Marcy’s Musings: The Legislative Outlook—Helping or Hurting?
It’s Only Common Sense: The Phone Is Still Mightier Than the Keyboard
The Marketing Minute: Marketing With Layers
TTM CEO Tom Edman on the Process of Strategy
August 17, 2023 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamEstimated reading time: 1 minute
For this issue on strategy development, we sought input from Tom Edman, CEO of TTM Technologies. He’s been at the helm for almost 10 years and has overseen quite a few major changes in that time.
In this interview, we asked Tom to discuss what goes into planning a successful strategy, how to narrow down the perfect strategy for your company, and why the boss shouldn’t bear the entire responsibility for this strategy. It needs to be a team effort.
Barry Matties: Let’s start with how you define strategy. What does that mean to you?
Strategy is about charting the corporation's direction for the long term. When I’m planning a strategy, I'm really outlining the critical components that will drive the company forward. For me, that's what you're looking at with a corporate strategy.
Matties: What are some of the key considerations that go into developing a strategy?
This is very timely, because we just started our process in July. First, we define the major trends that we're seeing globally that would have an impact on the company. Those trends can be anything, such as macroeconomic, climate, geopolitics, personnel challenges, and technology trends. So, we always start there, and I think that provides the right background.
One of the board members I worked with in the past always said that when you’re developing a strategy you should start with no more than three major trends that impact the company. We try to do the same because it helps one to really crystallize the major impacts that you have to look at as a company vs. getting caught up in some of the less critical areas. We always try to define three impacts, but sometimes we end up with four. At least that's where we start.
How do we address the major trends in our rolling three-year strategic plan? Every year, we come back to ground zero, take a fresh look at trends, and plan three major strategies that we will focus on in the three-year period. We define the tactics and we get a little bit looser there. We try to keep it to three, but we generally end up with five or six tactics, tying directly to the strategies.
To read this entire conversation, which appears in the August 2023 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Testimonial
"Your magazines are a great platform for people to exchange knowledge. Thank you for the work that you do."
Simon Khesin - Schmoll MaschinenSuggested Items
Jiva Leading the Charge Toward Sustainable Innovation
09/30/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineEnvironmental sustainability in business—product circularity—is a high priority these days. “Circularity,” the term meant to replace “recycling,” in its simplest definition, describes a full circle life for electronic products and all their elements. The result is re-use or a near-complete reintroduction of the base materials back into the supply chain, leaving very little left for waste. For what cannot be reused productively, the ultimate hope is to have better, less harmful means of disposal and/or materials that can seamlessly and harmlessly decompose and integrate back into the natural environment. That is where Jiva and Soluboard come in.
Nolan’s Notes: Everyone Has Their Eye on India
09/03/2025 | Nolan Johnson -- Column: Nolan's NotesIn this issue of SMT007 Magazine, we turn our attention to the Indian EMS market. We start with an interview with David Bergman, whose foresight in the early 2000s opened doors for the Global Electronics Association to begin helping Indian EMS companies with standards and certifications that would give EMS companies a footing to enter a global EMS market.
Rehm Thermal Systems Mexico: Ten Years of Growth and Innovation in an Emerging Market
06/03/2025 | Rehm Thermal SystemsOver ten years ago, Luis A. Garcia began his success story at Rehm Thermal Systems. On May 15, 2013, he initially joined as a member of the Rehm USA team.
Northrop Grumman Navigation Technology Completes Hypersonic Test Flights
05/14/2025 | Northrop GrummanNorthrop Grumman Corporation successfully completed two test flights of its Advanced Hypersonic Technology Inertial Measurement Unit at hypersonic speed, leveraging Stratolaunch’s reusable hypersonic airplane, Talon-A.
Global SiC Substrate Revenue Declines 9% in 2024; Long-Term Demand Remains Strong as 8-Inch Roadmap Gains Momentum
05/12/2025 | TrendForceTrendForce’s latest research shows that weakening demand in the automotive and industrial sectors has slowed shipment growth for SiC substrates in 2024.