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Morris Chang "Globalization is almost dead and free trade is almost dead" Speech

Dear GlobalFoundries:

Congratulations figuring out that triple/quadruple patterning wasn't worth it so early in the process. Please consider adding backside connections for the power supplies in your 14nm process, and put effort into interposers. I suspect this will be very popular.
Quad patterning was actually very popular for fin patterning (even for foundries) and it wasn't that hard to implement. It was a real problem when you are doing it for lower metals that are also COAG, as well as the more SAQP you had the slower your process flow was.
 
Reading this speech makes me reflect on why Global Foundries gave up.
Did their top management lack the same 'dream'? Were their ambitions that different?

GlobalFoundries to cut 800 jobs worldwide

Dec. 6, 2022, According to reports, GlobalFoundries plans to lay off more than 800 employees worldwide in December, accounting for 5.7% of the company's 14,000 global employees.

Most of the layoffs will be in non-manufacturing jobs, such as executives, the report said. U.S. and Singapore employees will be notified of layoffs next week. Employees in Germany will be notified later, as the country has stricter laws protecting workers.

GlobalFoundries CEO Caulfield has recently warned that the company will have to cut costs to prepare for falling demand for semiconductors as the world economy slows and faces a possible recession.
 
GlobalFoundries to cut 800 jobs worldwide

Dec. 6, 2022, According to reports, GlobalFoundries plans to lay off more than 800 employees worldwide in December, accounting for 5.7% of the company's 14,000 global employees.

Most of the layoffs will be in non-manufacturing jobs, such as executives, the report said. U.S. and Singapore employees will be notified of layoffs next week. Employees in Germany will be notified later, as the country has stricter laws protecting workers.

GlobalFoundries CEO Caulfield has recently warned that the company will have to cut costs to prepare for falling demand for semiconductors as the world economy slows and faces a possible recession.
The bolded sentence looks like a worthwhile move for reducing costs and reducing bloated bureaucracy simultaneously.
 
The bolded sentence looks like a worthwhile move for reducing costs and reducing bloated bureaucracy simultaneously.



"Most of the layoffs will be in non-manufacturing jobs, such as executives, the report said. "

It's a typical way for the leadership to downplay the potential negative impact. By doing so they indirectly blame part of the troubles to those people who are fired.

The funny part is Tom Caulfield has been in senior leadership position with Globalfoundries for 8 years 8 months and 4 years 10 months of that is the CEO.

He IS the leader helps to create the bloated bureaucracy, if there's any.
 
They ran out of money and had no customers on the leading edge. They needed extra money from the oil barons just to build 15k WSPM, with their only customer being IBM. Not only was it the right choice to bail from the Moore's law rat race, but just like with AMD going fabless it was the only choice. Which is a real shame. I (and just about everyone besides Samsung and TSMC upper management) would love if the leading edge had 3 foundry players (and hopefully 4 if intel can pull their gambit off).

It was their great mistake to pull out the idea of a fab right in the Abu Dhabi.

I know, it would've been rather lossy, but it would've forever tied the kingdom as a stakeholder in the silicon race. And those kings do have cash...
 
IMO, GF's Western, mixed-signal, MEMs/Optics strategy is good. Execution has been their problem.
 
"Most of the layoffs will be in non-manufacturing jobs, such as executives, the report said. "

It's a typical way for the leadership to downplay the potential negative impact. By doing so they indirectly blame part of the troubles to those people who are fired.
Are you implying that GF is lying?
The funny part is Tom Caulfield has been in senior leadership position with Globalfoundries for 8 years 8 months and 4 years 10 months of that is the CEO.
He IS the leader helps to create the bloated bureaucracy, if there's any.
Many senior executives surround themselves by other executives or other senior employees whose primary skill is managing upward. I've run into this phenomenon in every company I've ever worked for, and companies dealing with complex technologies seem to have more of these sycophants. (I'm thinking of several people that come to mind I've worked with as I type this.) They often add only negative value, so getting rid of a bunch of them, who often have important-sounding titles, is a positive action.
 
Which is the proper formula? The 80-20 rule, the 90-10 rule, the square root of the number of people in the organization do 50% of the work, or just fire the entire middle management?
 
Which is the proper formula? The 80-20 rule, the 90-10 rule, the square root of the number of people in the organization do 50% of the work, or just fire the entire middle management?
There isn't a formula. but there is a simple test, IMO. Will the organization or a project be diminished in a significant way if a specific person is no longer a member of it?
 
I would say there is a simple method.

1) Management by walking around.
2) If you see a meeting with more then 3 people, fire the manager.
3) Make sure your new grads can handle long division
 
I would say there is a simple method.

1) Management by walking around.
2) If you see a meeting with more then 3 people, fire the manager.
These two methods won't work for large hardware or software development projects. If you have 100 people or more on your team, especially if you have a lot more, you need more structure, or you won't really know what you're building or when it will be ready. Also, even if you have only, say, 20 people on a project, occasional larger meetings are how to make sure everyone has the big picture of what they're developing. One of the most significant problems I see in some development teams is when individual engineers don't really understand the overall design of the product and how their contributions fit.
 
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Mr. Blue. I like your feedback. Smart and articulate. You are from the world of management at large companies.

I am of a different mindset. Strategic meetings should have no more than 3 people of technologists. More than that should be a handoff. Meetings should not be synchronous. Small quick meetings. I believe in telephone technology, 10 minute conversations, and a regurgitated feedback loop prior to the end of the phone call.
 
Mr. Blue. I like your feedback. Smart and articulate. You are from the world of management at large companies.

I am of a different mindset. Strategic meetings should have no more than 3 people of technologists. More than that should be a handoff. Meetings should not be synchronous. Small quick meetings. I believe in telephone technology, 10 minute conversations, and a regurgitated feedback loop prior to the end of the phone call.
The mindset, or management model, you're discussing Cliff is called a "self-directed team". That model works well when the team is of a reasonably small size, usually less than approximately ten members, all members are experienced and well-trained in the fields required for successful completion of the objective, they all have the "big picture", they all respect and trust each other, and they put the team's objectives before their own personal biases. The leader/manager sets directions, removes obstacles, sometimes leads problem-solving, acquires resources, and is the outbound voice of the team. I've been a member of a couple of teams like that in my career. Not often enough, that's for sure. Teams like that make you anxious to go to work.
 
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Are you implying that GF is lying?

Many senior executives surround themselves by other executives or other senior employees whose primary skill is managing upward. I've run into this phenomenon in every company I've ever worked for, and companies dealing with complex technologies seem to have more of these sycophants. (I'm thinking of several people that come to mind I've worked with as I type this.) They often add only negative value, so getting rid of a bunch of them, who often have important-sounding titles, is a positive action.

"Are you implying that GF is lying?"

Good question and I'm not sure. It also depends on how we define "lying" in the corporate America. How do you think?
 
"Are you implying that GF is lying?"

Good question and I'm not sure. It also depends on how we define "lying" in the corporate America. How do you think?
I doubt GF is laying off very many engineers, probably only their bottom few percent, if that. LinkedIn makes personnel secrets difficult to keep.
 
"Most of the layoffs will be in non-manufacturing jobs, such as executives, the report said. "
It's a typical way for the leadership to downplay the potential negative impact. By doing so they indirectly blame part of the troubles to those people who are fired.
The funny part is Tom Caulfield has been in senior leadership position with Globalfoundries for 8 years 8 months and 4 years 10 months of that is the CEO.
He IS the leader helps to create the bloated bureaucracy, if there's any.

I worked for a company years ago where the CEO said “we need to recognize that no one hires perfectly so we lay off the mistakes every year which turned out to be around 5%. Brutal culture but very successful company until it wasn’t.
 
I worked for a company years ago where the CEO said “we need to recognize that no one hires perfectly so we lay off the mistakes every year which turned out to be around 5%. Brutal culture but very successful company until it wasn’t.
Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, popularized this strategy in the 1980s, which usually involved ranking employees into a forced distribution. Intel used this strategy when I was a manager there, and I passionately hated it. I don't know if they still do. It was (is?) very popular among big high-tech companies. Microsoft had the good sense to stop using it. I'm not sure how prevalent the practice still is, but IMO it is one of the dumbest HR practices I've ever encountered.
 
I worked for a company years ago where the CEO said “we need to recognize that no one hires perfectly so we lay off the mistakes every year which turned out to be around 5%. Brutal culture but very successful company until it wasn’t.

Nobody in their right mind fires a process engineer, let alone based on some MBAism.

The industry is super small, and it's 99% guaranteed that they will go to company's nearest competitor.
 
I worked for a company years ago where the CEO said “we need to recognize that no one hires perfectly so we lay off the mistakes every year which turned out to be around 5%. Brutal culture but very successful company until it wasn’t.
You who else used a yearly culling system. Enron… Jack Welch was terrible for corporate America
 
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