In the Doldrums?

Geographically, the Doldrums is an equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean characterized by cycles of calm winds and sudden unpredictable storms. In the English language, the term has long been associated only with the first part of this definition - “in the doldrums” is used to imply that nothing is happening and, even worse, there is nothing you can do about it until the wind picks up and sets you on your way again.

Today, many semiconductor executives might be excused for identifying with this view; markets have contracted for reasons that have nothing to do with the current state of technologies or their cost-effectiveness and we all know that they will pick up again when global factors make that appropriate. Therefore, until this happens, the best thing to do is to batten down the hatches, ride out the bad times and wait for things to get better. Right?

Wrong!

When the market picks up, everyone will benefit but some will benefit more than others. More than two thousand years ago, the Roman poet Horace wrote “seize today, don’t trust tomorrow” but that was when tomorrow took a century to happen. Today, tomorrow is more likely to arrive within a few months. More and more, Challenge readers are working in areas where what is state-of-the-art today will be history in a few months’ time and what enables them to keep ahead of their competitors is the silicon engineering expertise of their chip suppliers. The nature of our industry has changed dramatically over the past decade - especially in the hardware/software trade-off - but what hasn’t changed is the enabling role of semiconductor technology. In fact, the more difficult the market conditions, the greater the need for optimized silicon solutions.

ST has grown faster than the total semiconductor market for more than a decade but this growth is not only the result of its manufacturing efficiency: a key ingredient in ST’s success has been its ability to correctly anticipate what its customers will want tomorrow in terms of functionality and cost and to mobilize its resources to meet these needs. This is why ST remains committed to innovation; it is an integral part of the corporate philosophy that insists that whatever is best today is only the prelude to being even better tomorrow.