Earlier this year I was interviewed by G. Dan Hutcheson for his well-known weVISION video series. The edited video, 30 minutes long, is available for free online, along with a transcript of our chat.

Dan is an old friend, not just of mine, but of the whole semiconductor industry. He is chairman of VLSIresearch, a provider of market research and analysis on the technical and business aspects of the semiconductor supply chain. The industry respects Dan as one of its top experts and marketing voices.

In the interview Dan very generously compared Applied Wisdom to Andy Grove’s Only the Paranoid Survive, noting he would put my book up beside Andy’s “especially if you are in the semiconductor equipment industry.” That’s a real honor.

In the interview, Dan asked me how a CEO can create an ethical organization.

I replied that a company will never be better than its leaders. At Applied Materials we tried to encourage everyone in a leadership position within the whole company, worldwide, that one of their first priorities was to walk the talk and provide leadership in ethical behavior. You need that as part of the trust you require with your customers. You really have to develop trust between your customers and your company. We worked very hard on that and it paid off: we got more business, with good products, and good service and they could trust us to work with them in an honest and ethical way.

Please Comment Below

Are you building trust with your customers and within your organization?

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