Not by coincidence, and happily, the event also echoed developments and news on this same front arising from the tech sector (here’s an example on the semiconductor front from Intel) and from Washington, DC, including massive Federal investments in re-onshoring semiconductor capabilities; strategic efforts to curtail access by China and Russia to our most advanced, U.S.-borne chip technology that pose serious risks to national security here at home and among fragile democracies globally; and billions of dollars recently made available to companies developing battery, fuel cell, and adjacent technologies that will both help power future EV fleets and help America meet its aggressive emissions and global-warming mitigation goals.

Tailgating at the TAO event at UO (Go Ducks!)

Highlights of the event included a tour of UO’s new Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, a happy hour co-sponsored by Onward Eugene and Oregon Bioscience Association, and a terrific tailgate party ahead of a Ducks-Stanford football game (Go Ducks!). For me sporting event at hand served as a fitting metaphor: In the technology field – as on the gridiron — it will take a winning strategy, profound talent, and just the sort of investment UO is making in technology if we are to be “ahead of the game” worldwide. (BTW, the Ducks prevailed in the game: 45 to 27!)

So, what exactly is UO up to on these fronts and, as such, walking the talk of needed tech investment?

According to Sally Bell, “UO’s recent investments are foundational in knitting together the innovation silos across the state. The scope and importance for the expansion of facilities and programs will be an enormous lever for the tech ecosystem for recruitment of top talent, commercialization of new technologies and continued differentiation for Oregon’s economic resilience.”

Just three examples:

• A new UO campus situated in metropolitan Portland focused on experiential and tech-centric learning opportunities, networking, and internships throughout the region. Highlights will include a virtual- and augmented reality lab, PDX fabrication lab, and labs for sports product development and management.
• The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, opened in 2019, whose mission focuses on “training new generations of scientists, forging tighter ties with industry and entrepreneurs, and creating new opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.” Among enumerable resources at the new campus is the Knight Campus Innovation Center, offering leasable labs and offices for startup companies and creating a unique blend of engineering, applied sciences, and business innovation.  Just one for instance among many. According to Knight Campus Executive Director, Robert Guldberg, a pilot startup venture program has already yielded three startup companies that are moving new technologies to market. (You can read more updates from Robert on the impressive and fast-accumulating successes emerging from the campus.)
• Integration with regional technology industries – UO has been making significant, ongoing investments in outreach to, and collaboration with, tech-industry players in Portland and points beyond across Oregon. From stepping up both the volume and quality of student-centric opportunities like hands-on internships and co-ops; to direct involvement of corporate management and engineering professionals in the university’s academic programming, syllabus development, and collaborative research; to forging advisory relationships that inform UO’s future tech planning — my own attendance at the tech/Ducks weekend is an instance of this – the University of Oregon is really undergoing a sea-change in this area and fast becoming a force for tech innovation in the Pacific Northwest and nationally.

A snapshot of some of the folks who attended the TAO tech event at UO recently

There are many other examples and initiatives I could point to at UO (e.g., climbing enrollment, recent hires, very promising graduation stats to report already), but my larger point is that these are precisely the kinds of investments of capital, talent, and infrastructure that I’ve been promoting as being necessary to retaining, and indeed expanding America’s stature as a technology leader.

They also add to the portfolio of case studies in which TAO, itself, has helped to catalyze regional innovation over the last few years despite – and these being accomplished despite significant economic and supply chain issues arising from the pandemic.

Again, I’ll let Sally chime in: “There are four great examples of public/industry/education partnerships that TAO is convening and leading to build an environment for innovation in Oregon.

1. First, in June 2022, TAO hosted a Commerce Chain Summit which brought together thought-leaders from throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond to discuss how best to strengthen our physical, digital and human infrastructure to ensure that businesses, residents and our natural environment benefit from a secure, resilient, and agile commerce chain.
2. Next, Smart and Connected Cities remains a top priority for our region and TAO hosted a three-part series in 2022, focused on cleantech innovation and investment, smart city technologies, cybersecurity, and the digital divide.
3. Third, the historic amount of Federal and State funds for economic recovery and innovation has given rise to TAOs involvement in a wide variety of cross-sector proposals and efforts underway for agricultural technology, cybersecurity, bio- and life- science, centers of innovation excellence and research. This collaborative approach for seeking investment is critical to Oregon’s success in this competitive landscape.
4. And last but not least, TAO is poised to facilitate Future Ready Oregon’s investment in workforce development through an industry-led process to work in lock step with education partners and workforce boards to bring a new era of tech upskilling to the state.“

If, as I stated at the onset, the goal is stay “ahead of the game” by investing in American competitiveness – seems to me we have a winning team and game plan here in Oregon!

–  Shantanu R. Gupta,
CEO, Cascade Systems Technology

Whew!

Perhaps the shutdowns are behind us, but just the same the world has become and remains a lot more challenging for everyone to navigate, including businesses. And now, it appears economists and news media are beginning to use the “R” word, as the possibility of another recession looms ever closer. (This article yesterday from Reuters is but one of many recent pieces on the gathering clouds.)

In the face of all that, what’s an electronics contract manufacturing company like Cascade Systems Technology (CST) to do in order to prepare, stay nimble, remain ready to tackle the unknowns, and emerge on the other side of the storm healthy and even stronger? As Intel’s legendary Andy Grove said: “Only the paranoid survive.” Some level of paranoia is good in these times.

Here are some thoughts and strategies we are putting into action at CST. Perhaps my tech ecosystem partners and colleagues will find this summary of them useful.

• Especially in a recession, it’s important to keep one’s supply chain team strong. This includes hiring and retaining your own excellent procurement, purchasing, and supplier-management people who are adept at collaborating, negotiating, and motivating your valued suppliers.
• Keep you supply chain processes efficient, nimble, and structured around best practices. Are the purchasing requests efficiently captured and communicated to the purchasing team? Is the purchasing team on top of any open or late POs to the suppliers? Are there untapped or underutilized tools and functions in your existing ERP system that can reveal opportunities to enhance supply chain efficiency? Is the stockroom easily and speedily identifying shortages and communicating them quickly to the purchasing team? Delays and inefficiencies in these and related activities lead to constrained cash flow and money being tied up in inventory versus being utilized for business growth. In these times, the impact to your business is much greater.
• Speaking of stock, can you afford to stockpile? I know this is a business decision that might make you look like a genius (if doing so saves the day, at some point) — or a fool (if the company is left holding a lot of inventory for a customer who decides to cancel the order). But it warrants appropriate soul-searching especially when your major customer circuit board assembly orders are on the line and the pressure is on from your customers to buy the inventory.
• Take this time and make a small investment to revisit the critical language in your contracts. For example, no one wins when a “Force de Majeure” clause is invoked, but are there ways to share risks with your customers, such as your customer pre-paying for the inventory, putting agreements in place to address Purchase Price Variances in the PO due to component price fluctuations between the time PO was placed and when the component orders are placed.
• Deal with the problem parts up front. Gone are the days when your supply chain team could start with the first component on the BOM and work their way down the purchasing list. Now, upfront “surgery” of the BOM is critical. What the most problematic parts? At what volumes? Do you need to collaborate with the customer to locate some of the parts? Do they have a direct line to the manufacturer that you may not have? Are they willing to cover any price variances that creep up after the PO is placed? Or will you be left holding the bag if the price of a component goes up between the time of quote/PO is received and when the order is actually placed (my earlier point above)? How far ahead of the customer PO delivery can you place the order for the BOM? “Just in time” worked Pre-Covid. But now, it’s a risk that your order may go unfulfilled, leaving you with stuck inventory and an unhappy customer who is wondering why the BOM was not ordered for a job that was to be delivered 6 months out. The answer to that question used to be simple: “We run our purchasing efficiently using JIT!” Well, that’s no longer a sure path to success. To the contrary, it’s become a path to unfulfilled customer expectations and potential loss of business.
• Broaden your supplier list. Whether the goal is to increase the sheer number, type, or capability-sets of your suppliers – now is the time to examine how deep your bench is. (This is especially true as it relates to hard-to-find electronic components.) In the past, contract OEMs like CST could rely on the large component suppliers/distributors to find the components and avoid the “secondary market.” But as these large firms will likely face the same duress in a recession, it behooves us all to reach out across the supplier base ourselves to find those tricky-to-find components and materials we need: Plenty of solid, smaller suppliers are out there and just waiting to be found!
• Don’t forget that YOUR team and people will make the difference in difficult days. If you haven’t acknowledged your top performers lately, this is a good time to do so. Remind your team members that they are valued. Small gestures count. Put in extra care as a leader to ensure that your team is having fun at work, that they are enjoying what they do, that team issues are addressed immediately (do not let them fester!). After all is said and done, it’s about the people.
• Finally, remember that times of change, upheavals, and challenges are also the times when opportunities present themselves. This is when your potential customers become your committed customers. This is when your current customers reaffirm their loyalty to you — because you solved their problems, ensured their critical business wasn’t interrupted, and made sure your company was delightful to work with even during the hardest of times. And, again, remember (and reward) those who worked to solve those challenges: Your team members.

This is what it comes down to at the end. Those who are paranoid might be the ones who emerge on the other side, stronger. Difficult times present opportunities. These are the times when the winners and losers will be decided and when market gains will be made and solidified.

–  Shantanu R. Gupta,
CEO, Cascade Systems Technology

Like any busy businessperson, my first thoughts were “Do I really have time for this?” and “Can we really afford the disruption of giving students a tour, given all of the work we have in the shop right now?”

But then another notion popped into my head: As I’ve been writing in recent blogs, it occurred to me that this request to host a high-school field trip was actually an opportunity to ‘walk the talk’ about the need for increased investment in American technology.

Our office manager, Lori, connected with the teacher, Mr. Ellsworth at Wahluke High School in Mattawa, WA, about what he was looking for in terms of time commitment, format of his class’s visit, what his objectives were, and what timing he had in mind. If a bus full of motivated high school students and their teacher were planning to drive 4 hours to visit us, we wanted to make sure we hit the mark!

Boy am I glad we did.

I turns out CST was the only one out of 27 tech companies he’d reached out to that even bothered to respond.

Not to cast aspersions on my fellow technologists, but we need to do better. We need to step up and support our nation’s students who are interested in technology and will create the future.

Why?

First, it’s good for our aspiring youngsters. In total, 18 kids and four adult chaperones visited and toured our facility on March 23. That meant 18 fresh, bright minds waiting to be shown that their coursework in school had relevance and practical applications in the real world; 18 impressionable kids we might inspire to pursue their engineering degrees; and 18 young adults who would now have legitimate proof that careers in engineering and technology are worthwhile, meaningful, and exciting. These kids stayed fully engaged when some of our tour-guides and speakers got into the nitty gritty of Gerber drawings, circuit board assembly, box assemblies, rework, SMT, the optical inspection, and other technical aspects. In short, the tour of CST’s engineering department, test labs, and assembly floor – combined with meeting and hearing from my coworkers — made the possibilities of a STEM career real for them in a way no chalkboard or textbook can.
Second — and speaking of CST employees — it was good for them, too. Far from being perceived as an imposition by my staff, hosting a bunch of teenagers for a couple of hours turned out to be an energizing and motivating experience. Honestly, we got a real kick out of showing our workplace, talking about the cool things we do at CST, and explaining how our circuit board assemblies are contributing to and winding up in end-applications they could relate to. “Twenty years ago, the smart phones you’re all holding didn’t even exist yet,” I made a point of saying to some of them. “If you enter this field after college, imagine what new tech you’ll be able to make a reality in the next 20 years.”

Last but hardly least, it’s good for industry and our country. Study after study has shown the U.S. is consistently coming up shy when it comes to supplying the STEM talent we’ll need to keep our nation strong and competitive in critical technology sectors such as computing/ software, defense, healthcare, aviation, energy, unmanned vehicles, among countless others. To name but one such study, the American Action Forum published a report predicted “the U.S. will be short 1.1 million STEM workers” in 2024. Noting that some of that demand will be met by immigration of foreign-born tech talent (a blog topic for another day), our nation’s education system will somehow have the lion’s share of responsibility for filling that gap. If you grasp that concept, it becomes easy to see how important it is to support STEM at the corporate level: Just imagine if 500 tech companies like CST in each of our 50 states helped inspire 25 high school students per year to obtain STEM-related college degrees – through company tours, professional mentoring, internships, or other methods. That’s 625,000 students entering the STEM career funnel.

To sum it up, technological prowess is without question a crucial factor in us continuing to be a leader on the world stage and in solving earth’s most pressing challenges. Another factor is (as it has always been) ensuring our next generation can rise and fulfill their limitless promise and potential.

These bright students are the future and technology will shape the future. In my view, these two paths must converge. And supporting local, regional, state, and national STEM initiatives is a sure fire way to ensure this happens.

I hope you’ll join me.

–  Shantanu R. Gupta,
CEO, Cascade Systems Technology