
Come explore how to build rapport, share control, lead, follow, and generally conjure up enlivening teamwork. If just knowing “how” to do something were enough by itself we’d all be rich and thin, so this will be a highly interactive, hands-on experience in team-building. Beyond sharing relevant information about team building, this presentation will give you the means to put this into action in your work, in a fun and engaging way.
You’ll leave with profound insights on:
• Leading and following
• Building rapport
• Sharing control
• Appreciating the challenges and rewards of team-building
• The fun of collaborating with others
Kimberly Wiefling is an independent business management consultant, focusing on helping companies bring successful products to market with greater predictability and fewer nasty surprises. Prior to launching her consulting practice in January 2001, she was the VP of Program Management at Outride, Inc., where she established sensible and effective product development practices in support of this Xerox Parc spin-off. Her leadership in shutting down this 40 person company was written up in the Dallas Morning News under the title “Kinder, Gentler Layoffs Build Good Will”.
Ms. Wiefling led the cross-functional team that successfully developed and launched ReplayTV’s second-generation personal television service and set-top box, including the ‘Panasonic ShowStopper’.
Ms. Wiefling has been an instructor at the Career Action Center for the past 4 years, and has individually coached hundreds of individuals in career transition. She is an instructor with UC Santa Cruz Extension and University of Phoenix, and she holds a certificate in program and project management through UC Santa Cruz. Ms. Wiefling earned a Masters of Science degree in physics from Case Western Reserve University.
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After-dinner Talk: Fast Time-to-Market Best Practices
Presented by Joe Neipp, National Semiconductor (link to slides below)
Market pressures are forcing businesses to find ways to dramatically shrink development time for complex products like semiconductors. In trying to implement shorter development times, managers find that they must overlap many interdependent tasks that were previously performed sequentially. However, experience shows that overlapping interdependent tasks generates exponentially increasing amounts of communications and rework for project team members. Bottlenecks begin to build up for team members who must process these additional communications and rework tasks, and the bottlenecks begin to cause delays and communication breakdowns. In extreme cases this can lead to “total product quality meltdown”. Well-intentioned engineers and managers, working heroic amounts of overtime in the race to meet impossible deadlines, end up shipping products with serious flaws that were not identified and/or could not be corrected. Just encouraging the team to work faster or to put in longer hours is not the solution.
This talk will deal with some of the main issues associated with accelerating project development in light of shrinking resources and increasing competitive pressures. Results will be presented about an on-going Stanford University study and 18 specific behaviors that influence a team’s ability to deliver the right product at the right time.
Joe Neipp is Manager of Training & Organizational Development for National Semiconductor. In addition, he has been an adjunct professor in the Engineering Department at Santa Clara University since 1997, teaching Project Management, Engineering Management, Creativity, and Communications theory. During his 20 years in the industry, Joe has become certified in multiple disciplines, including High Performance Systems team training, KT Problem-Solving, Human Performance Improvement (HPI) and FTTM Project Management. He has traveled world wide and has extensive experience helping put together global, multi-site product development teams.
Mr Neipp holds certificates from Stanford University in Advanced Project Management, and is a three-course certified instructor in Edward De Bono’s Creative Thinking Programs (Parallel Thinking, Lateral Thinking and DATT). A former five-course instructor for Dale Carnegie, Joe is a master teacher and presenter. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz and his MS in Education from the University of San Francisco. Joe has been a silicon valley resident since 1957, and is married to bay area choreographer/director Elizabeth Neipp.
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Oct 30, 2002
Management Forum: Enterprise Knowledge Management
Presented by Dr. Doug Kalish (see slides)
Part of our TMC specialty is managing the IP (data) that engineers have available to work with – the holy grail of corporate knowledge. Many engineering companies are implementing portals to increase knowledge sharing across projects and people. But portals, which perpetuate islands of unlinked information, are only the first step towards delivering knowledge in context to customers and employees. Establishing a single corporate-wide data model across all functional areas – services, business units, human resources, finance, and information technology – assures that data can be shared, linked and accessed throughout the company.
In project-based industries, huge advantages can be gained from integrating knowledge management processes and systems into the business workflow. The end result is an electronic environment – not just a document database or information application – in which knowledge workers access and save knowledge. This presentation will describe how to build sites which link information from internal and external data sources into information-dense ‘hyperportals’, breaking down the distinction between intranets, extranets, and websites.
Our Forum facilitator is Doug Kalish, an educator, consultant, and serial entrepreneur who has founded or been an early executive in three companies. With over 30 years of management experience, Doug consults in technology forecasting, strategic technology planning, electronic business, knowledge management, and biotechnology. For more information on his business, see his web site at http://doug.kalish.com.
Until April 2001, Dr. Kalish was Vice President and Chief Knowledge Officer at Scient. He was responsible for the systems, policies and environment, which enabled Scient to identify, harvest and reuse expertise and solutions. Doug was responsible for the creation of Scient’s award-winning intranet ‘The Scient Zone’, the first enterprise-wide corporate hyperportal. He managed the design, architecture, development and implementation of the knowledge-sharing software and hardware infrastructure, as well as the delivery of Knowledge Services.
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After-dinner Talk: The Manager’s Nightmare: Technical Litigation
Presented by A. J. Nichols, Probitas, Corp.
Engineering managers rarely concern themselves with legal matters, much less a court battle. However, rude surprises can, and do, occur if your company becomes involved in a technical lawsuit. Your company may be accused of infringing a patent you never heard of. Unknown to you, a new employee may bring in code from a previous employer and a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit follows. It is even possible to have an outsider investigating details of your engineering operation without your consent or knowledge. Any of these events can throw a stressful transient into your management duties.
To help you avoid or, at least prepare for, technical litigation, A. J. “Nick” Nichols will present a number of real-life experiences drawn from his service as a technical expert in over 50 lawsuits. He has served not only as a testifying expert for both plaintiffs and defendants but also as a neutral expert to state and federal courts and to the Supreme Court of Singapore. In April of last year he was appointed as the neutral expert to the court in much publicized Napster case. An article describing his involvement in this case was featured in the October 2001 IEEE Spectrum magazine.
Dr. Nichols holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, an M.S in EE from Stanford, and B.S degrees in both Business Management and Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
He has a broad background in the engineering of computer hardware and software. He served as an engineering executive, developer, and researcher for Millennium Systems, Intel Corporation, American Microsystems, Novar Corporation, and Lockheed Missiles & Space Company. In 1982 he founded a firm, Probitas Corporation, which provides consulting and product development assistance to high technology companies. He has served as president of Probitas since its inception.
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Sep 25, 2002
Management Forum: Managing Conflict
Presented by Paula Bailey, LSI Logic
Perhaps you (or some of those people you manage) find yourself in a conflict situation from time-to-time! How do you handle it? Do you choose an appropriate strategy based on the situation? Do you even know that there are strategies for different situations? And where does conflict come from in the first place?
These are some of the questions that will form the basis of our dialogue together. In this interactive presentation, we will look at three key elements of the whole system of conflict:
• The process we use to create meaning from events, and the role our information filters play in conflict
• One of our most influential personal filters-our behavioral style
• Strategies for preventing or managing conflict, and how to choose an appropriate strategy
Increased mastery of conflict situations comes through self-awareness. Our goal will be to help you become more aware of how you typically react when conflict does occur, acquaint you with choices, and help you improve your performance by becoming more competent and confident in your knowledge of how to manage conflict.
Paula Bailey has over fifteen years of training and organizational development experience in Silicon Valley high-tech companies. She has just recently joined LSI Logic as a Global Learning and Development Consultant.
In her prior positions as Manager of Training and Development at Cirrus Logic, and Manager of Training at VLSI Technology, Paula gained experience setting corporate training strategy to meet business needs by building and delivering a comprehensive curriculum encompassing engineering skill development, as well as leadership, management and professional development programs. She has created CEO-led leadership and culture change programs, and coached senior leaders in several high-tech corporations. On the staff of National Semiconductor University when it was founded, Paula was Manager of Executive Leadership Programs, internal OD consultant, trainer, and facilitator of business process improvement and change management programs.
Paula has spent the last year building her consulting practice, Learning Synergy Resources, which counts among its clients Stanford University’s School of Engineering and the Stanford Center for Professional Development, as well as the San Jose State University Professional Development Center. Additionally, she is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Phoenix, teaching Organizational Behavior and Management courses in their evening degree programs.
Paula served on the Board of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development, as Vice President of Programs and Professional Development. She is currently assisting the Board of the Santa Clara Valley IEEE Engineering Management Society in its program planning. She received her undergraduate degree in Education from Auburn University, and holds the Master of Arts in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix.
Paula is known for creating learning programs where senior management and technical leaders lead and learn by teaching each other. These programs, knowledge-sharing seminars and leadership forum and technology symposium events, “connect the dots” in the organization, encouraging collaboration, learning, and communication across organizational boundaries.
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After-dinner Talk: Increasing Role of Innovative Software and the New Software Economy
Presented by Ann Winblad, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Ann Winblad is the co-founding Partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. She is a well-known and respected software industry entrepreneur and technology leader. Her background and experience have been chronicled in many national business and trade publications. Ann has been distinguished by Upside Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the digital age and by Vanity Fair as a member of the top 50 leaders of the ‘New Establishment’. Business Week also considered Ann a member of the elite 25 power brokers in the Silicon Valley and Time Digital awarded her with the title of one of technology’s 50 Cyber Elite.
Ann has over 20 years of experience in the software industry. She began her career as a programmer and in 1976 co-founded Open Systems, Inc., a top selling accounting software company, with a $500 investment. She operated Open Systems profitably for six years and then sold it for over $15 million. Prior to co-founding Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Ann served as a strategy consultant for prestigious clients such as IBM, Microsoft, Price Waterhouse, and numerous start-ups. In addition, Ann has co-authored the book Object-Oriented Software and written articles for numerous publications, including The Red Herring and Forbes ASAP. Ann received a BA in mathematics and in business administration, as well as an MA in education and international Economics from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Ann has served as a director of start-up and public companies and currently serves as a director of Dean & Deluca, Intacct, Liquid Audio, Net Perceptions, The Knot and MyPrimeTime.com. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of St. Thomas and is an advisor to numerous entrepreneur groups.
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