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Nolan’s Notes: What It Means to Thrive

Think back to a time in your life when you really felt like you were thriving. What did that feel like? What actions were you taking? How did you get there? What does it mean to thrive? While it is measurable in many ways, thriving is personal and somewhat intangible. It changes meaning from one person to the next. At its core, to thrive is ephemeral, rooted in an organic ideal. All living things, from plants and animals to ecosystems and people, have the ability to thrive.

What creates an environment where something can thrive? You can’t simply wake up one morning and thrive. It is a state of being that must be nurtured, developed, and encouraged. It is a process.

Years ago, we lived in a home with a large yard filled with maple, locust, and fruit trees. I hired a tree trimmer to help some mature but struggling trees, including those that weren’t producing much fruit. As he shed large limbs from the maple trees, the tree trimmer talked to me about how I could help my fruit trees to thrive.

“You have to think like the tree,” he said. “What does it need?” He explained that each branch needed space for adequate sunlight and airflow. You need to prune out the diseased and unnecessary branches. Give it some extra nutrients, then continue to take care of it. It’s not a one-and-done situation. With foresight and care, the tree will flourish. But remember, you are working within the constraints brought on by the tree itself. The arborist exerts his will on what the tree will become, but it also has its own restraints.

My tree trimmer had some interesting advice: “Trim the tree enough that you could toss a cat up through the center of it.” With that visual in mind, I took to trimming the fruit trees myself. I opened up the spaces, allowing for more sunlight, airflow (and a proverbial cat), and it worked. Our harvest of apples, pears, and plums that fall was much improved.

In business, we must create both an environment and a culture of thriving. From organizational charts to efficient use of space on the factory floor, much is within our control. Just as with my fruit trees, a thriving business is one in which there is room to breathe.

To demonstrate this concept for the August issue of SMT007 Magazine, we reached out to experts around the world who offer solid leadership strategies for taking your business from surviving to thriving.

Mark Wolfe is an EMS consultant who introduces several key concepts that will immediately impact how you run your business. A thriving business focuses on open and honest communication, long-term perspectives, and a commitment to success both internally and externally. Implementing any one of his ideas will put you on a path to thrive.

Next, we contacted Tim McLean at TXM Solutions. He shares his Lean/5S experiences optimizing manufacturing companies and reminds us not to overcomplicate the process. TXM has extensive experience in a wide range of manufacturing sectors, much of which is directly applicable to circuit assembly.

Audrey McGuckin, CEO of the McGuckin Group, an agency focused on talent and leadership development, takes an even wider and more personal approach. “On every call with senior leaders, I hear the same thing: Their organizations are facing the cumulative fatigue of constant disruptions,” she states. To move your team into a culture of thriving, Audrey suggests some time with your own personal “life map,” and offers several ways to cultivate empathy in the workplace. This is really interesting reading.

Dr. John W. Mitchell, president and CEO of IPC, also shares his thoughts on workforce. “If I could pick just one thing that would make the biggest difference for your company and your individual success, it would be to surround yourself with people who are better than you are,” he writes. John makes a good point. To thrive, you need a strong team, and that’s something completely within your control.

Columnist Tom Yang, CEO of CEE PCB, is thriving because he’s willing to step back and look at the bigger picture. He’s strengthening relationships between the U.S. and China because he understands how we got to where we are and where we can go. Finally, SMTA’s Mike Konrad suggests that fostering customer loyalty and consistently delivering superior products or services are paramount to long-term success. He offers effective strategies to not only keep customers loyal but continuously improve the quality of products and services.

This month's issue also includes a paper originally published at IPC APEX EXPO 2024. Thriving, after all, is not restricted to big-picture stuff; it’s in the details as well. In this paper, the research team at Jet Propulsion Laboratory recognized the current trends toward smaller, lighter, and denser, including system-in-package (SiP) and 2.5D/3D stacked packaging, added complexity and challenges. The authors note that a recent guideline on BGA and die-size BGA (DSBGA) was released for high-reliability applications with consideration of more extreme environmental requirements (such as use in space), which contains significant thermal cycle (TC) test data in the range of -55°C and +125℃, or lower TC ranges. This paper examines the reliability of various packages under those conditions.

Each piece in this issue offers actionable insights that will have an immediate impact on your personal and business life. Go forward and thrive, my friends.

This column originally appears in the August 2024 of SMT007 Magazine.