I first met Steve Wainwright at National Electronics Weeks in London where he was giving a presentation on the ‘Challenges for the Future Ultra Portable System’, apt for a man who likes a challenge and is now helping to run a business that has, along with most of the electronics industry, faced a very challenging year and half.

“From my perspective we’ve begun to see a recovery in both the US and in Europe over the last few months, but it’s been a tough eighteen months. The US went into recession and was soon followed by Europe and while growth didn’t so much as vanish in Asia, but rather slowed, Japan has and remains a very challenging market for us and I’m sure for most other companies.”

Does he see a sharp recovery this year?

“I wouldn’t like to talk of a ‘recovery’ but rather a slow and gradual climb back from the depths.”

Freescale is a semiconductor design and manufacturing company which focuses on consumer, industrial, mobile communications, networking and enabling technologies. With over 10,000 customers worldwide it generates revenues in excess of $5bn and employs over 20,000 people worldwide.

As the number one chip vendor in the automotive space, Freescale technology powers one in every two cars sold worldwide, I ask Wainwright how the company has coped with these unprecedented market conditions.

“It’s been dramatic, for sure. With sales down by 30 percent we, like most other semiconductor companies, have taken a hit. But where we have been better placed than some of our rivals has been that besides having a strong presence in the automotive space we have a very strong networking business and that business has, over the last twelve months, remained relatively stable. Honestly I can say that we have weathered this particular economic storm pretty well.”

While the automotive business is extremely challenging there are certainly opportunities for the future.

“It’s going to be an exciting few years. I think both the market and the technology that is used will certainly be very different when the automotive market does finally recover. It wont be like it was before the crisis hit.”

In what way?

“Well, there will be more emphasis on environmental considerations and I think we’ll see greater emphasis placed on hybridisation and the development of new engine management techniques. Beyond the car itself I think we will see more interest in traffic management and connectivity in terms of traffic monitoring. Automotive is ‘big’ for us and we can expect to see a number of big engine management decisions being made in 2010.

“The ‘green’ issue is and will remain a big issue for all electronics companies. I’ll be interested to see how the hybrid car actually plays out.”

There is a lot of hype about hybrid cars and the notion of electric vehicles then?

“Yes, if you’re talking about the environment then how is the electricity used to help power these ‘green’ vehicles generated? I can’t be taken in isolation.”

Freescale spends around $1bn a year on research and development. I ask Wainwright whether that will continue in light of the company’s decision to pull out of the cell phone business.

“Yes. We couldn’t invest enough in the cellular business so our decision to pull out means that we’ll be able to invest more in real terms in core markets such as automotive, networking and in some consumer opportunities.”

Early years

Wainwright come across as very easy going, placid in fact and is a real pleasure to talk too. A skill that’s served him well in every job he’s held over the last 30 years.

Born just north of Liverpool he originally intended to become a lawyer.

“I don’t have an engineering background. I went to Trent Polytechnic where I studied business studies. It was the best thing I ever did. When I was 18 I had intended to become a corporate lawyer. I’m so glad that through a twist of fate I ended up dropping that ambition and taking the route I did. I think, if I had become a lawyer I would have found it very hard going, in terms of my personality, I’m a ‘doer’ and jot overly analytical.”

I ask him whether his non-engineering background has held him back.

“Not really. I’ve been more involved in the business side, focusing on logistics, manufacturing, sales and marketing. My strengths are in an ability to bring people together, move things forward and get things done. I’m good at getting people to focus, bringing people together and bridging different positions and perspectives.

“One of the key things I can bring to any situation is an ability to manage relationships and coax people to deliver more than they expected. The behavioral side of management really interests me.”

After leaving Trent at the end of the 1970s Wainwright went to work for ITT. Desperate to move to London the job took him to Harlow.

“For a boy from outside Liverpool and who had been to college in Nottingham, Harlow seemed bloody close to London,” he laughs.

It was a tremendously exciting time to be in the electronics industry.

“It was a great place to work and the electronics industry was booming. We saw double digit growth year-on-year. Electronics was moving into everything and was making a real difference in ordinary life. It was very profitable.”

Working in the company’s marketing department he came into close contact with the sales team.

“I needed to supply them with data and worked closely with them. It seemed like a great job to be in. I think for a lot of people in the industry today, it’s hard to appreciate the excitement in the industry back in the 1980s. Deals were happening left, right and centre; targets were regularly being broken and these guys, they were invariably guys, seemed to have it all.”

The only problem was that ITT wouldn’t give him a job in sales.

“Looking back I wouldn’t have given me a job either! I was only 23 years old and desperate to have my own territory. But I’d only been two years out of college and just didn’t have enough experience, but I thought otherwise.”

His decision to leave after a few years was probably the right one in hindsight.

“I left and joined a small distributor called Celdis. I went to the competition. I had a great time. It was so much fun selling back then. I worked hard and helped the business to grow significantly. It was a time when I could go in to see a client, pitch for all their business and get it. A lot of people thought this 23 year old had a lot of cheek.”

Cheek or not for Wainwright this job was a breakthrough.

“It was my job and I made of it what I could. I owned it and that feeling is very important to have in business and in all honesty it’s very rarely achieved.”

Over the next ten years Wainwright worked his way up the organisation. In his mid twenties he was managing the north of England and Scotland and learned how to ‘hire and fire’ as he build an effective sales team around him. He eventually took responsibility for the south of England and became General Manager.

“I loved it. The meetings, seeing people, it was a vast territory to manage and there was a lot of travel. One thing I did learn was how to recruit. Recruitment is vital as it can really change a small business. You have to be able to select the ‘right’ people if you want to be able to turnaround or develop a business quickly.”

Did you make mistakes?

“Sure, in the early days. It was a dynamic industry and very much a ‘hire and fire’ culture. Mistakes were made and people given jobs who couldn’t, wouldn’t or were unable to do the jobs asked of them.”

I ask him how the typical sales person has changed.

“My perspective has certainly changed. Distribution back in the 1980s was all about selling a commodity. Today, well it’s certainly a more rounded role. Sales people need a better technical background today. I doubt very much I would make it today when you look at my background.”

Back to the future

In the late 1980s the holding company that owned Celdis was bought by ITT.

“I was back where I started,” Wainwright laughs.

But not for long, a sales management role at Harris Semiconductor beckoned and Wainwright was on the move.

“It helped that I knew the marketing director but they approached me. It was a no-brainer decision for me, but I did find it to be possibly the most politically charged environment that I’d ever worked in. They had just bought a number of different brands and they were trying to assimilate them into the company proper. That’s no easy task.”

“I can honestly say the atmosphere was electric but as an outsider it really helped.”

While at Harris Wainwright got involved with company operations outside of the UK, in light of the many acquisitions being undertaken his role changed into one that brought different companies and their cultures together.

“I had to find common ground and appeal to very different personalities. The job involved a lot of international travel and you needed to have real credibility with those you met if you were to encourage them to work together successfully on different projects.”

He learned to be much more aware of the consequences of what he both said and did.

“I became more sensitive to the way in which I formed relationships. I never had a boss I didn’t like, but says more about me than it does about them. I can easily separate work from my home life and I think that’s a vital skill to have.”

Big blue

In 1993 IBM came knocking at Wainwright’s door and he was appointed to a marketing role in Northern Europe. Based in the company’s divisional HQ in Geneva, where he still lives with his wife and family, he stayed with the company for 13 years becoming its General Manager for Europe before leaving to join Freescale.

“IBM was a challenge and it was frustrating at times. When I joined it was a ‘sophisticated machine’ of an organisation but it lacked a front end. It had no idea how to sell or market itself and my appointment was designed to change that.”

Wainwright was an unusual appointment as IBM had a tradition of recruiting internally.

“I was a mid-career managerial appointment, something very different and I wasn’t welcomed with open arms but we brought in a number of new, big clients and had some real success. You never had a problem at IBM of getting a meeting with a customer, at least for the first time.

“IBM was a massive corporation and expectations were always very high. Never stressful – I don’t do stress, short and spectacular frustration, perhaps!”

Despite personal success at IBM the company, as Wainwright readily agrees, lost its way.

“Record losses, a massive over capacity geared for future growth that didn’t materialise, pursuing mainframe when it should have taken ownership of the PC, the list goes on.”

I that why you moved to Freescale?

“In part. Freescale designs, sells and makes semiconductors. It’s just so energising and so different from IBM. I did have major concerns about making the move. There was so much that was unfinished at IBM and I did consider it to be a retrograde step.”

When he joined Freescale he was appointed European Sales Vice President and then became General Manager in short measure. Does he still see the move as a retrograde step?

“No, I can honestly say that I’ve really enjoyed the last four years. Freescale is completely different in terms of how it markets itself and in terms of how it manages its relationship with its customers. And the thing I really enjoy is the breadth of businesses we deal with. That’s the appeal of the job and with my attention span that’s probably for the best.”

It hasn’t all been plain sailing at Freescale, far from it, but Wainwright believes that the changes made by the company in the last few years have put the company in a much stronger position both from a financial and marketing stand point.

And whatever 2010 holds Wainwright will be there cajoling, encouraging and motivating the team around him.

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